Stereotypes In The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas

The Britannica Dictionary describes stereotypes as “often unfair and untrue beliefs that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.” Furthermore, stereotypes not only label people but also strengthen harmful biases, making it difficult for people to appreciate people's differences as well as restricting others' opportunities. This leads to the question, why are stereotypes harmful to a community? There are many answers to this question however, stereotypes are the most harmful obstacle to a community because they establish false standards and unfairly limit opportunities for others. Stereotypes are the most harmful obstacle because it establishes false standards in someone’s idea of another person. In the book The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, the author shows a dialogue among the characters that explain the circumstances of Khalil's tragic death. “‘That's the so-called gun,’ Ms. Ofrah explains. ‘Officer Cruise claims he saw it in the car door, and he assumed Khalil was reaching for it. The handle was thick enough, black enough, for him to assume it was

A hairbrush. Khalil died over a fucking hairbrush.” This shows why stereotypes are harmful because a person was shot and killed because of the assumption that the suspect had a gun since he was black. Another piece of evidence from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is when the main character is struggling with her code-switching: “I can use some slang, but not too much slang, some attitude but not too much, so I'm not the ‘Sassy black girl.’ I have to watch what I say but not too ‘white.’” The main character is afraid of being stereotyped so she carefully plans out her words to fit into their standards. One can see from these two pieces of evidence that stereotypes are very harmful and it places standards that usually are false. Furthermore, stereotypes make others assume things about a person and it will affect people in their daily