Learning Resources Division: Freshman Book Series: 2019-2020: The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give

The Freshman book selected for the Class of 2023 is THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas.

Summary

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

** From Barnes and Noble

Themes

The book looks at the following themes:

Code-Switching, Dueling Identities, and Double-Consciousness
Identity and Blackness
Black Lives Matter
Racism and Police Brutality
Family, Community, Belonging, and Loyalty
The Power of Language
Hip Hop and Black Culture
Poverty and Crime Cycle
Injustice and Social Action

Author Information

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed.

She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Myers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. Her award-winning, acclaimed debut novel, The Hate U Give, is a #1 New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Fox 2000, starring Amandla Stenberg and directed by George Tillman, Jr. Her second novel, On the Come Up, is on sale now.

From AngieThomas.com

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Discussion Questions

The Hate U Give is a novel that provokes a lot of discussion about race, code-switching, among other topics. Here are a few discussion questions to get you started talking about the book.

Early in the book, Khalil and Starr listen to Tupac. Khalil explains what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. What does this acronym mean and how else does the author use hip-hop as a motif?
Throughout the book, Starr talks about the different versions of herself. This is called code-switching. Do you think Starr's code-switching is successful? Do you think it's necessary? If yes, why? Do other characters code-switch in the book? Why? What role does code-switching play in your life?
How does Starr define family? How do you define family?
Starr refers to police officer Brian Cruise as his badge number: One-Fifteen. Why do you think she does this? Does her attitude toward police officers change over the course of the book? How does her uncle play into this change?
Starr is in an interracial relationship with Chris. Do you think this complicates their romance or strengthen it? Why? What do you think happens to them after the book?
Starr says to Hailey, “You can say something racist and not be racist.” What do you think this means? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
After the jury decision about Khalil's death is made public, unrest begins. There is a long history of this happening in the United States. Why do you think this happens? Do you agree with Starr's actions? If you were in Starr's position what would you do? Why?
What is the “trap of the white standard” that Starr’s brother Seven mentions? Have you seen examples of this in real life? Explain.
Starr is questioned by police about details from Khalil's past. Why do the detectives do this? What is Starr's reaction?
Where do you see yourself in Starr or her life?
Starr states that she will “never be quiet." How can you take steps to use your voice to promote social justice?

*Questions adapted from BOOKRIOT.

You can find even more discussion questions in the links below.

