The Hate U Give (Second Post––to page 220)
Once again, I would like you to respond to two prompts (at least 150 words each). Here they are:
1. Once news of Khalil’s shooting spreads across the neighborhood, unrest arises: “Sirens wail outside. The news shows three patrol that have been set ablaze at the police precinct...A gas station near the freeway gets looted...My neighborhood is a warzone” (Chapter 9, 136-139). Respond to this development and describe some parallels to current events.
2. How do you think Starr would define family? What about Seven? How do you define it?
Prompt 1): In pages 136 -139, Starr and her family hide in the den when machine gunshots ring out. As the chaos develops, three patrols are set ablaze and a gas station is looted and the owner is shot. Garden heights turns into a war zone. This is similar to the time that Philando Castile was shot in 2017. The shooting caused a lot of outrage and made a lot of people start saying, “F%$# the police!’ I haven’t heard of any riots as a result of the event, but I do know of the national outrage it sparked. While Castile did have a firearm on him, he did try to assure Yanez that he was reaching for his license and registration, not his gun. Yanez shot him seven times before he could pull out his license. This is similar to Khalil’s shooting because the officer shot first and asked questions later. Neither of the victims were doing anything wrong. Castile was just obeying Yanez’s orders to the best of his ability when Yanez shot him. Khalil was just checking to see if Starr was okay when one fifteen shot him. Also, and perhaps sadly most importantly, both victims were Black.
ReplyDeleteTate, I really liked how specific you were about current events.
DeleteWith word of Khalil’s shooting, it sends a wave of crazy events through Starr’s neighborhood. There’s one shooting that happened this year that involved a police officer and a 22 year old man named Stephon Clark. Police were responding to reports of a black male breaking into cars and then hiding in a backyard. They came upon Stephon Clark who was in his grandmother’s backyard and they thought he was armed with a gun and coming at them, so they shot multiple rounds and killed him. It turns out that the so called gun they thought he had was actually a cellphone. This shooting sparked a major protest in the Black Lives Matter movement especially since it was a white policemen who killed a black unarmed man. People were outraged and marched around Sacramento chanting and ended up shutting down an interstate and delaying a basketball game while blocking the entrance trying to get their point across that there needs to be change, just like the people in the book are trying to prove from Khalil’s shooting.
ReplyDeleteI think Starr would define family as people who are reliable and people who you can show your true self to when you’re around them. For example, the car ride she has with her daddy. They’re able to goof around and sing together and have a good time, but at the same time, they’re able to have a deep conversation about what Tupac is saying and how Starr should stand up for Khalil and start speaking out on it. Her daddy also mentions that it will be hard but he will be there with her every step of the way and protect her which is what family should do. I think Seven would define family as always being there for one another and helping when times are hard. Take his relationship with Starr for example. Seven is Starr’s half-brother and he’s always there for Starr. They always have fun playing basketball together and he’s there to support her while grieving the death of Khalil, which shows him fulfilling how he might define family. Personally, I define family as people who are there to support and love me through everything that might happen and people I can trust and rely on.
Prompt 2): I think Starr would define family as, “A person’s family is the people who are closest to them.” This means that Khalil and Natasha would be included in Starr’s family. However, I think Seven would be more likely to use the dictionary definition of family: “People who are your relatives.” I like the former definition and I can think of a few people that are not my relatives but are still part of my family. The people that fit in that group can differ. Some people might have a person that they just met in that group, while others might have their best friend of eight years excluded from that group. My family includes my relatives and all of my friends. If any of them came to me needing a meal or a place to stay the night because something happened to their family I would give it to them without a second thought.
ReplyDeletePrompt 1.
ReplyDeleteEverything that is going on in Starr's life right now is similar to what is going on today with Black Lives Matter protests. The only difference is there is more violence where Starr is growing up so the protests are violent too. With everything going on like police cruisers being set on fire and stores being looted. The incident with Khalil is much like the incidents with other police officers shooting a black man who is unarmed. For instance, one of the more recent times this happened was with Stephan Clark. Stephan was shot by a police officer because the officer thought he had a gun even though it was a phone. The officers who shot him were not charged with murder much like the officer who shot Khalil. The protests in Garden Heights are different from the ones here because the protests that are here are non-violent. The ones in Garden Heights are very violent.
Prompt 2.
I think starr would define family like a mini clan or a group who you know and can trust. In it are your relatives and your best friends. For Starr, I think she would include Khalil in her family as well as Natasha. They both were her friends and they shared great memories together. There would be no exception for Seven. He is her half brother and they are very close. Seven is a good brother to Starr and Starr is good to Seven. I think even though Seven can be a little hard to deal with Starr trusts him and knows him well enough to consider him family. Family is very important in Starr’s life because she is living in a very intense environment where it is very important to have a group to belong to. I don’t think Starr would consider her friends from school her family because she does not seem to be a true friend of them, more like a member of their entourage.
I really liked the background that you gave in your first prompt. I think the example that you gave about Stephan Clark was extremely relevant to The Hate U Give because Officer 115 thought Khalil's hairbrush was a gun and the policeman who shot Stephan Clark thought his phone was a gun. Towards the end of your first prompt you mention that "the protests that are here are non-violent," did you mean the protests in Vermont? Or maybe the protests all over America? If you were referring to America in general, I respectfully disagree. There are many violent protests that happens quite often all over the country. The protests and riots described in the book, I think are very realistic and timely.
