It’s Black History Month in Europe, and I’ve just finished Angie Thomas’s young adult novel The Hate U Give. Even though it was published in 2017, I had not read it before. I now wish I had. This is one of those books that everyone who is even remotely interested in politics, in people, in the world, should read. Want to know why? Read on!
The Hate U Give is about Starr, a sixteen-year-old girl who grows up in a poor, black neighbourhood and goes to school in a rich, white one. She feels torn between both worlds, not knowing where she truly belongs. Until she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed friend, which is covered extensively in the media. Starr realises that he was shot because of the colour of his skin, and she then has to decide whether she is going to use her voice or stay silent.
I never had a good reason not to read The Hate U Give, and the only one I could think of was that I didn’t feel like reading young adult novels at the time. Put it like that, it makes me sound like I’m too good for that genre. And that, exactly, is what Thomas’s novel is about – not about people who think adult literature is superior to young adult literature, but about prejudice, discrimination and racism. It’s painful to read just how deep prejudice goes, but I’m glad I did.
I’m usually quite hesitant to write about Black Lives Matter. Not because I don’t support the case, but because I’m a white woman living in a predominantly white city, teaching at a predominantly white school. I feel like it’s not my place to talk about this topic because I know so little about it. Now I’m not sure if that’s true.
Thankfully, there are books like The Hate U Give. It shows me how lives are lived in other places, it shows me how people are discriminated against, and how they receive no justice at all. I finished this novel in a couple of days, because I had to know whether Starr and her friends would be listened to. It should come as no surprise that they are not; in the novel, the white police officer who shot her friend was not even suspended, causing angry riots all over the neighbourhood.
Starr’s story was made up. Unfortunately, it was based on real people, such as Emmett Till, who was beaten up in 1955 in such a bad way that he was completely unrecognisable. In the afterword of her novel, Thomas writes that she was born three decades after this event, and while she experienced racism, she considered Till’s murder as history. However, recent events have shown that, unfortunately, police brutality and systemic racism are still not a thing of the past. The title of this novel is part of a quotation from rapper Tupac, saying Thug Life stands for the acronym “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone”. It means that children who are raised with violence and racism teach that same message to their children, making the cycle hard to break. It shows just how little has changed in the last few hundred years.
Thankfully, there are novels like The Hate U Give, which remind us that things need to change. Maybe now more than ever.
What did you think of The Hate U Give? What’s your favourite novel discussing Black Lives Matter? Do you think books can change the world? Which book changed your perspective on racism? Please let me know in the comments.
The Open Book 