Racial Injustice in The Hate U Give

Racial injustice is common in the modern-day world, it mostly happens to people of colour. Its when someone gets mistreated or discriminated because of their race. The book The Hate U Give is written by the author Angie Thomas. In this book, the main character, Starr is trying to get her best friend, Khalil justice after officer One-Fifteen murders him, however she is also dealing with her two personas. Starr faces n situations when she is playing basketball with Hailey and Maya and when she has the meeting with the two detectives. Two other people that are facing racial injustice are Maverick and Khalil. Maverick is facing racial injustice when cops are pushing him down to the floor to check his ID. While Khalil is facing racial injustice because he got shot by an officer and he isn’t getting justice. Starr is playing Basketball with Hailey and Maya. Hailey makes a racist comment that offends Starr, instead of helping Starr, Hailey makes herself look like the victim. The detectives are not giving Starr or Khalil justice because they keep making it seem like its Khalil’s fault, he’s dead.

Starr is facing racial injustice; Starr is trying to get justice for Khalil, but the police are not on the same page as her because of her race. When Starr has the meeting with the detectives, they made it look like Khalil was at fault. “Yes, ma’am. He pulled him out. Because he was hesitant right?”. (Thomas 99) Detective Gomez makes it sound like Khalil is the reason he was harassed and ultimately killed, by making it sound like he was hesitant around the same quote she asks if Khalil was a drug dealer or if he was in a gang, this makes Khalil look like he is the reason for his own death. In addition, Starr also faces more racial injustice when Hailey makes a racist comment about her when they were playing basketball. “Hustle! Pretend the ball is some fried chicken. Bet you’ll stay on it then.” (Thomas 111). Starr is really upset about this because it is a stereotype that Hailey used against Starr. Joke or not, Starr didn’t think this was right, so she gets mad at Hailey and their friendship goes downhill from there. Moreover, Starr once again Starr faces racial injustice, the Grand Jury made his decision and officer One-Fifteen will not be punished for what he did. “If you’re just tuning in, the grand jury has decided not to indict Officer Brian Cruise Jr. in the death of Khalil Harris.” (Thomas 387). This shows racial injustice because Officer One-fifteen did not get punished because Starr is black, and they didn’t take her seriously enough because of that. Starr, Seven, Chris and DeVante got upset at this and they joined a riot nearby to show their anger. Starr is facing racial injustice again; she is at Maya’s house and she gets into an argument with Hailey she brings up how Hailey unfollowed Starr’s Tumblr account because she posted about a black guy named Emmett Till. “No. all the ‘black stuff,’ she called it.” (Thomas 250). This quote is taking place after Hailey and Starr have an argument at Maya’s house. After Hailey leaves, Maya tells Starr why Hailey unfollowed Starr’s Tumblr account, this shows Racial injustice towards Starr as well as all the black people on her Tumblr because Hailey is indirectly shading black people. In conclusion, I think that Starr faces lots of racial injustice, but it has been overlooked because Khalil is the one that died and not her, however, she is not the only one that faces racial injustice its her father and Khalil too.

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Maverick faced racial injustice when the cops put him on the floor, this happened because Maverick is black and the cops put him on the floor aggressively, Khalil also faces racial injustice when Officer One-fifteen shoots him because he got scared and though he was going to shoot him because Khalil was black, and lastly when Hailey tells Starr Khalil was going to end up dead anyways because he was a drug dealer and a gangbanger…or at least that what she assumed because Khalil was black. Furthermore, when Maverick was telling Mr. Lewis to be careful of what he says, things got heated and Maverick started yelling at Mr. Lewis, the cops then came in and put Maverick on the ground. “The black officer looks at him. Get on the ground, hands behind your back.” (Thomas 193). The officer commands Maverick to get down on the ground. On the same page it says that the camera should be there because Maverick is being put on the ground because he is black. Moreover, Khalil is facing racial injustice when officer one-fifteen shoots Khalil because he is black, and the officer thought Khalil was going to shoot him. “‘You okay Starr—’ Pow!” (Thomas 23). This quote shows that officer one-fifteen has killed Khalil when all he was really doing was making sure Starr was okay. Later on, in the book, Officer Brian Cruise’s father reveals that officer one-fifteen was scared that Khalil was going to shoot him, this shows racial injustice because the officer thought that Khalil was in a gang and got scared of him and shot Khalil. Once again, Khalil was the subject of racial injustice; when Hailey sees Starr in the hallway, she starts talking about how Khalil deserved to die because she assumed, he was a gangbanger and a drug dealer because he was black. “The cop probably did everyone a favour. One less drug dealer on the— “This quote shows that Hailey is assuming that Khalil was a drug dealer because he was black. Not only that but she also said he deserved to die because of it which shows a lot of racial injustice because she has indicated that a person deserved to die because they were black. To conclude the paragraph, I think that Maverick and Khalil had gone through racial injustice because of cops not treating them right or someone saying that Khalil deserved to die because they assumed, he was a drug dealer because he was black.

In conclusion, the book The Hate You Give in my opinion is based heavily off racial injustice because of everything that happens in the book, from Khalil getting shot by an officer because he was black to Maverick being put on the ground because of the police. I think that Starr, Maverick and Khalil all go through a lot of racial injustice because Starr is not getting a result she deserves from the Grand Jury because she is black, Maverick was put on the ground because he was black, Hailey said that Khalil deserved to die because she thought he was a drug dealer when he wasn’t. On this note, I want to give my own opinion on racial injustice. I think racial injustice is a very ignorant and cruel thing that unfortunately exists in todays world. With this being said I think if we all act, we can decrease if not end racial injustice throughout the world.

Works Cited

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