I wanted to wait a while before I wrote my first “controversial” post, but when I found out that one of my favorite books of 2017, The Hate U Give was banned by a school district in Texas, I threw my doubts and worries out the window and began writing. The story deals with the main character Starr, witnessing her childhood friend Khalil, an unarmed black youth being shot by a white police officer. Starr lives in the fictional city of Garden Heights, but she goes to a prep school in a more affluent, white neighborhood. We follow her story as she struggles internally while she’s dealing with Khalil’s death. In her neighborhood, the community is obviously outraged with the death of Khalil, while at her school, Starr constantly hears what Khalil should or shouldn’t have done to avoid getting shot. The Katy Independent School District, where only 11 percent of the students are African American, says that the book was banned in school libraries for its vulgar language, but I’m calling BS.
Before I started to pursue writing full-time, I was a high school English teacher, and “vulgar language” in a book should be the last thing that a school district should worry about. The characters in The Hate U Give are in high school, and the way they speak in the book mirrors how 21st century high school students speak. And there are young adults all over this country that are dealing with the same issues as Starr and the kids in Garden Heights. Like many other books that have been banned over the years, The Hate U Give is about something that is not only a sensitive subject but is incredibly relevant: police brutality, systemic racism, and microaggressions. All of which are difficult to talk about, and depending on who you’re speaking to about these topics, could cause an argument. And there are still people out there that believe that if you speak out against police brutality, then you are anti-cop, if you say "Black Lives Matter" then you obviously don't care about anyone else; even though we've said time and time again that that is a terrible misconception and you're missing the point completely, but deaf ears, right? So, I'll say it one more time for you: just because you speak out against police brutality DOES NOT mean you are anti-cop, because, just like everything else, there is good and bad to everything. Just because we say "Black Lives Matter" that DOES NOT mean we don't care about anyone else, it's the fact that black bodies have meant nothing to this country for a very long time. You don't burst into a breast cancer walk and scream out "All cancers matter" do you? But let's be honest, if you're one of those people that don't believe that police brutality exists, what I just said went in one ear and out the other.
And I personally feel that that is the reason that the school district decided to ban the book. Now, like I said, I taught high school and was asked several times by students if we could read this book in class. Do you know how hard it is to get teenagers interested in reading something for class? Let alone having them suggest the book? I would have said yes in a heartbeat, because this is one of the most important novels for young adults and adults to read, even though some adults tend to be a little more closed minded than others`. Just like Angie Thomas put on her twitter, the Katy School District is silencing the voices of Garden Heights. Though the town is fictional, their experiences are far from it, with communities all over the country that know exactly what Starr and the other residents of Garden Heights are going through. When I first read the book, I had to take a break from reading it for a few days, as it was that emotionally heavy for me. And when I finally finished it, I cried for a good while. In the back of my head, I thought about my dad, my brother, my friends, who at any point of any day could be in the same exact position as Khalil. And if, God forbid, that ever happened, how the media and how people who turn a blind eye to police brutality would skew their image to justify why something like that would happen to them. I saw myself in Starr.
The Hate U Give has to be one of the best books of 2017, yes, that is my opinion, but the countless awards that author Angie Thomas has received for her debut novel don’t seem to be disagreeing with me. The Hate U Give spells out the word “thug” and is taken from Tupac Shakur’s THUG LIFE, “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” I'll post a video clip of Angie Thomas herself discussing how Tupac inspired the title of her novel at the bottom of the article. While I get that parents want to protect their kids from everything, it doesn't sit well with me that the language in the book is more important and worrisome than the topic of innocent, unarmed people dying at the hands of those who are supposed to be protecting us.
