“The Hate U Give” – an important life lesson

 

 
I stumbled upon this movie in high school and couldn't get it out of my head ever since, that´s why I´d like to introduce it here. In my opinion this movie points out some issues in our society we may not even be aware of.

Some of the main topics this drama talks about are: gun violence, police brutality and social inequality. The title itself was inspired by the rapper Tupac, he has a tattoo that says ‘THUG LIFE’. This term is often misinterpreted. While many people think it´s a criminal expression, Tupac says that it´s actually an acronym for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody”. What does it mean? “Children are the future, and so filling children´s minds with hate, raising them in an oppressive political system, and asking them to accept horrendous things like racism, sexism, and police brutality, has a snowball effect, which eventually destroys life for everyone, even the oppressors.” - Tupac

 

What is the movie about?

The movie is about a 16-year-old girl called Starr who is caught up between two extremely different worlds. On one hand she lives in poor, black neighborhood with her parents and two brothers, on the other hand she attends a school outside her community where only rich and white people go to. It´s everything but easy for her to keep the balance, but she holds up with it, until one incident changes everything. She witnesses how her childhood best friend gets shoot by a white police officer right in front of her eyes. Obviously she's traumatized and doesn't want people to know she´s been a witness, but she somehow finds the courage to reveal herself and decides to make a statement in front of the grand jury, who try to sweep the events under the rugs. Starr doesn't accept that and sees it as an additional incentive - she´s more determined than ever to fight for justice.

 

When ‘THUG LIFE’ suddenly hits:

A very crucial scene from the movie is definitely one of the last scenes. At this point the movie reaches his climax and all the attention goes to Starr´s little brother Sekani. The 8-year-old boy maintains his innocence throughout the whole story even though hate, violence and injustice surround him. While everyone gets fooled by thinking this little boy has no clue of what´s going on anyway, he secretly takes his dad´s gun and points it at the drug lord of the neighborhood who´s fighting with his dad.
The fighting stops, all eyes are on Sekani and realization suddenly hits them all: they were thinking he is too young to understand what´s happening, didn't think it would affect him in any way, but they were wrong.
What follows are close-ups of all people watching this scene with shocking expressions painted all over their faces while you can hear Starr´s monologue: “Look at Sekani, he is the little infant, the result of hate, and he is about to f*** everybody. It´s not the hate you give, it´s the hate we give. But we can break the cycle.”

 

Why is “The Hate U Give” a good movie?

The topics in this movie were not just pointing out issues back in 2017/18 when the movie was released, they stayed relevant up to now and became more prominent again through the death of George Floyd. Issues such as racism and police brutality regained importance and triggered a worldwide wave of protest.
In any case you can say that the story-line is very good and the actors bring the characters of the movie to live. They´re doing an excellent job and are able to capture the viewers’ attention, draw them into the story and take them on a roller-coaster ride of emotions. The audience experiences sadness, anger, bewilderment and finally relieve.

The movie clearly showed that people of color have less ‘rights’ and are treated differently than white people. The movie pictures black people as dangerous and criminal, many of the characters in the poor neighborhood deal with drugs. They fear the police, because they know the officers won´t have as much mercy with them as they have with white people. Starr´s father even teaches his children all the rights black people have. They have to know them by heart and follow them strictly in order to “to survive”. What´s even more sad is that things like these do not just occur in the movie, but are reality. The movie intents to raise more awareness of the situation, the problems that especially people of color are facing in their lives. The film wants to draw attention to social, political and economic injustice and it appeals that a change is urgently needed in order to break this “cycle”.
The movie is guaranteed to be stuck in your head once you watch it. It makes you start thinking and reflecting on your own behavior. In my opinion that´s exactly what a good movie should be about -  you watch, you realize, you learn and eventually start acting.

 

Written by Anna Pescoller