The Hate U Give Sociology

Leslie Mendoza-Villanueva

Sociology 134

Dr. Nolan The Hate U Give The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas follows a Black 16-year-old girl named Star Carter. Star lives in a poor and majority-Black neighborhood with her mother, father, and siblings, however, Starr attends Williamson, a suburban high school. Carter struggles to navigate her two worlds and identities that she portrays, one for Garden Heights, the neighborhood she grew up in, and another for the suburban prep school she attends. After witnessing the police kill her friend Khalil, Starr faces many racial challenges while attempting to live in two worlds and grieving her friend's death. Throughout this novel, Starr's experiences of housing segregation, police brutality, and

In the reading, Fences, and Neighbors: Segregation in the 21st-century America it is stated, “...segregation restricts access to jobs and to quality schools by concentrating African Americans and Hispanics in central cities, when job growth and better schools are found in the Suburbs” (Farley & Squires, 2005). This statement resonates with Starr’s situation as she had to seek different schools for a better education that was not accessible to her from her poor neighborhood. Additionally, Starr’s housing/school situations demonstrate other less represented consequences from housing segregation such as Starr having difficulty with her black identity, she can’t be a teen from Garden Heights at her new school, Williamson, and can’t act like a Williamson at Garden Heights this concept only causes Starr to distance herself from others at the party and causes her to ponder her

Khalil was driving Starr back home when suddenly they were pulled over, Starr takes note of the officer's badge number, one-fifteen. Khalil questions the police officer on why they pulled them over and one-fifteen reasons that his taillight is broken. Khalil is forced to exit the vehicle despite his continued protests. Khalil is then searched by one-fifteen for narcotics, but nothing is discovered. One-fifteen warns Khalil and Starr not to move as he turns around and returns to his car. Khalil unlocks the vehicle door to check on Starr when one-fifteen leaves, one-fifteen shoots Khalil. The statement “white supremacists have portrayed black people as inherently criminal in order to justify unequal protection under the law, police and mob-led brutality, prison labor, and racially biased discrimination in housing, education and employment” (Lewis, 2016). The police officer checking Khalil for drugs concedes with the quote implying that past actions in history have imposed a specific perspective on people of color being criminals, specifically black people; his prejudiced actions also turned a normal activity of dropping a friend home – lethal. Adding on, these predetermined stereotypes affect people of color negatively as officers like one-fifteen act on these stereotypes or create fake scenarios that can incriminate more people of color leading