The Hate U Give

By Ian Schunk

October 9th, 2018

George Tillman Jr.’s, “The Hate You Give” follows the story of a sixteen year old black girl named Starr Carter (played by Amandla Stenberg), who, after witnessing her childhood best friend get shot and killed by a white police officer, must learn to harness the power of her voice and speak out against injustice. The tragedy of innocent, unarmed black people being shot by white cops is an all too familiar story, but “The Hate U Give” offers hope and guidance when dealing with police brutality.

Starr lives with her family in Garden Heights, a poor, black, working class community. The Carter family consists of Starr’s parents, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) and Lisa (Regina Hall) and her half brother Seven (Lamar Johnson) as well as her little brother Sekani (TJ Wright). Maverick and Lisa want Starr and Seven to get a better education than what’s offered in Garden Heights, so they send them to Williamson Prep School, a wealthy, majority white school 45 minutes away from their house. Starr must live in two drastically different worlds, each with their own culture, that she must adapt to in order to not be outcasted. At school she worries about being seen as too black and at home she worries about not being black enough. Starr for awhile manages to balance these two worlds, but after her childhood friend Khalil (Algee Smith) gets shot and killed by a police officer while driving her home from a party, Starr is forced to face her two different worlds. She is called to the witness stand to testify against the police officer. In the courtroom she is not only being judged by the jury but by her two different worlds that stand in the background watching her.

The movie is based on the New York Times best-selling novel, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas. The title is apart of an acronym first used by Tupac Shakur. The acronym is “T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E.” which stands for The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone. “The Hate U Give” shows that the more black people police kill, the more black infants will be exposed to a cold and unforgiving world. These infants will grow up to reciprocate the hate given to them by the world and the police, and the cycle of conflict and brutality will continue. “The Hate U Give” shows the power that can come from the love found in friendships, families and communities. The power we gain from these smaller and larger units of people that all have the common denominator of love, are realized in our voice. Police may have tear gas, batons, and guns but the people have each other and the tighter and closer the people become, the larger the threat to racism will be. No form of love has ever come out of a barrel of a gun. Hate cannot sustain itself and if that is the weapon police choose to use, they will ultimately be defeated.

“I hope that the audience takes away that this isn’t just a story about a little girl from the hood, this is a story about identity, finding your true voice, finding what you want to represent in this world, and combating racial injustice, social injustice and police brutality.” said Algee Smith.

Many of the cast members connected with the story and their characters on a very personal level because both their characters and themselves undergo the effects of racism on a daily basis. The author of the book, Angie Thomas underwent an experience similar to Starr’s when she was in high school.

“I went to a mostly white, upper class, private christian school in conservative Mississippi, so I went through some things. I was the first black student to graduate from my creative writing program. When your the only black student and they’re talking about things like slavery, everyone would look at me like I was there. So many of us code switch, we go into spaces and specifically as black people we are made to feel like were to much or not enough.” said Angie Thomas.

“The Hate U Give” was an inspiring film that depicted a clear image of the harsh reality felt by so many black people in America. In these hard struggles against poverty and discrimination, the film reminds us of the importance of family. Tillman wanted to emphasize the relationship between Maverick and Lisa and the role they play in Starr’s life.

“It’s something we don’t see on screen a lot, where we have two parents who are loving, who love one another, and they have differences between one another in how they see things but at the end of the day they are family, and that’s the relationship that I wanted to bring across in the movie.” said Tillman Jr.

The audience were not the only ones to walk away from the film with a new message in mind. In learning about their characters, the actors took away their own message from the film. After playing her character Starr, Amandla Stenberg said, “There are certain lessons that she (Starr) exemplifies that I’m always constantly reminded of which is to use your voice, to speak up, to look at the forces around you, and the institutions that are in place, attempting to police you, to make you smaller, to make you quieter, and to not let them do that and stand in your truth and your intention regardless.”