Teenagers In The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas

Young adult literature such as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, emphasizes teenagers using both their actions and their voices to overcome false accusations from both the media and negative perceptions. Racial inequality and police brutality are discussed greatly throughout The Hate U Give, due to the difficulties the protagonist, Starr Carter, endures when her best friend, Khalil, is killed because of the assumptions made by a police officer who categorized him as being a threat since his skin color was black. Starr receives the confidence in speaking out against what the media had broadcasted in response to Khalil’s murder by overcoming obstacles that revolve around her race and the environment she was raised in. Uniquely, the author, Laura

Starr Carter struggled with her race because of the already formed stereotypes made and the environment she resides in. Starr had constantly tried to use her voice in expressing the truths that occurred the night of her best friend's murder. The situation involving the murder of Khalil had related to the already formed judgements that had been utilized to justify the death of the black teenager. Following the murder of Khalil, Starr undergoes a period where she is unable to wrap her own feelings around the rash judgments that had been made on behalf of the officer who had shot her best friend Khalil, who was an unarmed African American teenager. The media depicts the murder of Khalil solely on his background and not in relation to his innocence of being a black adolescent. The racial profiling that had occurred the night of the murder indicates the way the media triggers this mentality of condoning the rash judgements and portraying the police officer of being right for mistakenly assuming that the hairbrush Khalil had was a weapon and justifying the amount of shots the officer made against the teen. The media presented his race and the environment Khalil had resided in to being the reasons behind the actions

Indirect actions such as dedicating a Tumblr account for those who have lost their lives reaches a wider group of individuals who live off of social media. Creating pages that dedicate themselves to important matters such as for the Black Lives Matter movement, bring about more awareness for those who endure these problems in other parts of the world. Bringing about more awareness alludes to Robinson’s description of “...Adolescent fiction shows that teens have the ability to affect their surroundings; the characters are, literally, role models, both for other characters within the world of their novel and, potentially, for the reader”[Robinson, 214]. Social media has allowed adolescents to shine light on these injustices. These social media accounts open viewers’ eyes to the racial inequalities that African Americans face in relation to police brutality. The amount of innocent lives that have been lost due to the prejudices that these minorities experienced have caused uprisings in the forms of both protests and riots. The protests that had uprooted in The Hate U Give, revealed a revolutionizing sign against the cruelties that these minorities have been enduring for a long time. Those who cannot participate in these protests and riots, takes a stand and attempts to initiate some change through posting and