I read the book, “The Hate You Give”, by Angie Thomas. This book is about a sixteen year old African American girl named Starr Carter who moves between two worlds: Garden Heights, her neighborhood prone to gang violence where she was born and raised and the suburban school, Williamson Prep, which she attends as only one of a handful of black kids. The uneasy balance between them is made more complicated when she confronts the exact situation her father warned her about her entire life. Starr unwillingly becomes the only witness to the fatal shooting of her best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. She wants to use her voice on behalf of justice for Khalil, but what she does or does not say could upend her community and endanger her family. In this paper, I will be questioning why is was crucial for Starr to …show more content…
A few days after Khalil’s death, Starr states, “Nobody mentioned Khalil at school today...I'm relieved.” (84) Starr didn’t want to have to talk about Khalil at school because she would then be forced to stand out in the eyes of her Williamson classmates, which was the last thing she needed.The second reason Starr doesn’t want to talk about Khalil’s death is because of her racist friend and classmates. Sadly, even today some people still classify African Americans as a threat to society and designate them to a specific economic and social categories. Unfortunately, Starr has a friend that contributes to the categorization of African Americans and different races than her own. Specifically, Hailey, she lives in the suburbs and attends Williamson with Starr. Hailey tends to be inconsiderate and exhibits racism. Starr was very hurt by Hailey’s racist fried chicken comment. In a game of basketball, Hailey yells out, “Hustle Starr! Pretend the ball is fried chicken. I bet you'll stay on
The text of this article is a classroom discussion in a type of journal post or memoir type of writing posted on a blog. This article was in the eighteenth and nineteenth century back in the slavery times. Chernoh Sesay Jr, the writer of this post, which was about Freddie Gray, an African American who was shot by Caucasian police officers, posted it online about what his class discuss about. While posting this article, people responded to him about how they felt in the class discussion. So, the reader of this will be the people who responded.
(Thomas 71) The fact that Starr has two personalities demonstrates that she cannot express herself when in school and cannot relate to her friends; this proves that her friends do not influence her and disproves Harris’s theory that, "peers trump parents” CITATION. On the other hand, Starr’s parents teach her many life lessons which eventually push her to get justice for Khalil (her friend who had a hairbrush ‘mistaken” for a gun). For example, when Starr and her father are talking about the oppression that African-Americans have experienced over the years, he points out,, "Drugs come from somewhere, and they’re destroying our community,... The [addicts] can’t get jobs unless they’re clean, and they can’t pay for rehab unless they got jobs.
This novel highlights the fact of the injustices people of color are faced with in everyday life. In the introduction of this book, Michelle Alexander highlights the criminal justice system and how rather than identifying people by their race, people of color are labeled as criminals. I believe the criminal justice system, racial caste, ideology, and global examples of racial caste are all connected to racial inequality. I feel that the race and criminal justice system are connected on the basis that people of color are seen as unequal when compared to Caucasians. In the reading the author provides good examples of how officers are well trained at defending against claims of racial bias in policing.
Dr.King grew up in the mid 1900s, a period of time where racial injustices and tension were starting to come to a head (Bio.com, par.1). Isis grew up in the 20s, at around the same time, and both King’s and Isis’ identities as African-Americans shaped not only their view of society as a whole, but their senses of duty for their own communities (Hurston, 167). The struggle of black Americans is highlighted in both the stories of Isis and Dr.King, and the implications that segregation, racism, and hatred had on these individuals plays a great role in shaping both of their reactions to the events of their lives. The effects of institutional racism play especially huge roles in their lives, as both Dr.King and Isis struggled to make the best out of their lives given their circumstances. Yet the key difference among them is the approaches they took to attempt to resist and oppose these negative circumstances.
How a person acquires fundamental opinions has been a controversial topic for generations. Some people claim that a person’s opinion is inborn. Others theorize that a person’s opinion is learned. However, most will agree that a person’s surroundings, environment, and history have a great impact on their worldly views. One’s environment can be described as where they live, where they spend their time, the place where they attend school or work, who they live with, and who they associate with.
