The Hate U Give

As Khalil pulls the car over, Starr recalls that her parents talked with her when she was young about what to do if the cops pulled her over. They told her to “keep your hands visible. Don’t make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you” (20). Afraid, she asks Khalil if there is anything incriminating in the car, but he assures her there isn’t. When the officer approaches and asks for Khalil’s license, he asks to know why the officer pulled them over in the first place. At Starr’s request, Khalil begrudgingly complies with the officer but asks again for the reason behind the traffic stop once he hands over his papers.

The officer, whose badge Starr notices is 115, says Khalil has a broken taillight. When Khalil asks if he will get a ticket, the officer grows hostile and orders him out of the car. He pats Khalil down three times while yelling at Starr not to move. The officer tells Khalil to hold still while he goes back to his car. However, Khalil opens the car door to ask Starr if she is all right. Suddenly, Starr hears three gunshots, and Khalil’s body jerks as he is hit by the bullets. Unable to stop herself, Starr gets out of the car and goes to her friend. She sees the blood and watches as Khalil dies. Starr realizes that the officer has his gun pointed at her now and is screaming. She puts her hands up.

A short while later, Starr sits in the back of an ambulance while more police officers search Khalil’s car. His body is still in the street. Traumatized, Starr struggles to breathe. Her father and mother arrive to take her home. On the way, she is sick, and her father pulls the car over long enough to let her vomit.

At home, her parents throw away her bloody clothes while she takes a long bath and scrubs Khalil’s blood off of her hands. She then tries to sleep but wakes up several times from nightmares. After one of these, she stares at the ceiling and thinks of Natasha, her best childhood friend. One summer when they were 11, Starr and Natasha went to play in the water from a broken fire hydrant. As they played, there was a drive-by shooting that resulted in Natasha’s death. Starr saw Natasha shot to death and now, the same thing has happened to Khalil.

In the morning, she wants to be alone, but her mother takes her to the kitchen to get food. There is a painting of Black Jesus on a cross in the hallway next to a photo of Malcolm X.

The house is Starr’s grandmother’s, who lives with Starr’s Uncle Carlos in a big house in the suburbs.

Mav and her brothers Seven and Sekani meet her in the kitchen. Seven, who lives with King and his mother Iesha, stayed the previous night to watch Sekani. Despite King’s well-known abuse, Seven refuses to leave his other sisters, Kenya and Lyric, alone with him and Iesha.

The family eventually talks about the shooting and expresses disbelief, given that Khalil was so young. Starr tells them that Khalil did not act threatening to the officer. It is agreed that the neighborhood of Garden Heights will not react well when they hear about the shooting. They all agree to tell no one about Starr having been the only witness.

Starr realizes that she “always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak” (35).

Starr wishes she could stay home from school and watch The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to which she relates her experience at Williamson. She feels like an outsider there and recalls how her home in Garden Heights frightens her Williamson friends.

Starr’s mother won’t let her stay home, though, and sends her to work at the store with Mav. He does not press her to talk. When they arrive at the small store, Mr. Lewis from the barbershop next store hassles Mav, saying that Mav is late in opening the store.

Regular neighborhood customers filter into the store. A conversation makes Starr think of Chris; Seven and Starr’s mother are the only family members who know Starr is dating him. She worries about what her father will do when he finds out her boyfriend is white.

They go across the street to get ribs from Reuben’s for lunch. While they wait for their order, they watch a news report about Khalil, but the reporter doesn’t even say his name. Back outside, they are stopped as Kenya’s father King pulls up in a BMW. He smokes a cigar and has two teardrop tattoos indicating he is responsible for two deaths. He tries to pay for their food, but Starr refuses his money.

Mav comes out of the store and greets King. King tries to get Mav to hold a package for him, but he refuses. When King gets upset, Mav reminds him that he did three years of jail time to help King out. He also tells King to leave Seven alone.

Starr has a nightmare about the deaths of Natasha and Khalil, which frightens her awake. On her way to the kitchen, she hears voices and stops to listen. Her Uncle Carlos, her mother Lisa’s brother and a police detective, is speaking to Starr’s parents about the shooting. Carlos argues that the shooting was not necessarily racially motivated and that Khalil was a drug dealer, which possibly affected the officer’s actions.

