Gabrielle Rockson

My movie of 2018, has to be ‘The Hate U Give’. Not only did it convey the racism & police brutality that’s occurring in this world, it put to the light the everyday ignorance of many people around us.

In the opening scenes, you see an African-American father having to teach his children how to conduct themselves when stopped by the police.

The father tells his kids the importance of doing what the police tells them, not arguing with them and most importantly putting their hands out (to show they don’t have a gun). This talk is a matter of life and death. Unfortunately, this is the true reality for many African-American families, because they know the slightest movement of their hand, when stopped by the police, can get them killed.

After the police shooting of her childhood friend Khalil, you see Starr (the main character) having a conversation with her Uncle Carlos, who is a police officer. He tells her the reality that if a man driving an expensive car is black, he’s a lot more likely to get stopped by the police than a white man.

Unfortunately the racism doesn’t stop there, it creeps into Starr’s friendships. As she goes to a prep school in the suburbs, where majority of students are white, her boyfriend and all of her friends are white. Although her boyfriend and one friend try to understand the issues she faces as an African-American, one particular friend does not.

Starr lives a life where her friends feel comfortable saying ‘slangs’ around her and act as if they’re ‘black’, but when it comes to real black social matters they don’t care. Her friend Hailey (the blond girl) states in the movie how the black guy who got killed, who is Starr’s friend, probably deserved it. Even after Starr explained that he had no gun and was completely innocent, the friend sticks to her ignorant beliefs. Furthermore, when Starr begins to use her voice to bring awareness to police brutality and racism overall, Hailey believes she’s being ‘extra’ and even goes on to say the black people who get killed by the police look more threatening than Starr. It’s good to say that friendship was over by the end of the movie.

Growing up in a school that was predominantly white, I could definitely relate to this storyline of many people being and saying ignorant things.

One thing I love, is that it also illustrates a cycle that occurs amongst African-American families, especially the men and their boys. There was a huge plot twist that occurred, which involved the dad, a rival gang member, the police and the little smiling boy in the photo. If you don’t already know what I’m talking about, then you really need to go and watch this movie.

I think this movie showed that there is soooo much more work to be done in this world regarding racism. The scene where the father was teaching his children how to behave around the police spoke volumes; that advice is really a matter of life and death for black people.

‘The Hate U Give’, was a fantastic movie.