The Scottsboro Trials and To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the famous father named Atticus says “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Judith 2). This quote is said during a time of intense racism. “Not long after Obama took office, the National Urban League released its 2009 State of Black America report. The findings showed that racial inequities continued in employment, housing, health care, education, criminal justice, and other areas” (Buckley 1). This essay will primarily focus on the criminal justice area of this when discussing the Scottsboro trials and comparing the trials to the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
An important point I learned after reading Holler if You Can Hear Me by Gregory Michie is that teachers should care about their students because students will learn more if they know you care and then they will care to learn . Mr. Mitchie believes his students don’t care enough to learn about sexism, but the truth was that they were tired of spending 2 weeks on the same lesson. Mr. Mitchie will then get angry at his class and tell them that if they didn’t care to learn then he wouldn’t make them. In another instant a teacher named Miss. Reilly was tired of her class not listening to her that she threatened to quit, but a student named Samuel wrote her a letter and told her not quit.
The article “School of Hate” was written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, who is an American Magazine writer who lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has written many articles for the likes of Rolling stone, Gentleman’s Quarterly, and The New Yorker. In the article Erdely discusses the bullying and homophobia that happened in the Anoka-Hennepin school district during the mid-2000s. Her article gives both points of view from the kids being bullied, as well as from the religious conservatives who thought that nothing was wrong with the homophobic slurs that were being said to children and teenagers. One may disagree with the perspective of the religious conservatives.
Throughout his essay, Staples is able to make the audience understand what he has to deal with as a black man. Staples does this by using words and phrases such as, “...her flight made me feel like an accomplice in tyranny” and “... I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area…” (542). By writing and describing how he (Staples) feels, the audience is able to get an inside look into how black men are treated and better understand why society’s teachings, play a vital role in how we see each other. Staples’ powerful writing also allows the reader to take a step back and see how as a society, people make judgements on others based on appearance alone.
“Slangin’ Rocks” Objective Summary “Slangin’ Rocks” by Robin D.G. Kelley, is an opinion essay about the treatment of “people of color” by United States law enforcement, in a historical and modern sense. The purpose of the essay is to persuade the reader to agree with the belief of the author, that U.S law enforcement treats “people of color” unfairly, and that the system itself needs to be changed. The essay begins with the author describing his own experience with law enforcement, which provides him with credibility on the topic and provides insight into why the essay was written (Kelley 21-23). The author’s personal story provides the reader with a specific example of how “people of color” are treated unfairly by law enforcement, and that
Cassie Logan, the central protagonist of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, has, all her life, been shown confidence, love, and pride in herself, her history, and, most importantly , her family. During this year, though she is only nine years old, Cassie is shown the real world of cruel racism and supposed white superiority. Many people treat blacks as if they are inferior to whites, such as Miss Crocker, the Night Men, and Lillian Jean Simms. These people have specifically impacted dark-skinned Cassie; they have tried to degrade her, and destroy her pride and confidence. Throughout my essay I will be discussing how the characters listed above have tried to reduce Cassie’s worth--only because of her skin color-- and if they have succeeded or not.
On September 15th, 1963 a predominantly black church that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders was bombed. Within that church resided four young girls, and their deaths produced outrage, such outrage that it drew national attention as it continued to shock and horrify citizens across the country. More than 8,000 people attended the funeral where civil rights leader Martin Luther King gave the eulogy. King took this act of terrible violence committed by the Klu Klux Klan, one of the largest and most influential white supremacist groups, and used it to fuel his endeavors so that these girls’ death would not be in vain. King spoke to this in his eulogy, “They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about WHO murdered them, but about the system, the way of life and the philosophy which produced the murderers.
In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.
The Hate You Give written by Angie Thomas was inspired by a lifetime of events, but the death of Oscar Grant was what prompted Thomas to write her novel. Thomas lived in a poor, black community in Jackson, Mississippi, and was exposed to and witnessed violence on several occasions throughout her young life. She first heard the news of the death of Grant while she was attending a predominantly white university in Jackson where many students made assumptions that Grant was automatically at fault or involved with gangs or drugs. From this event, Thomas realized that the world needed to hear what she had to say in The Hate You Give. Grant 's death by police wasn 't the first nor the last that lead to a community uprising.
Williamson Starr holds her tongue when people piss her off so nobody will think she’s the ‘angry black girl.’ Williamson Starr is approachable… Williamson Star is nonconfrontational. Basically, Williamson Star doesn’t give any reason to call her ghetto” (71). Rather than internalizing the racism, she acknowledges the racial stereotypes and sacrifices the expression of her cultural background and unified identity to achieve inclusion and disprove the notion that all African Americans act a certain way.