New Movie Speaks On Police Brutality ​ By: Brenna McCallion ​ ​ ​

The Hate U Give is a novel, soon-to-be movie, that surrounds Black Lives Matter and ​ police brutality. The main character is a 16-year-old black girl, Starr, who is being played by

Amandla Stenberg in the film. Starr, lives in a mostly black, poor area, but goes to school with her brothers, in a mostly white prep school. She becomes an activist for Black Lives Matter when her friend is fatally shot by a cop in front of her.

This movie is important because the plot is so similar to what we see in America today; police officers shooting African-Americans when they aren’t even breaking any laws, just

“acting suspicious.” In recent years, there have been several political movies, involving race, and other topics that could end up being controversial. This movie, being as tragic as it is, isn’t just make believe. It’s exactly like America today, but when people see these things in the news, they turn away and pretend it’s not happening, because when it doesn’t involve them, or immediately threaten them, it doesn’t matter to them.

I interviewed Autumn Graham, a senior at Perry High School who read the book and is excited for the movie. I asked if she had any concerns regarding any parts of the book that may be portrayed differently in the movie. “I feel as though the relationship between Starr and her

Dad, won’t be shown as strong as it was in the book,” she says. She also adds that there’s a scene in the book that she’s afraid might get cut entirely from the movie. A scene that, for people have read the book, would be known as the “fried chicken scene,” even though that scene is pretty pivotal to the storyline. That scene more specifically is that Starr receives a racist, stereotyping comment about fried chicken from a friend of hers.

Autumn says that she’s already noticed a difference between the book and the movie, just from watching the trailer. The way that her friend got shot in the beginning of the movie, looks like it is different from how it happened in the book.

As of this writing, the movie came out a few days ago. In this current political and racial climate, it will be interesting to see the feedback that it gets.