54 Book Review
The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas Reviewed by Kristy Dolson
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
July 2020
ARTS & CULTURE
T
here is a virus on this planet. It has been with us for as long as Homo sapiens have existed. COVID-19 has nothing on the widespread influence and consequences of racism. This is especially true for the systemic racism we see most prominently in the United States. According to The Washington Post (Sullivan et. al. 2018), the Black Lives Matter movement and subsequent White House commission calling for reforms were kicked off in 2014 by the unarmed shooting of 18-yearold Michael Brown. In 2015, The Washington Post began tracking fatal police shootings when 36 unarmed black males were shot and killed by police. In 2017, 987 people were fatally shot by the police. Black males make up 6 percent of the U.S. population, but 22 percent of the total males shot and killed. And while the number of fatal shootings has held steady or fallen, black males are still being shot at in disproportionately high rates. People have been protesting peacefully for decades. But the shootings continue. It is into this political and cultural climate that Angie Thomas published her inspiring debut novel The Hate U Give. While it is heartening to see some police departments make efforts to reduce their number of fatal shootings, the sad fact is that they are still happening. What is more, in cases of fatal shooting, convictions of the officer(s) responsible are rare, and black males are still being unfairly and fatally stereotyped. Even in the most recent case, the death of George Floyd, the first consequence was the firing of all four officers involved. The arrest of Chauvin, the officer directly responsible for Floyd’s death, came only after protests began. The other three officers, Lane, Kueng, and Thoa, were only charged after days of nationwide protests. Without the protests, these men would certainly not face charges, let alone convictions. Thomas’s novel has been critically acclaimed for giving voice to the sensitive issues of race relations and police brutality in the United States. The protagonist, Starr, is a sixteen-year-old high school student who loves her family, basketball, and her white boyfriend Chris. But she has to keep her identities – home and school – separate. She lives in the poor black part of town but attends school in the rich white neighborhood, where she is one of two
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black students in her grade. In order to fit in, she has to alter her behavior and speech patterns. It is not easy, and it becomes impossible to maintain when she witnesses the unprovoked shooting of her childhood friend Khalil one night when the pair are pulled over by a white cop. Appalled by the racist reactions of her school friends, Starr must find the courage to speak up and speak out against police brutality when her community demands justice for Khalil. The whole book is phenomenal, but the part that stood out most to me was the media spin used to make Khalil’s death seem justified. The police and the media worked hard to make the public see Khalil as a gang member and write off his death as inevitable. Starr saw first-hand how this media spin easily soothed the consciences of closedminded privileged people like her ex-friend Hailey. Hailey, a rich white girl, loudly proclaims she is “not racist” but refuses to listen to Starr and makes harmful remarks about her non-white friends. When confronted about these behaviors, she becomes offended and goes so far as to demand apologies from her friends. We are currently seeing this play out on a national – even worldwide – scale as those without power, trying to make themselves heard, confront the privilege of those with power who condemn the destruction of property and social norms. The adults in Starr’s life steered her on the right path of
6/25/2020 12:44:11 PM
