I’ve accumulated a bunch of quotes from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

Basically I put anything that I thought might refer to race, or might be evidence of differences in treatment based on race (i.e. racial discrimination).

”But the idea that someone might be arming the Seam would never have been allowed”

About Gale: “He could be my brother.  Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same grey eyes.  But we’re not related, at least not closely.  Most of the families who work the mines resemble each other this way.”

“That is why my mother and Prim, with their light hair and blue eyes, always look out of place.  They are.  My mother’s parents were part of the small merchant class that caters to officials, Peacemakers, and the occasional Seam customer… She must have really loved him to leave her home for the Seam.”

“We walk toward the Seam in silence.  I don’t like that Gale took a dig at Madge, but he’s right, of course.  The reaping system is unfair, with the poor (read: in D12, the Seam) getting the worst of it… The chance of her name being drawn is very slim compared to those of us who live in the Seam.”

“But there are others, too, who have no one they love at stake, or who no longer care, who slip among the crowd, taking bets on their ages, whether they’re Seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep.”

“All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation…. Then he reads the list of past District 12 victors.  In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two.”

“Suddenly a  voice was screaming at me and I looked up to see the baker’s wife, telling me to move on and did I want her to call the Peacekeepers and how sick she was of having those brats from the Seam pawing through her trash.  The words were ugly and I had no defense.”

“‘The pair last year ate everything with their hands like a couple of savages.  It completely upset my digestion.’  The pair last year were two kids from the Seam who’d never, not one day of their lives, had enough to eat.  Peeta’s a baker’s son.  My mother taught Prim and me to eat properly, so yes, I can handle a fork and knife.  But I hate Effie Trinket’s comment so much I make a point of eating the rest of my meal with my fingers.  Then I wipe my hands on the tablecloth.”

Effie: “But I’ve done my best with what I had to work with.  How Katniss sacrificed herself for her sister.  How you’ve both successfully struggled to overcome the barbarism of your district”  Barbarism?  That’s ironic coming from a woman helping to prepare us for slaughter…. “Everyone has their reservations, naturally.  You being from the coal district.”

“I’m sure that would thrill your parents, you liking a girl from the Seam,” I say.

“The girl tribute from District 1, looking provocative in a see-through gold gown, steps up the center of the stage to join Caesar for her interview.  You can tell her mentor didn’t have any trouble coming up with an angle for her.  With that flowing blonde hair, emerald green eyes, her body tall and lush… she’s sexy all the way.”

“‘I’d have thought, in District Eleven, you’d have a bit more to eat than us.  You know, since you grow the food,’ I say.  Rue’s eyes widen.  ‘Oh no, we’re not allowed to eat the crops.’  ‘They arrest you or something,’ I ask.  ‘They whip you and make everyone else watch,’ says Rue.  ‘The mayor’s very strict about it.’  I can tell by her expression that it’s not that uncommon an occurrence.  A public whipping’s a rare thing in District 12, although one occasionally occurs. […] ‘They feed us a bit extra during harvest, so that people can keep going longer,’ says Rue.  ‘Don’t you have to be in school?’ I ask.  ‘Not during harvest.  Everyone works then,’ says Rue.  It’s interesting, hearing about her life.  We have so little communication with anyone outside our district.  In fact, I wonder if the Gamemakers are blocking our conversation, because even though the information seems harmless, they don’t want people in different districts to know about one another.”

“‘Sometimes, when we harvest through the night, they’ll pass out a few pairs to those of us highest in the trees.  Where the torchlight doesn’t reach.  One time, this boy Martin, he tried to keep his pair.  Hid it in his pants.  They killed him on the spot.’  ‘They killed a boy for taking these?’ I say.  ‘Yes, and everyone knew he was no danger.  Martin wasn’t right in the head.  I mean, he still acted like a three-year-old.  He just wanted the glasses to play with,’ says Rue.  Hearing this makes me feel like District 12 is some sort of safe haven.”

