“The Hate U Give” has both a movie and a book to it. The main character, Starr, is in her first years of high school. She lives in Garden Heights, but goes to an all white private school. She code switches when she goes from place to place, but one Friday night she decides to accompany her friend to a party in Garden Heights. She reunites with her childhood friend Khalil, and something goes down at the party, and they had to leave because they heard a gunshot. They leave, and as they do he gets pulled over and gets shot while Starr sees the whole thing.
She decides to have a voice for Khalil and wants to testify at a grand jury. Meanwhile, everyone from school does not understand what was happening and Khalil got shot because he was a “thug”. Starr goes to testify and the people ask her more whether he was a troublemaker instead of asking what happened that night. She’s afraid if she’ll ever get justice for Khalil, and if she’s going to have to see one of her loved ones die again.
Testifying was a really big risk for her and her loved ones, when the King Lords were involved as well with Khalil. Her boyfriend from school tries to help her out through the whole thing and get an understanding of what happens in her home life. She speaks in front of a whole crowd and protests at last and things don’t end as expected. There’s riots breaking out, and their family store gets destroyed by the King. The police get there on time and arrest him, and she still will continue to fight for Khalil and an end to police brutality.
I think the book and the film was inspiring when Starr was a really good protagonist. It shows the reader or the person watching it how police brutality still exists to this day, and people die for absolutely no reason. It can inspire others to also fight for that to end overall.