Roots • August 18-24, 2017
Conversation
Page 11
THOMAS, from page 10
still do everything right and things still go
wrong. I think black parents are having to
have that unfortunately hard conversation,
that sometimes it doesn’t even matter, and
for us to even have to say that, there’s no
other way to put it because that’s what it
feels like. It feels like no matter what we do,
nothing is stopping this. We can do
everything right, and it will still go wrong.
So how do we make it? How do we survive
that? What do we do?
I was just pulled over the other day in
Louisiana, backwoods. Scared to death. I
had my hands on the dashboard. My mom
was driving, actually; she had her hands on
the steering wheel, and we were doing
everything right. I guess the officer could
tell we were terrified because all of sudden
he went from being very agitated to, “I’m
sorry I did this to you.” This is the state
we’re in right now.
P H O T O B Y A N IS S A H A D O U K /C O U R T E S Y O F U C I IL L U M IN A T IO N S
Angie Thomas is the author of “The Hate U Give. ” Her debut novel is No. 1 on The New York
Times’ YA hardcover best-sellers list.
E.L.: What can this country do to fix that?
A.T.: I 'm not even putting this issue on
black America. We didn’t cause this; they
did. The system did this. They need to fix it.
E.L.: There were times I had to take a break
and put the book down. With everything
happening, as a black woman, it was too
much for me to read. To your credit, it felt
quite real.
A.T.: I’ve had people tell me that a lot,
and I understand it. I honestly had to put it
down when I was writing it, so I totally get
it.
in my life. They are still connected with
Starr when it came to her to experience at
school. I’m like how? They said I still have
to figure out who I am at school versus
when I’m at home. Of course, it’s not on the
same scale, but they still connected and saw
themselves in Starr.
E.L.: Who do you recommend should read
this book?
A.T.: If my young black girls can -
because I’ve had a lot of them tell me I’m
afraid to read this book - if they can, I’d ask
them to. I had a young lady recently in
E.L.: Why does Starr consistently refer to
Austin, Texas - her brother was killed by
the officer who killed Khalil by his badge
police, and she said she started reading the
number even after she finds out his name?
book and it was hard, but she was pushing
A.T.: For someone like Starr who has
through because so much of what Starr said
been taught by her father that names have
speaks to her, and that means everything to
power, she did not even want to give him
me.
that power because she felt like he took
I’d ask cops to read it. My book is not
something from her. He took Khalil’s life,
anti-cop. It’s anti-police brutality; there’s a
yes, but he took a big part of this girl’s
difference. I have law enforcement in my
childhood because, at the end of the day,
family. I’d ask politicians here in Mississippi
you’re 16; you’re still a child. He has ruined
to read it.
her childhood in a way. She will never for
I wrote it for the kids I see in my
the rest of her life forget that when she was
neighborhood. I wrote it for a young black
16 years old, she saw this happen to her
boy in Philadelphia who told me, “Yo ma I
best friend.
don’t like reading, but I read this in a day.”
I’ve had so many kids who tell me I don’t
E.L.: There’s all kinds of black experiences,
like reading but I love this. I told my
but you specifically have Starr straddling two
publisher this just proves that publishing
worlds - her home life in Garden Heights and
at school, which is very white. She utilizes code has been wrong. You guys assume black kids
don’t read - they will when you give them
switching as a survival mechanism. Why have
something they like.
Starr move between these two very different
worlds?
E.L.: Hopefully this starts a wave of more
black YA novels. How many are out there?
A.T.: That’s the experience of so many of
our kids nowadays. I know it was for me in
college. I went to a mostly white, upper-
class, private, liberal arts school in
conservative Mississippi. I lived in the hood.
I had to be two people, and I know a lot of
kids have to deal with that. It s not
addressed enough.
I’ve had so many black girls tell me thank
you for this because I’ve been accused by
my friends at home of acting too white, but
then if I go to a white school, they think I m
too black. That balance of trying to figure
out who you are, where you are, then trying
to figure out does my circumstance define
my blackness. So often that question gets
THlSOCi»
I’ve had white kids who tell me I’ve never
been to a neighborhood like Garden Heights
A.L.: There are more than people may
realize; they’re not getting the attention
they should. Publishing has assumed black
books don’t sell. The root of that
assumption is black kids don’t read or white
kids don’t want to read about black kids, and
that’s a lie. So now they’re trying to fix this.
Now they’re giving more attention to black
authors that should’ve been lead titles.
Jason Reynolds is a phenomenal young-
adult writer. This brother has won just
about every award there is. His books speak
to our kids and speak to other kids and
show them our kids in such an authentic
way. I want more and more people to read
his books.
E.L.: I just read that your book is going to
be made into a film with Amandla Stenberg
playing the role of Starr.
A.T.: That came about not long after I got
my book deal. My book agent connected me
with a film agent, and she absolutely loved
the book, loved it almost more than my
mom, which is saying a
lot. She said, “I want
this to be made into a
a B lack wom an g o in g
film, and I’m going to
do everything I can to
in i® p a b li s liln g th a t Is m ostly
see this happen.” It was w h it e ? a y g u e s t!® » w a s h o w
a lo t like w ith m y b o o k
dlwesse d® y®» re a lly w w t
process. She submitted
It? Can I be aitag@ log© llcally
it to producers, and all
black? Can 1 n e t b o ld back
of a sudden we had like
©a some things? O r are y©»
10 or 12 production
companies that wanted
guys c a llin g fo r d iv e rs ity
the option to this book.
because th a t's w hat looks
We went with Temple
rig h t at the m em ent?w
Hill and State Street.
AKC1E THO M AS ,
Everybody knows
A U T H O R O F 'T H E H A T E U G I V E '
Temple Hill for doing
the John Green movies
and “Twilight.” State
Street is George
Tillman’s production company, and he’s
actually directing the movie. It’s been a
great relationship from jump and going well
E.L.: Has there been anything along the
way since the book has been published that’s
surprised you?
A.T.: I’ve been surprised at how many
people are actually interested in the story of
a young black girl. I’ve had events where
older white women and older white men
have told me, “I love this book. Thank you
for opening my eyes.” I never thought that
would happen.
I got an email from a lady. She was raised
by white supremacists and in recent years
realized that her father’s world view was
wrong and she wanted to change and she
wanted to educate herself on things, and
somebody told her to read my book, and it
opened up her eyes even more. That
shocked me.
Teenagers listen more than we give them
credit for. They understand more than we
give them credit for. And they have more
empathy than we give them credit for.
Reprinted from Street Roots’ sister paper,
Real Change News in Seattle.