Angie Thomas does not want to be silent anymore. With her shocking yet remarkable debut novel she is making everyone speak. Is racism deeply-rooted in our society? How does one day look like in the life of a black girl living in the US? Starr Carter has not had a joyful American childhood like you see on TV. Watching her dad go to prison and her best friend Natasha get shot at a playground at the age of 10, from an early age she learned how to behave in front of cops. "Put your hands on a visible place, never in your pocekts, always say sir or ma'am, be direct and always look them in the eyes", her dad taught her. Driving with her long-time friend Khalil, a police officer pulls them over and she rememebers what her dad said to her. His car registration and driver's license are okay and everything seems going well until the police officer shoots Khalil for mistaking his hairbrush as a gun. Starr never thought she would witness death of a friend in front of her eyes again. Natasha. Now Khalil. When is the pain, suffering and dying ever going to stop? When will the whole world stop seeing black people as some kind of threat? Devastated by recent circumstances, going back to school seems even harder. Starr is dating a white boy who knows nothing of her struggles and traumatic past. Her best friend Hailey stopped being close with her because she showed support for black activism. At Williamson High, Starr cannot be the girl from Garden Heights aka the hood. She cannot use slangs, rap or show anger because she would be labeled as the angry black girl everyone expects her to be. The days passed but the pain caused by Khalil's death only grew. Should she stand up for him or remain silent? With the support of her family, Starr chooses to raise her voice and stop the police brutality on innocent black men. Little did she know she would gain support across whole America. Justice for Khalil has grown into a national movement, a case taken to the Grand Jury. TV shows wanted to interview her and all it took was one little mistake. Starr dry snitched on the King Lords. King Lords are gangbusters, drug dealers and they practicaly own Garden Heights. No one messes with them, anyone who stands up against them disappears into thin air. How could she bring her family and friends in such danger? Everyone losses it when the Grand Jury declared Khalil's death as a mistake. "The police officer just tried to defend himself from a potentional drug dealer". Garden Heights collapses into ruins. Starr, Chris and her brothers get caught in an arson attack on their dad's grocery store. Escaping death by an inch, she realizes that life is precious and that Khalil's death was not for nothing. He inspired a generation of change makers and fighters who will put an end to police brutality on innocent black men. The game has just begun. THUG LIFE. The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. Reading this book made me aware of the fact how it is to grow up black nowdays. Living in constant fear and pain is something no one should ever be exposed to. The things Starr witnessed may seem unreal to you but are they in fact? All we see on TV is the picture-perfect America, claiming to be a democratic country. Can we speak about democracy when innocent people are threatened and experiencing brutality because of their skin color? No. "The Hate U Give" is inspiring individuals just like me to take a stand and fight for what is right. I loved this book from the beginning because it shows the real picture of black people struggling to survive and escape a toxic community. It really teaches you how to view the world differently, how to be emphatic and not judge a book by its cover. The picture of black people being drug dealers is deeply-rooted in our society. The government is imprisoning innocent black men, not giving them jobs or health care later and what are they supposed to do? That was their only option. People got to survive somehow. But not everyone chooses such a path and that does not make it okay for you to judge anyone. Racist, misogynist and sexist prejudices were never okay or ever will be. Start being open minded, emphatic and make the world better by your example. More about Angie Thomas:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15049422.Angie_Thomas Watch the movie "The Hate U Give":http://sockshare.net/watch/PGpRrbv3-the-hate-u-give.html Order the book from Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Hate-U-Give-Angie-Thomas/dp/0062498533
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