The Hate U Give: Racism and Identity
Analysis: Chapters 5
In Chapter Five, the reader sees firsthand how Williamson alienates Starr based on her race and class. In order to avoid the stereotype of the “angry black girl,” Starr silences herself any time she might make a conversation uncomfortable. She cannot afford to travel so she cannot relate to her friends’ exciting experiences, nor can she discuss not being able to afford to travel. Starr diminishes herself and hides her own experiences, including the trauma of Natasha and Khalil’s murders. Starr’s very name implies that she should stand out and take the lead, but she states that part of being Williamson Starr means letting Hailey, the assertive white girl in her trio of friends, take the lead in everything. The price of fitting in at Williamson, therefore, is Starr minimizing her identity and roots as a black girl from Garden Heights.
Hailey’s silent argument with Starr over Tumblr highlights the insidious racism that forces Starr to tone herself down at Williamson. Hailey’s unfollowing of Starr’s Tumblr is an act of silencing. While Starr does not talk about black issues at Williamson, she does on her Tumblr, meaning that by unfollowing Starr, Hailey avoids having to listen to Starr’s experiences as a black girl because they make her feel uncomfortable. Hailey and Starr rarely see each other outside of school because Hailey’s parents will not allow her to visit Garden Heights; they believe it to be dangerous based on stereotypes about black neighbourhoods. Therefore, by eliminating the digital space of their friendship where Starr can be more open, Hailey only listens to Williamson Starr, who puts energy into shrinking herself and following Hailey’s lead. When Starr says she worries this means that Hailey does not like her anymore, she ignores the truth that Hailey has only ever liked a self-censored version of Starr.
Starr has a negative reaction to Chris taking her hand because she realizes that Chris’s whiteness makes him part of the same system as One-Fifteen, which is a society that privileges white lives over black ones. Although Chris cannot help being white, Starr still must deal with the violent effects of white supremacy, epitomized by Khalil’s death. Importantly, Starr recognizes the weight of Chris’s whiteness while he raps because rap is a specifically black cultural form. Chris’s understanding of Starr’s blackness comes from their mutual love of black cultural touchstones like rap music and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” but these interests do not make him black or automatically understand Starr’s experiences. Starr still hasn’t told him about Natasha, meaning that Chris does not yet have Starr’s perspective on the difficult parts of the black experience.
Lisa’s strong objection to Starr’s anger at Brenda expands the theme of the dehumanization of black people through stereotypes from the previous chapters. Starr’s reaction to Brenda is accusatory and reductive, functioning as if Brenda’s addiction erases the ways she was a mother to Khalil. This line of thinking parallels the way Khalil’s drug dealing overshadows everything else about his death. Lisa’s reaction makes it clear to both Starr and the readers that a person’s life and circumstances cannot be so easily erased and that it is unfair to demand perfection to deserve compassion and justice. Lisa reminds Starr that Brenda was indeed imperfect, but being a perfect or even good mother to Khalil was not necessary for Brenda to feel grief over Khalil’s death.
Analysis: Chapters 7-8
Starr’s recognition of Chris’s whiteness leads her to question her motivations for dating Chris. Because One-Fifteen represents a society that values white lives over black—and Chris is white like One-Fifteen—Starr must ask herself whether dating Chris means complying with this value system. This train of thought raises the question of whether she began dating Chris because she likes him or because she chose his white privilege and the security it represented over dating a black boy, possibly even Khalil himself. Starr considers her choice while looking at Chris, not talking to him, largely because this thought process has nothing to do with Chris as a person and everything with what Chris represents. Before Khalil’s death, the biggest problem in her relationship with Chris was the common teenage problem of determining whether to have sex. Now sex has been eclipsed by complicated questions about what dating a white boy means. Because of the way racism affects her life, Starr cannot date someone without it becoming a larger philosophical question.
In response to Starr’s pain over the fried chicken joke, Hailey actively weaponizes her whiteness against Starr to avoid taking responsibility for the hurt she causes. Starr fears becoming the “angry black girl,” leading Starr to downplay her feelings because she understands her emotions can be used to turn her into a stereotype. Starr’s fears come to pass in this scene when Hailey suggests that Starr’s emotions have clouded her judgement. Hailey even uses their shared grief over losing loved ones against Starr. When Hailey mentions how upset she gets during the anniversary of her mother’s death, she sets herself up as the mature person in their friendship who does not lash out at her friends even when grief surfaces. Hailey uses the fact that Starr is emotional over something as a means of dismissing Starr’s ability to identify when something is hurtful. Hailey shifts Starr to the aggressor in their conflict, not unlike how One-Fifteen turned Khalil into the aggressor. The system of whiteness that Hailey and One-Fifteen represent makes racism the fault of the black people it hurts.
Starr blames herself for denying Khalil, but by placing Starr’s lie after the incident with Hailey, Thomas signals that racism has made it difficult for Starr to speak about difficult experiences tied to her blackness. Starr’s denial of Khalil is not about the Khalil she knew, but about the Khalil reported in the media as a drug dealer. Because of Hailey’s dismissive attitude toward Khalil, Starr knows that an association with Khalil will change how her friends treat her. Notably, when Starr blames herself for being a bad friend, she places denying Khalil in the same sentence as pushing Hailey away. We know, however, that it is Hailey who causes the rift between them because of her discomfort with the difficult aspects of Starr’s blackness.