DeletePrompt #1
ReplyDeleteAfter Khalil's funeral there were protests and half of the town was turned into a war zone. There were stores being broken into, riots, gunshots, patrols set on fire, and a gas station was looted and the owner was shot. A recent event happened a lot like Khalil's. A teenager was leaving a party, unarmed and was shot. The officer claimed to have shot the boy because he feared his partner was being threatened. Jordan Edward's was only 15 and was leaving a party, the person who was driving got pulled over. I don't know the full story, as there isn't much information but Roy Oliver, the officer was sentenced 15 years in prison for the murder. I don't think there were any protests in this case. Khalil and Jordan's murders were a lot alike, they were both leaving a party and were shot by police. In khalil's story this officer was proven not guilty because he was believed to be armed and could have been a drug dealer. Jordan was unarmed but the officer felt like his partner was being threatened.
Prompt #2
Starr probably has a pretty good idea of what family means to her, someone who is reliable and someone who you will always enjoy their company even if she's mad at them. I think Starr considers people who she can be herself around as family, for example at her new school she pretends not to be herself around her friends so they won't call her ghetto or say anything bad about her town. When she is with her family she knows they won't treat her differently for just being her. Starr considers Khalil as her family because they were so close and grew up together so they learned to trust each other. His death was very difficult for her, especially since she saw someone she was really close with die. She has dealt with two of her best friends dying at the expense of others which was difficult since she was so close to both and considered them family. I think family can be a different meaning for everyone but what it means to me is very close to Starr's. I think to consider someone is family is for them to be very loyal and honest. Someone who won’t do anything to hurt you. Family is a very important thing.
After Khalil’s murder, things began to change on both sides of the fight. People began to march for his justice, and that turned into more marching with acts of aggression involved. These acts of aggression resulted in riots and then the terrorizing of people. As the level of violence escalated so did the level that the police were involved. It started off small, with police standoffs at marches and became tanks going down the streets. A similar case to Khalil’s is the Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon was with his dad visiting his dad’s fiance. He had walked to a convenience store and was walking back with the skittles and iced tea, that he had bought. As he was walking and George Zimmerman saw him, and called the police as “looking suspicious” and continued to watch him. After that the two got into an argument and George shot Trayvon. When questioned by the police Zimmerman said that he was only defending himself. This case is very similar to Khalil's in the fact that both of them were shot unjustly for “looking suspicious” aka for being black. They are however different in two main ways, unlike Khalil, Trayvon was not shot by a policeman, and unlike Trayvon's case 115 was not arrested (as far as we know).
ReplyDeleteI think Star would define family like her dad, as something to live for and something to die for. Family is so important to her. Family is how she survives, even though they can annoy each other sometimes, they are still more connected then any family I’ve seen. When Star and her friends or her boyfriend are in a fight, her family is always there for her. Even though she and Seven don’t have both of the same parents, they are still very close. Seven drives her from school everyday, and they have their first Saturday of the month basketball games. Not to mention the countless other things they have common. Personally I define family as the people that will always have your back, even if you don’t have theirs. Relatives are the people you were born with, but family are the people that you love with all your heart, and would jump in front of a train for. Family don’t have to be related to you, they can just be someone that you couldn’t imagine your life without. People think the people you’re born with are the only family you can have, but your family can be a lot larger than your blood relatives.
Prompt 1.
ReplyDeleteIn pages 136 -139, Starr and her family hide in the den when machine gunshots start going off. As the chaos develops, three patrols are set on fire and a gas station is looted and the owner of the gas station is shot. Garden heights turns into a war zone. This is similar to the time that Philando Castile was shot in 2017. The shooting caused a lot of outrage and made lots of people begin saying, “Fuck the police!’ I haven’t heard of any riots as a result of the event, but I do know of the national outrage that had sparked. While Castile did have a firearm on him, he did try to assure Yanez that he was reaching for his license and registration, not a gun. Yanez shot him seven times before he could pull out his license. This is similar to Khalil’s shooting because the officer shot him because he was black and he assumed that he was going for a gun. Neither of the victims were doing anything wrong. Castile was just obeying Yanez’s orders to the best of his ability when Yanez shot him. Khalil was just checking to see if Starr was okay when the officer one fifteen shot him several times. Also both victims were Black and this played a big part in the reasoning for why they were shot.
Prompt 2.
I think starr would define family like a small clan or a group who you know and can trust with all your heart. In it are your relatives and your best friends the ones closest to you and the most trust worth. For Starr, I think she would include Khalil in her family as well as Natasha. They both were her friends and they shared great memories together they were the three musketeers. There would be no exception for Seven. He is her half brother and they are very close. Seven is a good brother to Starr and Starr is good to Seven they seem to have a great brother-sister relationship. I think even though Seven can be a little hard to deal with Starr trusts him and knows him well enough to consider him family. Family is very important in Starr’s life because she is living in a very intense environment where it is very important to have a group of people that you call your own and you can go to in times of need. I don’t think Starr would consider her friends from school her family because she does not seem to be a true friend to them, more like some girl that goes to their school and they pretend to be friends with.
I like the wording you used to describe what Starr thought of as a family, I really think that those words are the best to describe it. I also liked how you talked about why it was important to Starr, since, as you said she was living under harsh conditions.
DeleteI think it's sad that being Black has such a big effect on your likelihood to be shot by law enforcement. I remember that people at Williamson used Khalil’s death to skip school because they were “protesting.” I wonder if people did things like that as a result of Philando Castile’s shooting. I know that schools around the country did a protest because of the Parkland shooting, but I haven’t heard of people doing an organized student protest as a result of law enforcement shootings. Maybe it would be different if high school students were the ones massacred by the officers rather that young adults.
DeleteWhen I tried to define “family”, the word “clan” never crossed my mind. I think it’s a great word to describe how many people define family. I agree that Starr would probably include Khalil and Natasha in her family because they were so important to her. This, of course, means that she witnessed two of her family members die in her arms, which must be incredibly difficult to deal with.