“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas tells the story of what happens when carefully constructed and compartmented realities come crashing down over questions of justice, identity, and equality.
The book follows 16-year-old Starr Carter, who has her feet firmly planted in two different words: one foot at home in the “The Garden,” a predominately Black neighborhood, with her philosophical, former gang member father and loving but strict mother. Her other foot is squarely planted in her mostly white prep school, with her wealthy and well-meaning white boyfriend, where she is “cool by default” as one of the few Black girls enrolled there.
Unsurprisingly, “The Hate U Give” has faced challenges and calls for ban across the nation many, many times.
These two worlds do not mix — until Starr witnesses the murder of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police office. As the only witness, Starr is the only person who can defend her friend and her community in front of a grand jury. She is the only person who can use her voice to demand accountability.
We’ve had this book on our list of “most wanted” titles since the inception of Velshi Banned Book Club a year and a half ago. Unsurprisingly, “The Hate U Give” has faced challenges and calls for ban across the nation many, many times. Some parents and school board members have cited the book’s use of profanity while others directly condemned the book’s topics — often wrongfully attributing it as critical race theory or just anti-police writ large.
This novel holds incredible value as a key to the lived experiences of so many young people in America; it is also incredibly well-written. Thomas wields accessible, intimate language straight from the halls of your local high school like a weapon: sharp, to-the-point, and raw. Where another author might make her readers work, Thomas gives her readers the assist — distilling multi-layered concepts like cyclical poverty, insidious racist stereotypes, the concept of bravery, and code-switching with ease. This is by design.
Starr navigates her place in the halls of her high school, grapples with her first love and broken friendships in ways we’ve all seen before. Thomas masterfully uses the familiarity of these young adult tropes and a sharp first-person perspective to tell a more nuanced story, one made infinitely more complex by questions of race, tragedy, and shifting cultural viewpoints.
The way the mother of contemporary Black literature Toni Morrison described her own writing ran through my head while engrossed in “The Hate U Give” this past week. Morrison says, “It is not fast food, it is a meal that you should relish.” Now, we're not here to counter Morrison and her yardstick for measuring literature, but it seems “The Hate U Give” is the sort of fast food that you do relish. Like, the best nachos you’ve ever had, or delicious dive-bar sliders.
The book has been heralded as one of the great young adult novels of our time, and Thomas has surely earned that distinction. While Morrison and Thomas command language and recount pivotal life moments in an entirely different way, they both tell crucial Black stories. They’re both part of the Black literary canon that defines this country.
“The Hate U Give” proves the importance of young adult novels for anyone who ever doubted the genre’s value. This frank and approachable style of storytelling won’t let any reader, regardless of background, close the covers without a much more intimate understanding of Starr, her community, and a story that very well could be real.
With each passing reference and direct mention, the reader is reminded that the relentless murder of young Black men and women at the hands of police is so far from fiction.
And if this book feels ripped from the headlines, it’s because it is. On page 26, Starr echoes Eric Garner’s last words, “They finally put a sheet over Khalil. He can’t breathe under it. I can’t breathe.” The second-to-last page lists names that have become hauntingly familiar to all of us: Trayvon, Michael, Sandra. On and on. The very concept of the book is painfully true. In college, Thomas wrote a short story after the 2009 fatal shooting of Oscar Grant that would later served as the bones for “The Hate U Give.” With each passing reference and direct mention, the reader is reminded that the relentless murder of young Black men and women at the hands of police is so far from fiction.
Contrary to claims from outraged critics, “The Hate U Give” presents a multi-sided exploration of police. Starr’s Uncle Carlos, a secondary character that serves as something of a foil to Starr’s father, is a police officer who lives in a gated suburban community. One of the most beloved characters in the book, Carlos is based on members of Thomas’ own family who are in law enforcement. “Uncle Carlos represents what a lot of Black police officers have to deal with — the struggle of that to some people I’m seen as a sellout,” Thomas told us in her interview with the Velshi Banned Book Club. Conversely, the perpetrator of Khalil’s murder is referred to by just his badge number by Starr and her family, reducing him to a symbol of racism and something less than human. Thomas told us in that same conversation that it is even more than that: “As someone who is descendant of folks who did not have the right to name themselves, I take the power of a names very seriously.”
A number of students at North Allegheny High School in Pennsylvania condemned the removal of the “The Hate U Give” in 2021. Junior Sam Podnar shared his salient thoughts on the removal of the book in their school newspaper The Uproar: “The first reflex for white parents with white kids might be to shield their kids from any mention of racism. [...] But if we want to change anything for BIPOC Americans, we should let education push kids out of their comfort zones.”
Thomas echoes this sentiment during that conversation on “Velshi,” where we dug into one of the most key and persistent themes in “The Hate U Give:” bravery. Thomas says, “Bravery is one of those concepts that feels bigger than it really is — especially for young people. [...] Sometimes the best bravery is found in the smallest acts.” What a lesson to impart on a young reader — if they can get their hands on a copy.
This is an adapted excerpt from the Saturday, July 15th episode of “Velshi.”
