The Hate U Give Essay

In the novel The Hate U Give, world-renowned author Angie Thomas details racism and social injustice through the eyes of Starr Carter, a sixteen-year-old black girl from Garden Heights. Garden Heights is a predominantly black community and at the beginning of the book Starr watches her childhood friend Khalil get murdered by a white cop. Despite the efforts of her parents, Starr experiences racism in all aspects of her life, including her home, school, and neighborhood.

Throughout the novel, Starr encounters racism in her own home and with family members. The majority of the racism she experiences is expressed by her father, Maverick. Starr remembers: “Anytime he finds a black person with a white person, suddenly there’s something wrong with

Her parents chose to send her and her siblings to Williamson Prep, a mostly white school, instead of the school in their neighborhood in hopes of a better education. Starr’s friends and classmates can be both intentionally and unintentionally racist towards Starr. At the beginning of the novel, Starr’s friend Hailey yells, “‘Hustle! Pretend the ball is some fried chicken’” (Thomas 111). This is a racist comment; a nod to the stereotype that all black people immensely enjoy fried chicken. But Hailey acts as if her words mean nothing, and says she was referencing the chicken in the cafeteria that they were eating for lunch. However, even if Hailey’s comment was innocent, she should still know the implications of her words. That comment only proves how rude and immensely ignorant Hailey is of Starr’s life. Then, later in the book, some classmates of Starr’s stage a protest about Khalil’s death just to get out of class. Her classmates don’t care about his death or what it means to the people of Garden Heights, which greatly disturbs Starr. Hailey is in full support because it allows her to skip her upcoming English exam. “‘Perfect timing too. I so did not study for that English exam… I mean, it’s kinda messed up that we’re protesting a drug dealer’s death, but-’” (Thomas 183). Hailey is acting as though if someone is a drug dealer, it’s fine for their life to be written off, and it seems the media

On the drive home from a party in her neighborhood, she and Khalil are infamously pulled over for not signaling a lane change in an empty street, and Khalil is shot while unarmed by a white police officer. Starr remembers: “I blink through my tears. Officer One-Fifteen yells at me, pointing the same gun he killed my friend with,” (Thomas 24). Starr and Khalil were both unarmed, but Officer 115 kept his gun on Starr and cuffed her even though she was not a threat and didn’t do anything wrong. In their community, Starr and her loved ones are not safe from racial prejudice, and she and her whole neighborhood mourn the loss of Khalil. The media starts to cover the case, and the people of Garden Heights get mad at the circumstances of the shooting. Then: “On the Monday night news, they finally give Khalil’s name in the story about the shooting, but with an added bit- Khalil Harris, a suspected drug dealer” (Thomas 183). Khalili selling drugs has nothing to do with the way he died, why he was pulled over, or why Officer 115 shot him. That was the result of Officer 115’s racial prejudice. The news uses the term “suspected drug dealer” as an excuse for the shooting, as if that reduces the racist actions of Officer 115 and the impact of Khalil’s death. Starr simply can’t escape racially- motivated actions in her