The Hate U Give (novel)

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The Hate U Give from 2017 is the first youth novel by the Afro-American writer Angie Thomas . The book describes the life of the 16-year-old protagonist Starr Carter, who had to watch the death of her best friend Khalil by a police officer and then discovered the power of her own voice. The book is not only about finding and using one's voice, but also about individuality and the need to no longer be reduced to one skin color or origin, but to be perceived as a person .

background

A pivotal childhood experience of Angie Thomas, a shooting she involuntarily witnessed, inspired her to start writing years later and to do her Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Belhaven University in Jackson , Mississippi. While still at university, she began writing down her childhood experiences of shooting. In addition, she was motivated to write by the death of 22-year-old Oscar Grant in 2009, also caused by a police officer . Angie Thomas was encouraged by one of her professors, who described her experiences as unique and worth reading, as her way of writing could give other people a voice.

Her work is part of post-blackness literature, with the past as important as the present. People no longer want to be reduced to their skin color, but to be perceived as equal, but still have to struggle with racism and prejudice and have to face the everyday problems that arise as a result. However, The Hate U Give is not a pure post-blackness work, it is also a coming-of-age story . The reader accompanies Starr not only in her fight against injustice, but also in her everyday life. Here she has to deal with the normal problems of a teenager, regardless of skin color or origin. In her book, Thomas calls for people to use their own voice and defend themselves with words. You don't have to be in such a drastic situation as witnessing a shooting yourself, it is enough if you no longer put up with everyday situations.

Thomas was particularly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, launched in 2013, and the life and work of the American rapper Tupac Shakur .

action

The rather shy 16-year-old Starr Carter lives with her family in Garden Heights, a fictional neighborhood where mostly black people live. In addition to her parents, she has two brothers: Seven, 17 years old, and Sekani, 8 years old, with whom she goes to Williamson High School, a private school mainly for the white upper class, far from the neighborhood. When she meets her childhood friend, Khalil, again at a party one evening and he drives her home because of a shootout at the party, the two are stopped by the police. Starr, who had been taught to behave calmly and exactly as the police asked her to do, remained seated in the car while Khalil was pushed out of the car by the policeman. When Khalil leans into the car to check on Starr, she witnesses one of the policemen killing Khalil with three shots in the back.

The death of Khalil caused a lot of publicity. The unarmed Khalil is turned into a drug dealer and gang member, in order to highlight the clichés of an African American from the lower class. Starr's identity is kept a secret, and since she doesn't want to be known as 'Ghetto Starr' at school, she doesn't tell her friends Maya and Hailey, or even her boyfriend Chris, that she was by Khalil's side on the night of the tragedy. She takes great care not to mix up her two identities, Garden Heights-Starr and Williamson-Starr. The events, however, make this more and more complicated, which leads to an argument between Starr and Hailey, as well as Starr and Chris.

Meanwhile, her uncle Carlos, a detective, persuades Starr to testify in front of two police officers. Carlos was a substitute father for Starr when her own father Maverick, then a member of the Gang King Lords, was in prison for three years. He had committed a crime by the King Lords and thus bought his exit from the gang. Accompanied by her mother, Starr now describes her view of the events to the police officers, but realizes that her testimony does not play a major role, since the guilty police officer is not brought to justice and arrested. This fact leads to protests and riots in and around Garden Heights. Starr increasingly identifies with the role as an activist and begins to speak out about the incident. She takes part in the protests and gives interviews about what happened. The situation becomes more radical as the policeman remains at large. As a result, further riots break out, in which Starr, her brother and friends participate to fight for justice. The King Lords, who feel attacked by Starr's interviews, also take part in the uprisings, and violent riots break out, including destroying a shop in Garden Heights.

Black panther

Throughout the book, references are made to the Black Panther Party , a socialist revolutionary movement of black nationalism in the United States. The party was founded in 1966 after the death of Malcolm X by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and was supposed to keep the ideas of that very person alive. The two founders developed a 10-point program for African American equality. In The Hate U Give , Maverick Carter, Starr's father, keeps referring to the Black Panthers and invokes their 10-point program. So Starr and her brothers must be able to recite this by heart. Maverick treats the program like a religion and lives by its rules. In the Carter's house there is not only a picture of a black Jesus, but also of Malcom X, the man to whom the Black Panthers are dedicated. The Black Panther Party was disbanded in 1982.

language

Above all, the book impresses with its very youthful and colloquial expression. Even if it may take some getting used to at first, the writing style makes the book even more authentic. While Starr still pays attention to her language of expression at school and in the presence of her friends in order not to be branded as the black from the “ghetto”, at home in Garden Heights the typical slang of this neighborhood comes through more strongly in Starr's language, among other things for not to be known as the one who is in white’s private school. This makes Starr's self-made separation into Williamson and Garden Heights Starr even clearer, and it isn't until the end of the book that these two identities mix when Starr dares to be herself.

Awards (selection)

German edition

filming

Fox 2000 secured the rights to the film, which was released in October 2018 under the same title ; the female lead took on Amandla Stenberg .