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ISBN: 0807744492
Publication Date: 2004-05-26
This critical volume incorporates the experiences of African Americans into the discourse on moral-development theory and moral education. Featuring cutting-edge essays, this book challenges widely held beliefs and offers new perspectives on moral reasoning. Features: A framework for interpreting the psychology of moral formation among African-American children, adolescents, and adults. Practical, pedagogical perspectives on promoting care, justice, and moral formation in our schools, grounded in a multiracial understanding of moral education. Blends the separate literatures on African American education and on moral education. Investigates distinct moral dilemmas that face the African American community, such as closing the education achievement gap, affirmative action, and the failure of academic institutions to be responsive to the needs of African American children.
Racial Justice in the Age of Obama by Roy L. Brooks; Roy L. L. Brooks
ISBN: 1400831040
Publication Date: 2009-08-03
With the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States, the issue of racial justice in America occupies center stage. Have black Americans finally achieved racial justice? Is government intervention no longer required? Racial Justice in the Age of Obama considers contemporary civil rights questions and theories, and offers fresh insights and effective remedies for race issues in America today. While there are now unprecedented opportunities for talented African Americans, Roy Brooks shows that lingering deficiencies remain within the black community. Exploring solutions to these social ills, Brooks identifies competing civil rights theories and perspectives, organizing them into four distinct categories--traditionalism, reformism, limited separation, and critical race theory. After examining each approach, Brooks constructs the best civil rights theory for the Obama phase of the post-civil rights era. Brooks supports his theoretical model with strong statistics that break down the major racial groups along such demographics as income and education. He factors in the cultural and structural explanations for the nation's racial divisions, and he addresses affirmative action, the failures of integration, the negative aspects of black urban culture, and the black community's limited access to resources. The book focuses on African Americans, but its lessons are relevant for other groups, including Latinos, Asians, women, and gays and lesbians. Racial Justice in the Age of Obama maps out today's civil rights questions so that all groups can achieve equality at a time of unprecedented historical change.
Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies by Rima L. Vesely-Flad
ISBN: 1506420508
Publication Date: 2017-06-15
At the center of contemporary struggles over aggressive policing practices is an assumed association in U.S. culture of blackness with criminality. Rima L. Vesely-Flad examines the religious and philosophical constructs of the black body in U.S. society, examining racialized ideas about purity and pollution as they have developed historically and as they are institutionalized today in racially disproportionate policing and mass incarceration. These systems work, she argues, to keeps threatening elements of society in a constant state of harassment and tension so that they are unable to pollute the morals of mainstream society. Policing establishes racialized boundaries between communities deemed "dangerous" and communities deemed "pure" and, along with prisons and reentry policies, sequesters and restrains the pollution of convicted "criminals," thus perpetuating the image of the threatening black male criminal. Vesely-Flad shows how the anti-Stop and Frisk and the Black Lives Matter movements have confronted these systems by exposing unquestioned assumptions about blackness and criminality. They hold the potential, she argues, to reverse the construal of "pollution" and invasion in America's urban cores if they extend their challenge to mass imprisonment and the barriers to reentry of convicted felons.
Social Crisis and Social Demoralization by Ronald Kuykendall
ISBN: 1936900149
Publication Date: 2005-06-01
This alternative perspective on the problem of American race relations takes sharp aim at the issues of status, power, and political class. Arguing that the racial problem is a political class conflict that must be resolved through revolutionary struggle, this insightful exploration adeptly unravels the complex interrelationships of status, political repression, and social stratification involved in American race issues. As the social crisis of race relations threatens to boil over in 21st century America, the content of this book is a critical look at the roots of the "race problem" as a power dynamic and asks what solutions--if any--seem possible.
Stare In the Darkness by Lester K. Spence
ISBN: 0816676852
Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Critiquing the true impact of hip-hop culture on politics.
Talking about Structural Inequalities in Everyday Life by Ellen L. Short (Editor); Leo Wilton (Editor)
ISBN: 168123386X
Publication Date: 2016-01-27
The book, Talking About Structural Inequalities in Everyday Life: New Politics of Race in Groups, Organizations, and Social Systems, provides critical attention to contemporary, innovative, and cutting-edge issues in group, organizational, and social systems that address the complexities of racialized structural inequalities in everyday life. This book provides a comprehensive focus on systemic, societal, and organizational functioning in a variety of contexts in advancing the interdisciplinary fields of human development, psychology, counseling, social work, education, public health, multiculturalism/cultural studies, and organizational consultation. One of the most fundamental aspects of this book engages readers in the connection between theory and praxis that incorporates a critical analytic approach to learning and the practicality of knowledge. A critical emphasis examines how inequalities and power relations manifest in groups, organizations, communities, and social systems within societal contexts. In particular, suppressing talk about racialized structural inequalities in the dominant culture has traditionally worked to marginalize communities of color. The subtle, barely visible, and sometimes unspeakable behavioral practices involving these racialized dynamics are explored. This scholarly book provides a valuable collection of chapters for researchers, prevention experts, clinicians, and policy makers, as well as research organizations, not-for-profit organizations, clinical agencies, and advanced level undergraduate and graduate courses focused on human development, psychology, counseling, social work, education, public health, organizational consultation and advocacy.
They Can't Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery
ISBN: 9780316312479
Publication Date: 2016-11-15
A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it. Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today. In an effort to grasp the magnitude of the repose to Michael Brown's death and understand the scale of the problem police violence represents, Lowery speaks to Brown's family and the families of other victims other victims' families as well as local activists. By posing the question, "What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?" Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of racially biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs. Studded with moments of joy, and tragedy, They Can't Kill Us All offers a historically informed look at the standoff between the police and those they are sworn to protect, showing that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in the broader struggle for justice. As Lowery brings vividly to life, the protests against police killings are also about the black community's long history on the receiving end of perceived and actual acts of injustice and discrimination. They Can't Kill Us All grapples with a persistent if also largely unexamined aspect of the otherwise transformative presidency of Barack Obama: the failure to deliver tangible security and opportunity to those Americans most in need of both.
Thug Life by Michael P. Jeffries
ISBN: 0226395863
Publication Date: 2011-01-15
Hip-hop has come a long way from its origins in the Bronx in the 1970s, when rapping and DJing were just part of a lively, decidedly local scene that also venerated b-boying and graffiti. Now hip-hop is a global phenomenon and, in the United States, a massively successful corporate enterprise predominantly controlled and consumed by whites while the most prominent performers are black. How does this shift in racial dynamics affect our understanding of contemporary hip-hop, especially when the music perpetuates stereotypes of black men? Do black listeners interpret hip-hop differently from white fans? These questions have dogged hip-hop for decades, but unlike most pundits, Michael P. Jeffries finds answers by interviewing everyday people. Instead of turning to performers or media critics, " Thug Life" focuses on the musicOCOs fansOCoyoung men, both black and whiteOCoand the resulting account avoids romanticism, offering an unbiased examination of how hip-hop works in peopleOCOs daily lives. As Jeffries weaves the fansOCO voices together with his own sophisticated analysis, we are able to understand hip-hop as a tool listeners use to make sense of themselves and society as well as a rich, self-contained world containing politics and pleasure, virtue and vice."

