The Hate You Give, directed by George Tillman

The Hate You Give, directed by George Tillman

The Hate You Give, directed by George Tillman Jr., explores issues of racism and social injustice. The title of the film aligns with late rapper Tupac Shakur’s saying, “Thug Life stands for The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. Like in Jasper Jones, it is a story of a young black girl in a mainly white American society. The racial issues that the film explores include police brutality and the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Hate U Give looks inward and concentrates on the corrosive nature of hatred, no matter how understandable its origins are. Like Charlie and Jasper in “Jasper Jones,” Starr does not know if she should speak about the incidence she witnesses the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black teenager by a white police officer (Tillman 27:37). She is afraid of her safety and reputation at school. Unlike in “Jasper Jones” where the Vietnam War influenced prejudice against Vietnamese, prejudice against African American dates back to 18th-century slavery and has been perpetuated throughout generations. The scene where Starr discusses police protocol with her uncle Carlos stands out as the painful reminder of discrimination against Black people. Starr asks Carlos, who is also a police officer, how the world could defend a cop who kills a young Black man in cold blood, whereas the same cop would first give a warning if the young Black Man were indeed White (Tillman 1:35:56). The percentage of incarcerated African Americans reflects discrimination in justice. The number of incarcerated African Americans exceeds that of whites despite being the minority population. The film shows that despite the prejudice, there are continued efforts to address the issue; for example, the Black Lives Matter Movement.