Since its print release in late 2008, The Hunger Games has become an extremely popular read with young Americans. An article in The New Yorker by Anna Holmes tells the story of how a young man she refers to as "Adam" created a Tumblr blog based upon the ignorant remarks that Hunger Games fans made on Twitter about the ethnicity of a couple of the actors chosen for the movie. The blog received many hits in a short amount of time, grabbing the attention of the media. Lloyd Bitzer, the theorist of rhetorical situation, would explain this instance using his three elements that constitute a situation as "rhetorical": constraints, exigence, and audience.

The character in the spotlight of discussion, Rue, is described in the book as having "dark brown skin and eyes", so why were people surprised to see an African American on the big screen? The article "White Until Proven Black: Imagining Race in Hunger Games" brings in a point from Deborah Pope, the executive director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, an organization that urges diversity in children's books. Holmes writes, "She points out that the white default -- in books, as in other forms of mass media -- is learned and internalized early, including by children of color. It takes vigilance -- and self-awareness -- to overcome" (Holmes). This is surprising because according to the US Census Bureau, 20.9% of the US population is not Caucasian. Essentially, Pope is stating that all races are brought up expecting white characters, especially when it comes to heroes. This is an example of a constraint to the rhetorical situation. Bitzer states that constraints come from sources such as beliefs, attitudes, relations, etc. and they "have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence" (Bitzer 8). This particular constraint puts a large strain on anything that could be done to change people's assumptions that characters are white because there could be multiple sources causing this way of thinking. For instance, do television shows have a tendency to cast more white actors? Do history classes present information biased towards Caucasian historic figures? A study done by University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Children's Book Center showed that only nine percent of all children's books published in 2010 showed significant ethnic diversity (Holmes). The opinions of others are constantly at the fingertips of our nation's youth, thus playing a large role in their mental development and affecting their perspectives.

Bitzer defines exigence as "a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done" (Bitzer 6). The exigence of this situation is Adam's desire to change the way of thinking that Americans are raised to have.  Our modern world needs to become more open-minded to diversity and not just assume that characters are Caucasian. This situation is rhetorical in terms of exigence because though it is a large task, something can be done in order to incorporate more ethnic diversity into books. Many people reacted to Adam's blog "Hunger Games Tweets" with disgust and fury, showing that there is an audience who wishes to make the world we live in a more equal and nondiscriminatory place. Additionally, due to receiving snide commentary, many of the original authors of the tweets either protected or deleted their accounts.

By using social media to exploit the racist tweets, Adam gained an audience similar to the selection of people who follow The Hunger Games trilogy. It is common knowledge that today's youth is the main presence on social networks, so these were the people both viewing and writing the tweets about the "surprise" that Rue and Thresh were African Americans. This audience is the only one that can make a change, or establish exigence. Because Tumblr users and others with a social media presence viewed the blog and responded to it so intensely, it became noticed by adults and brought to the attention the media, such as CNN.com, Buzzfeed, and Jezebel. This particular audience had the perfect tool, the Internet, necessary to get the word out about our nation's lack of diversity in literature.
The context of this situation is truly unique to each individual that watches The Hunger Games movie or reads the book. People from different backgrounds or of different ethnicities are sure to pay attention to details in unalike ways. For instance, Holmes quotes Adam in saying; "I picked up on the [character and racial] descriptions in The Hunger Games immediately. But then again, whenever I read something, I wonder, 'where can I find the character who represents ME?'" Holmes states that Adam is of Caribbean descent, so it is logical for him to look for a character that he can relate to. On the opposite side of things, Caucasians are in the majority, causing them to assume that most characters are like them. As Americans, we are commonly pushed to believe that everyone is the same simply because we have equal rights, but this is not the case. Different ethnicities possess their own cultures and outlooks on the world.

The author of the "Hunger Games Tweets" blog, Adam, is a stakeholder in this situation. This is because he has taken a committed position. Additionally, he has something to lose by putting himself out there to be interviewed by the media and flooded with comments on what he posts. By posting screenshots of tweets suggesting racism toward the movie characters, Adam has obviously put himself in the position of striving for more open-mindedness and diversity in literature and television.
In conclusion, the story of Adam's blog "Hunger Game Tweets" is a rhetorical situation because it contains Bitzer's three elements that make a situation rhetorical. It is left up to the audience, social media users, to change America's state of mind when it comes to diversity of ethnicities in literature.
