“The Hate U Give” Provides Social Reflection
posted by Keyona Smith | October 3, 2018 | In Arts and CultureWritten by Angie Thomas, “The Hate U Give is a brilliant book that holds a mirror to America’s face revealing a lot of what is seen throughout our world today. The motion picture will appear in theaters on October 19.
Thomas writes a story of a sixteen-year old, Starr Johnson, who after watching her childhood friend, Khalil, fall victim to a bullet from a police officer, must make a decision to allow her voice to be heard.
The protagonist, Johnson, is a young, bright basketball player who has to act as a chameleon when she switches between her school life and her life at home. She shares a different set of friends in the two different worlds and throughout the book. The two worlds collide in a way that she was not prepared. She must find a balance within the chaos of her neighborhood both mourning and rioting over Khalil and other black bodies.
The book is full of important commentary on race in today’s politically charged climate. In one scene, Khalil explains to Starr the meaning behind the tattoo scrawled across Tupac’s stomach reading “THUG LIFE.” He breaks down each letter in a mnemonic cadence as The Hate U Give Little Infants F—- Everybody. Khalil goes on to add the complications of his own mother and how he has to deal with her and what he believes to have been a set up or the hate that messes with everybody. Read the novel as Starr battles between her two selves in this eye-opening telling of the struggles of Black life, in preparation for the film this month
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