Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give portrays the effect of racism on communities of color. As the exploration of modern political topics were depicted, the book showcased gentrification, police brutality, and consistent systematic racism. As the young teen Starr Carter witnessed her best friend die from police brutality, she highlights the issues and attempts to amplify not only her voice, but her family’s and fight amongst her classmates that also make racist comments.
The book serves as a narrative of how young students have to fear the force that is supposed to be guarding their communities and making them feel safe. It depicts how the feeling from sirens of red and blue change depending on the color of your skin. The key narrative throughout the book is not that the issue is magically fixed by the protagonist, but how the issue can be brought to light by the young high schooler’s voice and how she alone can create small steps of change. She begins to enlighten her school. A powerful scene is when a racist classmate tells Starr that the police could have mistaken a hairbrush as a weapon when her friend was shot. As Starr steals her friend’s hairbrush, she screams “Does this look like a weapon to you?”. She highlights the ignorance that is tolerated by racial inequality and systemic racism that is rooted behind innocent deaths.
It enlightened me as a reader that while this is a story in a novel, there are real stories and lives suffering behind the book. While the book was published 7 years ago, it is currently being banned in several schools for its realistic portrayal of racial inequality. No one should be silenced from understanding these issues. Because it is not just about a story, it alters how communities look and how the future of America changes.