Kierra Gilbert

The world we live in is full of many different things: there are good people, bad people, violence, adventures, hate, love, enemies, friendship and memories. These make up a majority of the universe, however, the world is not full of nice things every single moment, but we try to make each moment count.  In Angie Thomas’s book, The Hate U Give it describes the life of a girl protagonist (Starr Carter) who takes part in two completely different lives. She lives in an all African American neighborhood that is in ruins and rubble. However, she attends a fancy, suburban prep school along with her brother. To everyone at her school (in which the population is primarily white) she is seen as the cool, casual, and easy going girl that is athletic, sympathetic and has an oblivious but sweet boyfriend (Chris). On the other side, she lives in Garden Heights, also known as the ghetto. At school, she is afraid that her actions and attitude will betray her and she will be seen as the “angry black woman”. She gets ridiculed at home sometimes for losing her “heritage” at times. She believes that she has to put on a facade when she goes to both places so she does not become looked at differently. She carries two different personalities with her whenever she switches locations, which will make you question who Carter is from the very beginning. Why is she not able to just be herself wherever she goes? Why is she so afraid to be who she really is without caring what other people think of her? People in this generation are so afraid of being judged and ridiculed for who they are. In today’s society, everyone just wants to fit in, be popular and be accepted.

In the book, Carter witnesses her unarmed African American male friend (Khalil) being killed by a cop when being pulled over on the side of the road. The story goes as so: Carter and Khalil are pulled over by a cop while driving. Khalil is asked by the cop to step outside of the car, and after being out of the car for a while he moves towards Carter to make sure she is alright. The cop presumably thought Khalil was trying to draw a gun on him and reacted quickly by shooting him dead on the spot. Everyone wants to know what happened that night, wit only three people knowing the truth – but we will not hear one person’s side because they are dead. Carter is the one person that can help bring her friend’s death (Khalil) to justice, but she is playing a dangerous game that could get her into a lot of trouble. She knows the risks, the dangers, and the consequences, and she has to make the decisions about whether or not she is ready for both of her worlds to collide in order to fight for justice. As Angie Thomas states, “What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”

After dealing with the death of her friend, Carter’s emotions and lifestyle begin to unravel one by one. She tries to have normal conversations with her friends at school but her mind keeps wandering back to Khalil’s dead body, she is dealing with intrusive nightmares every night when she goes to sleep, and her relationship with her boyfriend (Chris) is becoming rockier each day. One of her closest friends (Hailey) becomes distant when learning that Carter reblogged a photo of a fourteen-year-old African American that was killed for catcalling at a white woman 1955. Race complicates their relationship, even more, Carter’s mother knows she has a white boyfriend but does not want to tell her father. The conflict extends throughout their relationship when Carter becomes worried that her father will be angry when he realizes she is a white man. Nevertheless, Chris is the one person Carter is the most comfortable around regardless of his skin color. Carter believes that his wealth and skin color will always be an issue in their relationship because it makes Carter aware that Chris will never face the challenges that Carter has or will face in life. Carter’s experience at the police stations leads her to believe that it comes down to the hands of the authority. The cops question Khalil’s character and behavior, seemingly as if he was implicated in his own murder- due to his past involvements that the cop did not know. Carter becomes angry when she thinks Khalil’s past actions made his presence on earth unworthy of living.

After Khalil’s funeral, riots erupt all over the town: in the neighborhood, machine guns are being fired, and police cars are being set blazing. Carter’s relationship with her friends become more and more strained throughout the story. Carter’s family is deciding whether to move out of Garden Heights or not, which takes a toll on her relationship with Chris. Her friendship with Hailey is demolished when she states that the officer did everyone a favor by killing a drug dealer. Carter could not contain her anger anymore and attacks Hailey. Weeks later after moving into their new home in the suburbs, Carter finds out that the grand jury has decided not to prosecute the officer that killed Khalil. Carter is furious at the jury for not serving justice for Khalil, but she does not stop there. She begins protesting and giving inspirational speeches to help make a change. She believes that you cannot fight violence with violence because that will get us nowhere. In the end, even though Khalil never got the justice he deserved, Carter believes that he will still have a place in their hearts that will remind them each day to fight.

Angie Thomas has done an exceptional job in breaking down the levels of poverty and showing how it is somewhat a piecing together of drugs, violence, and gangs. This book demonstrates how there are compassionate and fantastic cops and also ones who abuse their power. In the story, Carter’s uncle is one of the most dominant people in her life but is a cop as well. He teaches her that there is evil but there is also good. I believe that all colors of every kind matter just as much and Angie Thomas wrote that we can make a difference by standing together. Angie Thomas said,“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.” Once you stop doing what is right then you will fail. Instead of letting things fall apart we should try to make things fall into place.