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'The Hate U Give': A Timely Manifesto

 The Hate U Give: A Timely Manifesto 

- Mahek Sadhwani

The Hate U Give, a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas, strives to address the issues of police brutality and racial profiling. In early 2020, the callousness of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, left the world aghast. The Hate U Give seeks to explore similar themes through the eyes of a young adult. Thomas’s debut novel, The Hate U Give revolves around Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl who attends a predominantly white private school. After Starr witnesses the shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil Harris, at the hands of a white police officer, she is forced to redefine her sense of self.

Thomas is incredibly explicit in her description of the events that lead up to Khalil’s death. Following this, she painstakingly underscores the predicament Starr finds herself in — testifying before a grand jury would require Starr to put her family’s safety at risk. Clearly, Khalil’s death has left Starr and her family in the lurch. Nonetheless, she agrees to a TV interview, as she confronts her identity as a person of color for the first time. After the grand jury fails to indict the white cop, mass protests ensue. In the midst of this vortex, Starr decides to continue to fight for the cause of racial justice. 

Parallelly, Starr becomes increasingly aware of the acts of everyday racism — glances, comments, implied judgments — that pervade the realities of the black experience in the United States. As Thomas navigates the architecture of these systems of oppression, the idea of political agency takes centerstage. Further exploration of Starr’s psyche foregrounds her interpersonal relationships, based on the author’s personal observation of her white classmates’ reaction to the death of Oscar Grant in 2009. The events surrounding the deaths of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, and Michael Brown also inspire parts of the novel. 

Additionally, the novel addresses the palpability of racial discrimination, as evidenced by numerous references to an iconic Tupac Shakur quote to express the idea that black youth’s experiences with racism and marginalization hurt everyone. Consequently, this philosophy appears in the book as a trope — Khalil was forced to deal drugs as he struggled to make ends meet. 

Furthermore, the novel uses first-person narration to exemplify that the personal is, indeed, political. These overlapping identities make Starr question who she is as a person and what she stands for. Instead of being reductive, The Hate U Give serves to sensitize and educate readers by being truthful. Despite its heavy subject matter, the novel does not make ideas like systemic inequality and hostility palatable. Its realism, and the explicit identification of real-life victims of police brutality, inspire action in the readers. The strength of Thomas’s writing, therefore, lies in its honesty. 

Starr’s evolution into an empowered individual, as she assumes a more public role by participating in local demonstrations, is bound to inspire many. Hence, The Hate U Give is, at its core, a manifesto for a revolution — one that calls for an end to racial violence and systemic racism.  



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