Furthermore, he knows Officer 115, whom he calls Brian, which surprises Starr. He also tells Lisa that the family should move to a safer neighborhood, which Mav opposes. Finally, he wants Starr to go down to the police station to talk to the detectives, arguing that it will help the case.

Starr accidentally causes the floor to creak, and the adults discover her. In the kitchen, Carlos asks Starr to give a witness statement to the police, assuring her that it will help get justice for Khalil. Based on this reassurance, she agrees.

Carlos leaves, and Lisa goes to bed, leaving Starr and Mav to talk. Starr wonders why her father and Uncle Carlos don’t get along. Her father tells her that Carlos never thought he was good enough for his sister Lisa. However, Starr suspects that there is tension because Carlos acted as a father to her and Seven during the three years that Mav was in prison. As a result, Carlos got to experience a lot of firsts with Starr.

Starr wonders aloud if the police truly want justice in the case of Khalil’s murder. Her father tells her they need to wait and see.

The next morning, on Sunday, Starr goes with her parents to visit Ms. Rosalie, Khalil’s grandmother who took care of him and his younger brother since childhood. She supported Lisa when she was kicked out of the house for getting pregnant, and Starr spent much of her childhood at Rosalie’s house.

Brenda, Khalil’s mother, isn’t there. Starr sits with Rosalie, who is happy to see her. She also reveals that she knows Starr was with Khalil and saw him killed. She is happy at least that a friend was with him. Rosalie also tells Mav that Khalil wanted his help to get out of the drug dealing game. He knew that it would only lead to his arrest or his death.

On Monday, Starr gets ready to go back to school after Spring Break. She also plans to talk to the police in the afternoon. Though Starr would prefer to stay home, Lisa makes her go to school. She tells Starr that she can’t stop living, even though Khalil is no longer alive.

Once at school, Starr transforms herself into “Williamson Starr,” who is a different version of normal Starr in Garden Heights. Williamson Starr can’t do things like use slang or seem upset for fear of being stereotyped as “ghetto” or an angry girl. Her only act of individuality is that she always wears “dope” sneakers and a matching backpack.

Before school starts, she meets up with her friends and fellow basketball teammates in the cafeteria. Among these are Maya and Hailey, her two best friends. Maya, an Asian American girl, dates Ryan, the only other Black student in their grade. Hailey, who is white, is the self-appointed leader of the trio, and Starr admits that she often gives in to her.

As the group exchanges Spring Break stories, Starr feels uncomfortable. Her friends traveled to the Bahamas, Taipei, and Disney World. These are all impossible trips for Starr, whose family cannot afford to go on vacations like that. She hopes “none of them ask about my spring break. They went to Taipei, the Bahamas, Harry Potter World. I stayed in the hood and saw a cop kill my friend” (77).

Starr notices a coolness from Hailey, who has stopped texting her so frequently. Hailey also unfollowed Starr’s Tumblr account after she reposted pictures of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy beaten to death in 1955 for whistling at a white woman. Hailey was angry at Starr for sharing the images, not for what the images portrayed.

On her way to her first class, Starr sees Chris waiting for her. She is still mad at him, but she misses him. Maya and Hailey are protective, but Starr agrees to speak to him. She is upset because Chris tried to pressure her into having sex with him the day before Khalil died, even though she previously told him she wasn’t ready.

After apologizing again, Chris attempts to win Starr over by dancing and singing her the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which they both love. It starts to work; Starr has a good time. However, when Chris takes her hand, she suddenly has a flashback of Officer 115 shooting Khalil. She comes to the upsetting realization that Chris reminds her of the white police officer. As she cries, Maya and Hailey assume it is because of something Chris did.

After school, Seven picks up Starr and Sekani and takes them to the clinic where Lisa works. On the way, a police car pulls up behind them at a red light, making Seven and Starr nervous. However, it passes by without incident. They bring Chinese food with them to the clinic, and the family eats together in the break room.

However, they are interrupted by Brenda, Khalil’s mother, who enters crying about the death of her son. Lisa is sympathetic, but Starr is indignant because Brenda was never there for Khalil. Her drug addiction kept her from being a mother to him.

Lisa gets mad at Starr for mentioning this and yells at her that she has no right to judge, given that Brenda carried and gave birth to Khalil. When Starr brings Brenda some food, she looks at her, and “Khalil’s eyes stare back at me, and I realize my mom’s right. Ms. Brenda is Khalil’s momma. Regardless” (92).