Despite being certified a box office hit after raking in $155 million its opening weekend, The Hunger Game’s black cast members have been taking heat from upset, racist fans. But, no one has been getting the negative feedback like Amandla Stenberg, who stars as Rue in the hit film.

Many are upset Rue’s character, played by Hollywood beauty Amandla Stenberg, was cast as a black girl. However, despite the shade being thrown, Stenberg killed the negative criticism with kindness in a statement released earlier today:

“As a fan of the books, I feel fortunate to be part of The Hunger Games family…It was an amazing experience; I am proud of the film and my performance. I want to thank all of my fans and the entire Hunger Games community for their support and loyalty.”

Without a doubt, supportive fans took up for the black cast members, making a clear point some the racists have yet to realize: Rue’s character in the book is noted to have “dark brown skin”.

Even after validating the fact that Rue is actually supposed to be a girl of “color”, racists tweets still flowed in about Stenberg, and Lenny Kravitz’ casting, in which he plays Cinna. Besides the fact that there are actually only three Black cast members in the entire film (actor Dayo Okeniyi stars as Thresh), outraged fans are overlooking the solid fact that the book makes it clear these characters were not of European decent.

Kudos to Amandla for taking the road less traveled and keeping her head to the sky. All credit is due to her amazing performance and no matter what the critics say, she came, she saw, she conquered.