The Hate U Give: Typical Mixed Girl Troupe in the Black Movement

By:  Black Conservative (@BlackConservative93)

The 2018 BET Awards premiered the novel turned movie ‘The Hate U Give Me‘ starring Amandla Stenberg.  The young actress portrays the average black girl named Starr and is innocent enough to avoid the negativity in her community because she attends a majority white school that protects her from teen pregnancy, violence and drugs.  She hates the mask she puts on for white people as it questions her blackness among her black friends.  Her best friend Khalil is fatally shoot by a white police officer due to the misconception in the confusing a comb for a gun.  This sparks the city to be divided with the typical white versus black debate on police brutality.  Starr leads the movement in honor of Khalil.  In real time there are elements borrowed from actual events from Ferguson and Baltimore.  The trailer’s visual of spelling ‘THUG’ to the movie title was a clever reminder that black manhood is criminal in America.  

Overall, the trailer was mediocre that it barely moved me, but I am willing to give it a chance.  What cannot be undone is Starr played by Stenberg.  Many black women on Twitter debated that Starr’s original skin tone is dark skin as seen on the novel cover, yet that notion was debunked as actual readers cited that she is described as ‘caramel.‘  Black men are even more curious about the direction of the film as Starr has a white boyfriend as in the novel, meanwhile Khalil is not her boyfriend (but rather a kid who wants to be with her) or to be with black men because they understand the struggle more.

I also believe that Stenberg is not black not enough for the role.  I mean what black movies has she starred in and why does this have to be her first one?  She has always been the token mixed girl in a white-majority casted movie and even with bits from the trailer she does not blend in well as her acting black is bland and not natural and to a degree the timing of the movie is bad.  She claims she turned down an audition for Black Panther for dark-skinned women.  So were there any dark-skinned girls who wanted to play Starr?  See it is hard for me to trust her, especially when she came out as a lesbian and so I see no real love or attachment she has with black men, especially when her father is Jewish.

Regardless, it is a bad look on black people because subconsciously our blackness makes other black people feel uncomfortable.  Knowing that most black people have never read the book, did Starr have to be light-skinned?  In theory, this could be media promotion for mixed people to feel a sense of belonging to black people or those women want better roles as they are tired of being a black man’s sex object and would rather be his true lover.  The film has more misses with me as again black women control the movement as black men sit back and encourage their daughters to be leaders while men simply become cheerleaders.  This is a circumstance that black men in the past have gotten bitten from as they did not support Korryn Gaines as worthy of fighting for due to her mental health and her alleged abusive boyfriend.

Black feminists have gotten bold to believe that black men have no right to talk about racism without the permission from black women.  Sorry black feminism, I never needed your approval for my opinions or conversations of race, especially when I have met so many black women who hated themselves or ignored racism until it affects them.  Granted, black women have been given an open mic to talk about race in the media on liberal news stations.  Yet they are pawns to debate conservatives over Trump and White America.  Unfortunately, the mic for black men has gone missing as only black men talk coon-ishly against their own best interest for the sake of ratings.

So, I worry that this film will be a back hand slap to black men for their lack of power and voice and not thanking black women, allies & queer folks for their volunteered support.