Research Resources

You can further explore the events, themes, and ideas in The Hate U Give in these recommended library databases.

Bush Presidency and Development and Debate Over Civil Rights Policy and Legislation
Contains materials on civil rights, the development of civil rights policy, and the debate over civil rights legislation during the administration of President George H.W. Bush and during his tenure as vice president. Contents include memoranda, talking points, correspondence, legal briefs, transcripts, news summaries, draft legislation, statements of administration policy (SAP’s), case histories, legislative histories and news-clippings covering a broad range of civil rights issues.
Credo Reference
Credo is a vast, online reference library, providing access to the full text of hundreds of highly regarded and popular titles. Credo Reference contains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles.
Criminal Justice Database
A comprehensive database supporting research on crime, its causes and impacts, legal and social implications, as well as litigation and crime trends. As well as U.S. and international scholarly journals, it includes correctional and law enforcement trade publications, dissertations, crime reports, crime blogs and other material relevant for researchers or those preparing for careers in criminal justice, law enforcement and related fields.
JSTOR
Digitized back issues of scholarly journals with a rolling date of five years ago. Covers a wide variety of disciplines. Includes JSTOR Arts and Sciences I, II, III, IV, V, VII, X. Also includes e-books.
Linguistics Database
This database includes full-text journals and other sources in linguistics. It covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.
Literature Resource Center
Now included in Gale Literature. Literature criticism, biographies, work and topic overviews, reviews, and full text of many literary works—all searchable at the same time and returned in lists organized according to the type of research needs they serve.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts
The NCJRS Abstracts Database contains summaries of the more than 200,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources housed in the NCJRS Library collection.
Opposing Viewpoints In Context
The premier online resource covering today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.

Instructor Resources

The ideas in the tabs above act as prompts to help you develop discussions, projects, or assignments related to The Hate U Give. They offer suggestions for ideas to include in your class or on your syllabus.

The downloadable file below includes additional resources and project ideas.

The Hate U Give Ideas
This downloadable file is from the Anti-Defamation League's Book of the Month.

Here are some tips to leading a successful book discussion:

Before the Discussion

Read the book completely and take notes about the themes, motifs, and topics. Write down important page numbers and highlight important passages.
Come up with eight to ten questions about the book. You can also see a list of discussion questions for this title here.

During the Discussion

Ask your question and let others answer first.
Make connections between comments.
Ask follow-up questions.
Bring the conversation back to the discussion if people go off on tangents.
Don't feel obligated to ask all your questions.
Don't end a conversation if people are on-topic and really enjoying what they are sharing.
Wrap up the discussion by highlighting key points.
Thank the participants.

Discussion Questions

The following may be used as project prompts for The Hate U Give:

Create a vision board or collage of their different identities.
Write and/or record their own song related to the themes in the book.
Find video clips showing different perspectives on how uprisings/riots are portrayed in the media.
Create a protest sign using a theme from the book.

The following may be used as writing prompts for The Hate U Give:

What role does the media play in the book? Compare that to the role media plays in covering issues like social justice, police violence, and the portrayal of black Americans.
What is code-switching? What role does it play in the book and in your personal life?
Discuss the similarities and differences between Starr's two identities - Garden Heights and Williamson.
Describe a time when you had to stand up for what was right. How did you feel? What made you do it? What was the outcome?
Is violence in the pursuit of justice ever justified? Why or why not?
What role does history have on how communities view racial injustice and/or police brutality?
Describe a situation where someone verbally told you that you were "acting white," or "acting black." How did this make you feel? Was this comment perceived as racist?
What role does this book play in the Black Lives Matter movement?
How does Starr react to Khalil's death? What role does her family and community play?
What insights does this novel generate concerning the national debate over police brutality and racial profiling? Does it open new perspectives or explain any inconsistencies?

Black Lives Matter At School is a national coalition organizing for racial justice in education. Their website offers information about the movement as well as material for classroom support. You can visit the website here.

The website also has a Google Drive of material that is available here.

Freshman Book Series