Friday, July 17, 2020

Thug Life Meant: The Hate U Give Little Infants F---s Everybody

The Hate U Give

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.



I actually read this book a couple years ago, during my reading/reviewing hiatus. It was somewhat freeing, being able to read what I wanted without hyping up, defending, or analyzing my choices. I got through some good series that way. But I also know I took the easy way out when it came to this book. My GoodReads review was 3 sentences, basically saying everyone should read it for its message. After the tumult of 2020, I know that wasn't enough. So here I am, back again, revisiting Starr, Khalil, and the now three-year-old story that still feels like it could happen tomorrow.

If the book I read last week, SLAY, was an introduction to Black struggles in America, this one is like cranking the volume up to eleven. Whereas SLAY was perhaps more palatable with its focus on the main character's life in an upper-middle-class family and the media storm and potential legal backlash surrounding a video game, The Hate U Give dives straight into the projects, gang violence, police brutality, all while featuring a teenager struggling to find her own voice, her own place as she maneuvers though living in the lower class neighbor hood, attending an upper-class prep school, having an ex-gang, ex-con father, dating a white boyfriend, and now being the sole witness to a policeman's murder of her childhood friend.

This is not a "fun" book to read. It's a fantastic book, one of my favorites, but I definitely wouldn't call it fun. I cried as early as chapter 2. I had forgotten how visceral the scene with Khalil was, and I unwittingly tried to read it at work. Luckily, I was already locked up, taking a final breather before making my way home, cause it was an ugly cry. And there were more tears to follow as Starr suffered PTSD flashbacks, Khalil's family grieved, and more and more reflections of our current city streets came up.

No, this isn't what I would call a fun read, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its fun moments. Whether it's playing basketball with friends, ribbing her little brother, or enjoying the normalcy of prom, there are small, poignant moments of light in the darkness. And these moments serve not only to break up the stressful overarching story, but to help humanize and ground that story. Starr is a normal teenager going through normal teenage stuff, and even with all the crazy, messed-up shit going on around her, she is no less human, no less deserving of empathy than anyone else, regardless of her family, her neighborhood, or her skin tone.

I want to share a passage that helps explain the title of the book. It's also where I took the title of this review from. Not only does it spotlight many of the topics this story is about, but it hit me hard with its truth. It might be considered a bit of an info dump, going into history and politics with no bells and whistles, but it's one of my favorite passages. However, the whole thing is nearly two whole pages from the book so I've toggled it in a spoiler box. It's not really a spoiler per-say, but it is from about halfway through the book, so I suppose you can skip if you don't want any early information whatsoever. Honestly, this is only one of nearly 40 passages I highlighted in this book. Feel free to click here if you want to see some more powerful writing, much of which directly mirrors scenes we've seen on TV and Facebook just in the last few weeks.

I feel like I'm angry in this review, and I don't want to be. I want to express how important this book is, how real it is, how I think everybody could and should read it to get an idea about what is going on—what is still going on in America with police and black people and gangs and inequality. But, as I stated at the beginning of this review, this story is three years old—heck, the movie's been out for almost two years, now—and nothing has changed. So, yeah, I guess I'm angry that I've read this book twice, two full years between them, and the problems have only gotten more publicized, more views, but they're still happening. Hell, this happened last night in my hometown.

So, yeah, I'm angry, but not at this book. I love this book. I'm grateful for this book. I'm heartbroken that the events depicted are as true to life as they are. The end of the book features a list of names of some of the police's murder victims that have come out in the last few years: Oscar, Aiyana, Trayvon, Rekia, Michael, Eric, Tamir, John, Ezell, Sandra, Freddie, Alton, Philando, and Emmett. We now have to add Ahmaud and Manuel and Breonna and George and no doubt others that have yet to rise above the din.

So, before I devolve into more rants and tears, overall The Hate U Give is an important look at the world around us. It's not full of statistics, or historical research, but it does give readers a look at the hard truth that exists in American cities all over the country. Your own experiences may be far away from Starr's, mine certainly were, but isn't that the purpose of reading stories in the first place? While this may not be the kind of escape many are looking for, I felt some catharsis reading about some of the motivations behind the current protests as well as the hope to move forward. And I hope Starr's story can shine a little light in the darkness we're all struggling through right now.

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