The Hate U Give Fourth Post (Finish the Book)
Starr pledges to "never be quiet" (Chapter 26, p. 444). After reading this book, how can you use your voice to promote and advance social justice? Reflect on how you and your community discuss and address inequality. Please make sure that your comment is at least 200 words.
(Questions issued by publishers.)
(Questions issued by publishers.)
What I can do to use my voice for good, is to participate in movements, and marches that I believe in. Some people believe that you don’t have any power, but using your voice is power. Many people use their voice to gain power everyday, and not just for race equality for lots of other types of equality too. At our school we are lucky, because we openly talk about forms of equality. We have a gender equality club were we talk about the equality of genders, a GSA were we talk about the equality of sexualities, we have open talks about racism, and pretty much anything else that’s going on. Our community tends to communicate about all things to do with equality, but I haven’t been around for any problems having to do with it. I would assume that if we had any problems as severe as in the book, we would call a town meeting. Our town tends to be supportive of both minorities and majorities. When it comes to inequality normally happens on a smaller scale in our communities. Where kids make fun of other kids for sexuality, race, gender, or anything else. That happens at a lot of schools around the world, and it’s not right, but it’s still common.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you feel that our town tends to be supportive. I think our school tends to be better, too, but I hope that it's true and not just my opinion.
DeleteWhen Starr says, "never be quiet", she is referring to speaking out about Khalil. She has had enough of sitting back and watching injustice unfold before her eyes. She doesn't want to hide the fact that she was the witness to his murder. She wants to speak out and eliminate injustice from her community. People need to speak out against real issues in our society. People should join marches and movements to gain awareness for an injustice. Personally I am not part of any movements, nor have I ever joined in on marches. I talk to my parents about real life issues and we have often have informal discussions. My community does not often talk about injustices or issues. We do not have movements or marches within our town, but this is not what matters. What matters is that everyone uses their voice to globally and within countries. Creating large world wide awareness is what is essential. Inequality is prevalent in todays world. Every town, school and state has some form of inequality present. By speaking out and never staying silent we can achieve the goals of stomping inequality out of the world.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: Every town, school and state has some form of inequality present.
DeleteI'd be curious to hear where you think it is present in your school and town.
When the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida happened, a bunch of students, many of whom couldn’t vote, began to protest and they became activists for gun control reform. Even though they couldn’t vote, they used their voices to encourage people who can vote to vote for politicians who will support for gun reform. For the next four years, that is the best way for me to speak out against social injustice. Once I can vote, I will vote, and I will vote for politicians who will address the issues of social injustice, climate change, and corruption. I will not stop protesting to support the things I believe in. A few years ago, I went to the climate rally in Montpelier. I think it is important for people who aren’t eligible to vote to still speak up and get people to vote for causes that matter. My community is already fighting to address things like social injustice. In school, we would learn about racism, the Civil Rights Movement, and many examples of social injustice that are happening today during social studies classes. In that way, the schools are helping us fight against social injustice. It is important that when a specific incident of social injustice happens, the community rises up to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
ReplyDeleteI like your connection to Stoneman Douglas High School. Well done.
DeleteProtests are wonderful things, they get your message across in a peaceful way. Protests are probably my favorite way to use my voice. I have participated in many, including the women's march, and three protesting gun violence. These four protests were staged at the capital building in Washington D.C., so it felt like they had a pretty big impact. I would like to continue participating in protests similar to ones I have in previous years, but it may be harder considering I no longer live in the center of political activity. The community I grew up in was extremely liberal and strongly supported protesting. My parents taught me to always fight for what I thought was right, so they obviously encouraged me to participate in peaceful protests. My family also tries to make sure I am informed about what is happening in the world, and we discuss these things quite frequently. I have always felt supported when wanting to speak up or share my opinion, by my family, my peers, and my community.
ReplyDeleteThat's great and where you used to live made it kind of convenient to participate in protests, right?
DeleteI can use my voice for what I believe in by taking part in movements and marches. Even though I’m too young to vote, I can voice my opinion and encourage others to vote for what I think is right, and I think others that are too young to vote should do the same. I have taken part in multiple protests to try and make change, and I do think I’ve made an impact by speaking up rather than staying quiet like Starr pledges never to do. Thankfully, our school and community are pretty good at listening to everyone’s sides of situations, and addressing and talking about problems like inequality and other things. In school there are many clubs that talk about equality, and in classes we have very open discussions about these things pretty often too where everyone can be heard. I don’t think our community has ever had to address a situation as severe as Khalil’s, but if something like that would happen, I would imagine our community would take action. Our community is very close and supportive and if something bad were to happen, people would definitely talk about it and lead public discussions and meetings regarding the problem, so people can speak out and say what they think and what changes need to be made.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you feel that we have pretty open discussions in school. That's important to me as a teacher.
DeleteThe way I can use my voice to make a difference is standing up for what's right when it’s needed, or saying what needs to be said, even if people don’t always like hearing truth. I think that people use their voice everyday. Whether it’s telling someone else that what they are doing is wrong, or just a man stopping at your door to bring a local cause to your attention, it happens everyday. I think that I am lucky enough to live in a community that has very little inequality, and a town that is very generous and supportive of others. Especially when it comes to anything bad, like the racism that we saw happen in The Hate You Give. I think that if anything like this happened in our town would try to fix it, by hosting town meetings for people to talk about the issues, and bring it to the attention of people. I think that the book showed a higher case of all of this, and since we live in a small town, where we don’t see it as much, I think sometimes it’s hard for us to imagine that this happens regularly in other places of the world.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment Ryan. I wonder if there are reasons we don't see racism out in the open as much.
DeletePeople often see their voices as something that doesn't matter, but really they do, they matter a lot. Speaking out about things you believe in is important and can show others who may be against it what it is like to be facing these difficulties. Participating in protests is great to share your voice because if more people are there the more it matters and if you don't show up to a protest you believe in the power will become lessened. Our voices do have power and they need to be used for such. In our community we are pretty lucky, not much goes on here. We don't have protests but there are so many other ways to share our voices like clubs at school and groups in the town where we can share our voices. Starr used her voice because she wanted justice for Khalil and she believed in that, we can do the same. Even when some of us are to young to vote our voices still matter because we are the youth of this generation. 117 years ago there was a whole different set of people, now we have almost 7 billion people in this world and we all have important voices that need to be shared. If something were to happen in our community there are definitely gonna be people protesting and other towns may join in to, which is such a great thing in this world.
ReplyDeleteI agree that protesting is a great thing. I'm thankful that we have that right here.
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ReplyDeleteFritz, I like the fact that you cited a specific statistic. I think the police officer you cited makes an excellent point, but I also hink there is something to pay attention to when so many of the victims are Black. Good post.
DeleteYour first amendment on the Bill of Rights is the freedom of speech. Many people are practicing this by going to marches and protests. Starr decides to use this amendment by declaring that she will “never be quiet”. She stands up against racism in Garden Heights and becomes of a voice of power. My family is very active around freedom of speech. Over the course of the last year, I have been to a ton of protests. I have learned that the only way the world can change is by the people on it. From going to many protests I have learned that police brutality against African Americans is not the whole picture. Before going to a Black Lives Matter protest I did some research. According to the Washington Post, 798 people have been killed by police this year and 158 of them were African American. After listening to an Africa American police officer give his speech, I learned that we cannot cast all the blame on the police force, instead, we need to think about the whole justice system. He also said that we can’t be angry at the police for the 158 Black people that were killed, we have to be angry because of the 798 people killed. Living in a democracy, our voice is one of the most powerful things in the nation. Finally, we are lucky to live in a town where everybody is open and accepting of differences.
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