Does anyone notice the slavery reference in "The Hunger Games"?

Let me start by saying that I enjoyed this book very much and saw the movie which did pretty good justice to it and I look forward to reading "Catching Fire". That being said does anyone notice the reference to slavery in the book. District 11's girl tribute, "Rue" is described as a girl with brown skin. When Rue talks of her district she tells how they by work in agriculture planting and reaping crops she also tells of how they are whipped for punishment and they sing in the feilds. I am not calling Susanne Collins a racist I'm just making an observation.