The novel The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas is an award winning young adult book that encompasses the struggle within the black community, police brutality, and the difficulty of being a black teen in a white space.

The protagonist, Starr Carter, is a black teen who lives in primarily black, low-income community. She grew up in this neighborhood but she goes to a primarily white, wealthy prep school.  Starr witnesses the death of her friend Khalil, an unarmed black teen, at the hands of a white cop. Starr, being the only witness, is faced with two options: she can come to the public with the information she knows and face the backlash and death threats or watch the memory of her oldest friend become tainted by institutionalized racism.

“It’s so important that we have conversations about race on this level because it does affect people and it’s important to every community,” Kuki Yacob stated.

The story portrays the grief Starr feels and the burden of knowing the truth of what really happened to her friend and the way he’s portrayed by everyone else within her community and outside of it. Thomas’ discussion of  the effects of police brutality and being a black child within white spaces is a great place to really have a discussion about race in America.

Thomas emphasizes how the media’s portrayal of  black people changes the dialogue of police violence in the black community. She conveys how Starr’s white peers react to the news of Khalil’s murder and how its deeply dependent on what the media told them. Starr, who clearly knew her friend Kahlil, is stuck in the presence of people who don’t know what it’s like to be black, speak about her fallen friend in a demonizing way.

“There is a need for this representation in novels at school. If we don’t give students the opportunity to look at novels that show different perspectives we can’t expect them to enter the world and look at it anyother way then through their own experiences.” said Dagim Bekele.

Through this novel, Thomas also illustrates how black people have to change themselves to “belong” in white spaces. Starr has to hold back her emotions so that she isn’t seen as the “angry black girl” in her white school. She can’t be herself in her school because she will automatically be categorized as “ghetto” by everyone there.

This best seller will also become a movie that is released on October 5th. This movie has a lot of high expectations due to the very successful book. Sisterhood is hosting a movie day at Harkins theater for five dollars on October 25th.