The Hate U Give

Highly recommend!!

I think I’ll have to come back to this to write a fully thought out reflection/reaction to this book, but I do think it is a must read in today’s society.

I find that the book’s most important points are made in Starr’s conversation with her dad about the history of oppression, and how injustice like this was born and continues to thrive in our society. Unfortunately it is hard for me to imagine a world where white Americans as a whole do the necessary work as anti-racists, because it would be going against everything that keeps us comfortable and privileged.

An excerpt of the section to which I’m referring:

“Right. Lack of opportunities,” Daddy says. “Corporate America don’t bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain’t quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don’t prepare us well enough. That’s why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed. Our schools don’t get the resources to equip you like Williamson does. It’s easier to find some crack than it is to find a good school around here.

“Now, think ’bout this,” he says. “How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry we talking ’bout, baby. That shit is flown into our communities, but I don’t know anybody with a private jet. Do you?”

“No.”

“Exactly. Drugs come from somewhere, and they’re destroying our community,” he says. “You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them to survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can’t get jobs unless they’re clean, and they can’t pay for rehab unless they got jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That’s the hate they’re giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That’s Thug Life.”

Most white Americans do not believe they have racial bias or have acted in racist ways, yet as I read in another work I’m currently reading on capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis, we struggle with combatting the idea that we don’t deserve the things we have, the luxuries we enjoy. Varoufakis states that, “it’s incredibly easy to convince ourselves that the order of things—especially when it favors us—is logical, natural, and just.”

This book speaks to these issues in a very real way that highlights all the ugliest and most true parts of our deeply divided society. It is a call to action: to do the work of anti-racism, and to highlight the injustices we see every day.

4.5 stars!!!! finally picking up this book after years of wanting to read it and i am so impressed. such a relevant book and so incredibly insightful. a true work of art :)

This book is filled with explicit terms, so if you are anything like I was when I read this book you'd probably cringe a bit. Other than that, the book hit home in many different ways and is a powerful story about the awful stereotypes and treatment of black people that still happens today.

This was really eye opening and moving book. The way things are now with black lives matter and racism in the USA it's really a book everyone should read. It makes you really think about your own ignorance and media fueled ideas which we are taught to believe in and throws you into a world with gangs, guns, police brutality and the devide between white and black. Sad story but educating too. One quote I love - "sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to Never stop doing right". Perfectly sums it up!

This book was hard to get through. You may wonder why I only spent a day on it, then. Because I wanted to get through it and because it's important to read this book and books like it. It's important to give these authors a voice and an audience. It's important to know what the teens are reading and what the social landscape looks like.

I don't feel right giving it stars, though. Others have said it's an excellent book--but to grant it the number of stars that others have done, I would have to say "it was amazing". But to give it the stars that equate to how I feel about it would be a disservice to the book.

The Hate U Give is like how I felt about Wuthering Heights the movie. It was an excellent movie, but it's not to my tastes. You can appreciate something as a work of art and still say, "No, this isn't for me." And that is why this book shall remain without stars from me.

I intend to move onto something a little less reality-based. Reality is awful enough, thanks.

4.5 stars

have you read this book

drop everything you're doing and read this book

especially if you've ever thought, but all lives matter

read this fucking book

it's topical without being grating, offers an unflinching look at characters from all facets (the good and the bad), and explains issues that talking heads all over america can't seem to grasp

just read this book and stop being dumb

also, can starr be a real person and become my best friend please, she is an amazing character that i actually think of as a real live human being

why are you reading this review when you could be reading the book

This was a good book that dealt with many social justice issues, including the killing of young black men by police. I thought it was good, if a little too stereotypical (the teenage urban dialogue especially seemed like an adult trying really hard).

As a white person who lives in the suburbs this book really made me realize how privileged and luck I am. The audiobook narrator was fantastic as well. It was honestly like watching a movie, every have different voices.