Hills Without Names 

"The Hate U Give" is based on the best-selling novel by Angie Thomas. The film and novel finds it’s roots in a maxim of the late recording artist, Tupac Shakur. According to Shakur, THUG LIFE was actually an acronym standing for ‘The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone’.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) has trouble separating her predominately Black community of Garden Heights and her predominately white school, Williamson Prep. Starr often feels torn between the two worlds. Starr frequently changes up her pattern of speech, and behavior patterns to blend in with the appropriate environment. After the shooting and death of her childhood friend Khalil (a Black male) at the hands of a white cop, Starr is hesitant to open up about the murder — afraid that her white friends, Hailey(Sabrina Carpenter) and Maya, and white boyfriend, Chris, are not going to empathize with issues that affect the black community such as this one. Starr believes that she is too much of an outsider to discuss the tragedy with her school peers, as well as within her community.

Personally, the film stole my heart upon a single viewing. It is a poignant, strongly written narrative I can identify with, and as far as I know — this is the first motion picture the country has seen of this caliber since 1991’s fan favorite “Boyz n the Hood” directed by the late John Singleton. This film isn’t one told from a shallow perspective; I feel that Angie Thomas, the creator of the novel on which the film is based comprehends the baffling actuality that resolving many of the world’s horrific issues wouldn’t be an easy task. The psyches of non-minority individuals who aren’t being influenced would definitely take more time to understand it.