The novel, written by Angie Thomas, contains a familiar narrative, one that allows people of color to laugh, grieve, and process the Black experience in the U.S.įor Starr, that experience includes witnessing the fatal shooting of her friend Khalil at the hands of a white police officer. While Starr’s predominantly white classmates celebrate an early dismissal from school as part of a Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of Khalil’s death, she is more concerned with her late friend’s face being plastered all over the news and him being described as a “drug dealer” because he was involved in the neighborhood gang.It’s that second talk that Starr Carter, the 16-year-old protagonist in the book The Hate U Give, mentions that has become a rite of passage for nearly all Black children in America-including me. But as important as her dad’s advice is, there’s an even louder voice that thunders in Starr’s mind as she navigates the aftermath of her friend’s murder. The scene serves as a painful reminder of police brutality and the criminalization of black youth - something that Maverick had prepared Starr and her brothers for when they were children, because she could have just as easily been in Khalil’s position. The cop claims he thought Khalil had reached back in his vehicle to draw a gun when he was just grabbing his hairbrush. Moments later, the officer shoots and kills Khalil. She sits quietly yet fearfully, with her hands in plain sight on the dashboard as the cop demands that Khalil step out of the car. Only speak when they speak to you." Years later, these carefully chosen words help protect Maverick’s oldest, Starr (Stenberg), now a teenager, after her friend Khalil (Algee Smith) gets pulled over by a cop for unexplained reasons, with Starr in the passenger seat. Based on Angie Thomas’s stirring YA novel of the same name, the film has a scene at the beginning where Maverick (Russell Hornsby) sits his three young children down at the kitchen table to talk to them about what to do if cops ever confront them: “Keep your hands visible.
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