This past weekend I read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. A popular YA novel in its own right, it is also now a major motion picture. But before you decide to write it off as just another dystopian novel that got turned into a movie, I suggest you actually read the story (heck, I'll accept reading the synopsis on Amazon.com or listening to a family member or friend describe the plot to you).
First of all, this book is only as dystopian as our current society here in the United States of America. Now, for those of you who still think our country is the absolute greatest in the world, we're still living in a pretty dang dystopian society. And from my perspective, it's been getting worse for a number of years. But back to the novel. The gist of the novel, for those of you who didn't go and read the synopsis, is that it is the story of a black, teenage girl who witnessed one of her best friends getting shot by a police officer at a traffic stop. The boy who was shot was black. He was unarmed. He was not making any threatening moves to the police officer. That isn't a spoiler, by the way, because it all happens in the first few chapters. The rest of the book details the weeks that follow. Starr, the main character, has to navigate talking to the police after the "incident", dealing with gang activity in her neighborhood, trying to stay afloat in a private school where she is one of three black students, and deciding whether she should talk to the media about her, and her deceased friend's, side of the story. It is a commentary on racial tensions in the U.S.A. and the unacknowledged racism that is shoved down our throats every single day until it seems natural rather than learned. It is depressing, rage-inducing, and a book I think everyone should read (but especially white people, because we need to get our ish together). What I want to focus on today, though, is not how well-written and timely this book is. I'm not going to discuss anything related to a reference interview; sometimes I will, but not today. Today, I want to talk about a very specific sub-plot in the book between Starr and a classmate she used to think was a good friend, Hailey. Hailey has...issues. Hailey is, I think, what many white people are when they think they are being "good" but missing the point entirely. Now, Hailey says some very racist things throughout the course of the book. But when she's called out on it by Starr and others, she responds with an outraged, "I can't believe you're calling me racist!" Do you see the problem? It's not just in books. See, racism is systemic violence, and it is pretty much baked into every single day of our lives. Unfortunately, racism is framed as a personal failing of the individuals of our society. So rather than white people recognizing that something they said/did was racist and taking the necessary steps to stop saying/doing that racist thing, white people respond defensively and try to use logic to worm their way out of responsibility. This actually makes the whole situation worse, because the person who was the object of the words/act now has additional violence heaped on them because they are being told that their feelings do not matter, only white people's feelings matter. This is a subtle violence against minorities in some ways. It isn't something that is easily called out. After all, if all a white person has to do is say "But I'm not racist" to get out of taking responsibility, then what is the point of a minority even saying something? We even saw this issue in the recent congressional testimony of Michael Cohen (Lind, 2019), where a mention of a racist act by President Trump was conflated to be an accusation of racism. Regardless of your opinions about whether President Trump is or isn't racist (we're not going to get into it here), the pattern is the same. Rather than a discussion about how a white person could take responsibility for doing something racist and then make efforts to not do it again, it became a back and forth argument about how you shouldn't call someone racist. First, if someone is racist you should call them out on it. Second, that ignores the fact that racism is not a personal failing but a systemic problem. The Hate U Give gives us white people insight into how anyone can say/do something racist. It isn't the main point of the book, and is in fact a very small subplot, but I think it is just as important and ties into the broader theme. For example, characters in the book say that the cop who shot the black teenager wasn't racist, he was a nice guy, his life has been torn apart by this too. But why did he stop the kids in the first place? They weren't speeding. All that was wrong was a broken tail-light. How can that turn into a shooting? Because we are all trained to be racist by our society. And it is an active fight not to be. And even when you're fighting it, you can still do something racist. You can still say something racist. But what needs to happen then is not to get defensive about being a good person and not being racist. It is to accept that what you did was wrong and then take steps to make it better. And once you've done that, don't do it again. It isn't something you can say sorry for and then repeat. This is a longer post then I meant it to be, but I think that's what is so great about the book. The Hate U Give made me think, and it made me focus on things that I do and that I see others doing. It has given me a better awareness of my own prejudices, and I hope it has given me even greater motivation to watch what I say and do. The Hate U Give shows us some of the issues in our society in a well-written and accessible novel. I encourage everyone to read it and find their own lessons in its pages (it's also on audiobook *wink*). Happy Reading! References: Lind D. (2019).This Cohen hearing fight was everything wrong with how America talks about “racism”: An argument about whether Trump is “a racist” became a heated fight between House Democrats and Republicans. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/27/18243173/cohen-hearing-trump-racist-comments Thomas, A. (2017). The hate u give.
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AuthorThe author is a librarian who reads "too much" (is there such a thing?) and talks just as much. As an aspiring author she gets bogged down by grammar rules when she just wants to forget them to make a sentence flow, but never seems to be able to. She appreciates thoughtful comments and constructive criticism, but internet trolls beware, she's read enough fantasy novels to know how to defeat the monsters. Archives
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