Amandla Stenberg stars in The Hate U Give. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore.
By Autumn Matthews
When I saw the first trailer for The Hate U Give I knew that I had to go see this movie the day it came out. While watching it I ended up crying in some parts and laughing during other parts but mostly I loved the message that the movie gave about standing up for what you believe in.
I must admit, however, that I cried a lot more than I laughed especially when the protagonist, Starr, witnessed her childhood best friend, Khalil, die right in front of her after being shot by a white police officer. This specific scene made me put myself into Starr’s shoes as I also have a guy best friend and I cannot imagine losing him the way Starr lost Khalil. No one would ever want to experience what Starr went through in this movie.
Throughout the movie Starr reminded me so much of myself. She lived in two different worlds as the Starr from Garden Heights and the Starr from Williamson, an all-white high school. It is like she has to be two different people, at home she has to try to fit in but at school she does not have to fit in because the kids already see her as cool since she is the only black kid at her school.
In the beginning of the movie Starr struggled with being a part of two different world but this one tragedy of losing her best friend changes her. She learns to be the best Starr she can be and learns to stand up for what she believes in, which means standing up for Khalil and following the morals that her father taught her and her two other siblings during their upbringing in the Garden Heights neighborhood.
This movie was absolutely amazing because it helped me learn a lot about how tragedy can really change a person and their perspectives. The The Hate U Give taught me to not allow anyone to tell me what I can and cannot do and to always stand up for what you believe in even if others think that it is a “bad” idea or you know a lot of people will not agree with you.
Overall The Hate U Give is the kind of movie you would want to watch more than one time and a film that I encourage everyone to go see.