“‘We sing at home.  At work, too.  That’s why I love your pin,’ she says, pointing to the mockingjay that I’ve again forgotten about.  ‘You have mockingjays?’ I ask.  ‘Oh yes.  I have a few that are my special friends.  We can sing back and forth for hours.  They carry messages for me,’ she says.  ‘What do you mean,’ I say.  ‘I’m usually up highest, so I’m the first to see the flag that signals quitting time.’” (Quitting time is a phrase that seems to have roots in American slavery)

“All of which leads to what happened with Thresh and how he was paying off a debt of sorts. ‘He let you go because he didn’t want to owe you anything?’ asks Peeta in disbelief.  ‘Yes.  I don’t expect you to understand it.  You’ve always had enough.  But if you’d lived in the Seam, I wouldn’t have to explain,’ I say.”

“And I said, ‘A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could’ve had you?’” -Peeta

Catching Fire

“Towering at least thirty-five feet in the air and topped with wicked coils of barbed wire, it makes ours back in District 12 look childish.  My eyes quickly inspect the base, which is lined with enormous metal plates.  There would be no burrowing under those, no escaping to hunt.  Then I see the watchtowers, spaced evenly apart, manned with armed guards, so out of place among the fields of wildflowers around them.  ‘That’s something different,’ says Peeta.  Rue did give me the impression that the rules in District 11 were more harshly enforced.  But I never imagined something like this.  Now the crops begin, stretched out as far as the eye can see.  Men, women, and children wearing straw hats to keep off the sun straighten up, turn our way, take a moment to stretch their backs as they watch our train go by.  I can see orchards in the distance, and I wonder if that’s where Rue would have worked, collecting the fruit from the slimmest branches at the tops of the trees.  Small communities of shacks—by comparison, the houses in the Seam are upscale—spring up here and there, but they’re all deserted.  Every hand must be needed for the harvest.”

“A pair of Peacekeepers dragging the old man who whistled to the top of his steps.  Forcing him to his knees before the crowd.  And putting a bullet through his head[…] Two more shots.  The door doesn’t muffle their sound much.”

“Well, I’ve learned one thing today.  This place is not a larger version of District 12.  Our fence is unguarded and rarely charged.  Our Peacekeepers are unwelcome but less brutal.  Our hardships evoke more fatigue than fury.  Here in 11, they suffer more acutely and feel  more desperation.”

“All I can think of is the emaciated bodies of the children on our kitchen table as my mother prescribes what the parents can’t give.  More food.  Now that we’re rich, she’ll send some home with them.  But often in the old days, there was nothing to give and the child was past saving, anyway.  And here in the Capitol they’re vomiting for the pleasure of filling their bellies again and again.  Not from some illness of body or mind, not from spoiled food.  it’s what everyone does at a party.  Expected.  Part of the fun.”

Gale: “You haven’t hurt people—you’ve given them an opportunity.  They just have to be brave enough to take it.  There’s already been talk in the mines.  People want to fight.  Don’t you see?  It’s happening!”

“Cray would have been disliked, anyway, because of the uniform he wore, but it was his habit of luring starving young women (read: Seam women) into his bed for money that made him an object of loathing in the district. In really bad times, the hungriest would gather at his door at nightfall, vying for the chance to earn a few coins to feed their families by selling their bodies.  Had I been older when my father died, I might have been among them.”

“The mines stay shut for two weeks, and by that time half of District 12 is starving.  The number of kids (read: Seam kids, who would be affected most by the closing of the mines) signing up for tesserae soars, but they often don’t receive their grain.  Food shortages begin, and even though with money come away from stores empty-handed.  When the mines reopen, wages are cut, hours extended, miners sent into blatantly dangerous work sites.  The eagerly awaited food promised for Parcel Day arrives spoiled and defiled by rodents.  The installations in the square see plenty of action as people are dragged in and punished for offenses so long overlooked we’ve forgotten they’re illegal.”

“The woman, Seeder, looks almost like she could be from the Seam, with her olive skin and straight black hair streaked with silver.  Only her golden brown eyes mark her as from another district.”

“Chaff throws his good arm around me and gives me a big kiss on the mouth.”  (read this: http://silkchemise.tumblr.com/post/25893025111/catching-fire-and-people-of-color-how-the-racist for why that will be problematic unless Katniss is also a person of color)