Hi everyone! My name is Kiandria and I’m interning for JeannePorterKing.com for the summer. I’ve been writing for this blog in the Anti-racism series, with the help of Kristen Cowart who served as editor. Now I’ll be editing and managing the blog. This week, I am introducing my cousin Taylor Porter. Taylor is an upcoming junior at Columbus School for Girls in Bexley, Ohio and is on the school volleyball team as an outside hitter! She is a member of the Beauty of African American Culture (BAAC) club and her favorite class is History. Below she shares her thoughts and ideas on the award winning book and film The Hate U Give.

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After reading and watching The Hate U Give, I feel that I understood what the author, Angie Thomas, was trying to display. The words and phrases she uses in this book include many relevant topics like assimilation, police brutality and the other important  racial inequalities. The book and movie follow Starr as she lives what seems to be a double life, having to switch between her mostly Black neighborhood and predominantly white rich private high school. At times she often finds it difficult to be herself and because of this, she creates another version of herself which she calls Starr 2.0.

This version of herself is for when she’s at school since she often feels the need  to change her personality and how she behaves. Some of the changes Starr would have to make is deciding what words to use to not sound “ghetto”, since she feels that she has to articulate and pronounce her words clearly. Starr also has to decide when to have an attitude because as we all might know having too much attitude can refer you as the “sassy Black girl” 

I feel that I relate to Starr the most because I too am a Black girl that goes to a mostly white school. And because of this, I tend to change parts of myself depending on what is going on around me. There are times where I censor what I say and do depending on the situations or places I’m in . Around my family and friends from outside of school , or even my Black friends at school, I can sound  and act more myself, just letting my hair down. But when I’m at school, I too many times am careful about my actions and words, not wanting certain labels.  The only time I have to actually be myself in school is when I’m with people that can relate to what I’m talking about and those people are my Black friends there or the Beauty of African American Culture Club  (BAAC).

I felt that the movie did a great job of showing the struggle of being Black in America today. There are a lot of struggles we have to overcome but the author mainly focuses on racism, the police, and the justice system.  The storyline Angie Thomas used is two Black teens getting  pulled over by the police for no reason other than their skin color. The result being  one of the Black teens (Khalil)  being shot and killed  because the police officer “thought” he was going to draw a weapon when instead it was a hairbrush.  He was asked to step out of his car and complied, but still he was wrongfully shot to death. This amplified the senseless and unnecessary murders of Black people that are happening in real life, the issues that are still continuing right now.

The Hate U Give was written in 2017, produced in 2019, and a year later it still is extremely relevant. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, and Sandra Bland, are just some of the many lives lost due to the ignorance and racism in the police system. I hope that in the future there will be a change–there has to be. I hope there comes a time where we as Black people do not have to fear for our lives just because of the color of our skin. Therefore when people say “All Lives Matter”, my hope is that they include Black lives; because until Black lives are included, how can all  lives truly matter?