Page 10
Conversation
Street Roots • August 18-24, 2017
‘An unapologetically black book’
Angie Thomas was afraid YA readers wouldn't
want a novel that explored police brutality and
a black teenage experience. It turns out they did.
BY LISA EDGE
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
u rn
he Hate U Give” is an award
winning young adult novel
J L mesmerizing teens and adults
alike who delve into its pages.
Author Angie Thomas introduces the
reader to Starr Carter, a 16-year-old black girl
whose life is permanently altered after a
routine traffic stop turns deadly. Starr’s friend
Khalil is giving her a ride home from a party
when they are pulled over by a police officer
for a broken taillight. The officer shoots and
kills Khalil in front of Starr, and he dies at the
scene. It’s a frightening scenario and a real
fear for communities of color who are often
seen as threats.
This pivotal moment in the
novel takes place in the
first two chapters.
Afterward, readers
learn more about Starr
and the toll Khalil’s
death has on her as
the case moves through
the judicial system.
Thomas captures the
nuance of black life - its
challenges, as well as lighthearted
moments. For example, Starr refers to rapper
J. Cole as her future husband. Starr’s father
prays to Black Jesus, she lives in a black
neighborhood but attends a mostly white high
school, and there’s plenty of slang spoken by
the characters. Thomas is a fan of rap and
hip-hop, which shines through, even in the
meaning of the title (I won’t spoil it for you).
“The Hate U Give” is Thomas’ first novel
and has spent the past 18 weeks on The New
York Times’ YA hardcover best-sellers list.
Now, it’s No. 1. Thomas said she wrote “The
Hate U Give” with young black women and
men in mind. Because of her success, she’s
aware that she could easily be labeled as the
“it” black YA novelist of the moment. She has
no plans for taking on that title and wants to
use her access to uplift the voices of other
black authors.
Thomas lives in Mississippi and has a
Southern drawl to match. She’s working on a
second novel and has so far managed to name
every chapter in the book after an old hip-hop
song.
In the book, there are so many things that
ring true about the black community. From
the names Devante and Dalvin to using the
phrase “you smell like outside.”
Lisa Edge: Was it important that you add in
those little nuggets of authenticity?
Angie Thomas: Absolutely. I felt like I
didn’t see that a lot in young adult books. I’ve
had teenagers tell me, “I haven’t seen that
kind of stuff in books.” It’s important. I
wanted to even show - I’ll go with the name
thing with Dalvin and Devante. They made
fun of it in a way, but there’s a line where
Seven discusses what his dad says about
names. What makes our names any different
from anybody else’s names? Just because
they’re unique doesn’t mean that’s a bad thing
at times. I wanted to show that in a positive
light. I wanted to have an unapologetically
black book. I wanted it to be there, and I
wanted it to sometimes make other people
uncomfortable. I’m OK with that because I’ve
been uncomfortable with books for decades.
So they can be uncomfortable for a little bit. I
wanted to celebrate us and who we are in the
small ways.
L.E.: You said you wanted the book to be
unapologetically black. Did you have any qualms
about writing it that way?
A.T.: I was definitely concerned. I did that
before I had an official literary agent. The
only way I allowed myself to even do that was
I just made the decision, I’m writing this book
for me, not for anybody else at the end of the
day. That’s probably the best thing I could’ve
done. But when it was time to go out to
literary agents, I was terrified. In the
children’s publishing industry, we have the
call for diversity now. As a black woman going
into publishing - that is mostly white - my
question was how diverse do you really want
it? Can I be unapologetically black? Can I not
hold back on some things? Or are you guys
calling for diversity because that’s what looks
right at the moment? I ended up asking a
literary agent on Twitter if the subject matter
was even appropriate for a young adult novel.
He responded with “Yeah, I’d love to read it.”
I signed with him a few months later. We took
it to publishers and 13 of them wanted the
rights to the book.
Even after I signed with my publisher, I
wasn’t sure that this book would sell. I wasn’t
sure that the public would like this book - the
young adult audience would like this book -
because young adult has been so white. We
put a black girl on the cover. That’s rare in
young adult books. My publisher was saying
yes, we know this book is unapologetically
black, and we love it as it is. That’s been the
attitude from the get-go. I’m very blessed to
say that, because I know there are a lot of
black authors out there who have had
publishers and others tell them they need to
tone it down or this has to be more
mainstream or something like that, as if being
black can t be mainstream. Audiences have
proved them wrong that black books can’t sell
in young adult.
E.L.: In the novel, Starr’s parents give her the
“how to interact with cops” talk. In light of the
release of the Philando Castile dash-cam, video,
which shows him complying, how do you think
the talk black parents give their children now
has changed?
A.T.: There’s a line in “The Hate U Give”
where Starr s mom says, “Sometimes you can
See THOMAS, page 11