Khalil’s funeral has two interruptions—one from Ms Ofrah and one from King—which demonstrates the way the violent circumstances of Khalil’s death leaves those who mourn him without comfort and closure. Although Pastor Eldridge insists Khalil’s funeral should be a joyful occasion, Ms Ofrah’s interruption reminds the mourners that Khalil’s death was an injustice that the police refuse to address, a cause for anger and a call to protest. Instead of focusing on Khalil’s “homegoing,” the mourners will have to fight for the justice system to do its job. The King Lords’s interruption stirs questions and doubt instead of providing closure. King deprives the mourners of the opportunity to reflect on their memories of Khalil and forces them to wonder how well they knew him, robbing Khalil of his innocence at his own funeral. Lisa must bring Starr home to mourn because the funeral contained no space for Starr to simply grieve.
After his death, Khalil is flattened out for other people to use as a symbol. Upon seeing the corpse, Starr can only think about how the body is not really Khalil because of the makeup and lack of dimples, and he looks like a mannequin. That is, in death Khalil no longer gets to be himself; others choose how to arrange him. To the police and people like Mr. Lewis, Khalil is a drug dealer, a stereotype they can shorthand to justify his death as necessary or inevitable. When the King Lords bring the bandana, they stake a claim over Khalil that no one can contradict, and the gossip they create changes the perception of Khalil, overshadowing the funeral with rumours. Now that Khalil is dead, other people can decide how they want to define him, and those narrations often do not encompass Khalil’s true, nuanced identity.
Analysis: Chapter 9
Starr’s immediate judgement of DeVante parallels the media’s immediate judgement of Khalil, which implies Starr is wrong about DeVante. When Starr learns that DeVante is a King Lord drug dealer, she connects him to violent and abusive King. Her instant mental leap from King Lord to abuser parallels the media using “drug dealer” as shorthand for violent. However, DeVante does not act violently. He protects Seven and Starr from the Garden Disciples despite the maxim that gang members only care about their own. DeVante’s grief over Dalvin’s death complicates Starr’s understanding of why he’s in the park. While he initially says he’s dealing drugs, DeVante mentions his grief after Seven offers condolences, suggesting that drug dealing may also be a smokescreen of toughness to hide his vulnerability. DeVante and Khalil both possess more complexity than the drug dealer or gang member stereotypes offer them.
Throughout Chapter Nine, Starr blames herself for both the police’s inaction and the violent fallout, implying that she has taken on responsibility for things too large for her to change. This misplaced guilt plays into the theme of adults’ refusal to take responsibility for their actions hurting children and teenagers. As a teenage girl, Starr cannot possibly shoulder the burden of all the neighbourhood’s hurt, nor can she change the minds of a legal system determined to protect its own. Therefore, when Lisa tells Starr the anecdote about her birth, the comparison between pregnancy and the unjust legal system highlights the complete lack of power and control Starr has over the situation. Just as Lisa had direct power over very few factors in her pregnancy, Starr only has the power to tell the truth, which she has already done. Lisa’s encouragement to continue “doing right” emphasizes that Starr can only keep doing her best with the things she can control.
The effects of violence and gangs on black childhood play a major role in this chapter. Starr and Seven face punishment from their parents not because of normal parental strictness, but because of the riots and violence in the neighborhood. Black childhood is disrupted by different forms of violence, including police brutality, gang violence, and the fallout of both. Starr, Seven, and Sekani know immediately to duck for the bullets that interrupt their dinner, signifying that this kind of interruption is common enough that they know what to do. All the gang members at Rose Park are teenagers whose gang connections mean they spend their Saturday mornings selling drugs or robbing others instead of actually partaking in teenage activities. The contrast between Lisa’s terror at Starr and Seven, both older teenagers, running off to play basketball in Garden Heights, and her complete comfort with Sekani, only nine, running off to ride his bike in Uncle Carlos’s neighbourhood emphasizes the kind of carefree adolescence withheld from the children of Garden Heights.
Starr’s unwillingness to talk about Khalil with Chris demonstrates how her new understanding of white supremacy threatens the fantasy of normalcy Chris has come to represent for her. Before Khalil’s death, the biggest issue in their relationship revolved around sex, common for teenage relationships. Starr’s realization that dating a white boy automatically takes on a political cast—because of race—indicates a more complicated, less universal problem. In addition, if Chris learns about Khalil, Starr will have to open up about the difficult aspects of being black, which she fears Chris will judge her for. Starr knows addressing either of these issues will change their relationship irrevocably, and if their relationship changes, she will no longer feel like a normal teenager in her relationship with Chris. On a symbolic level, Starr bringing Chris into Uncle Carlos’s house functions as a reminder of the kind of blackness Starr allows Chris to see. Uncle Carlos has largely assimilated into whiteness and lives in the same neighbourhood as Chris, so his house represents a blackness easy for Chris to understand.