The Media's Role in "The Hate U Give"

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             Throughout The Hate U Give the media plays a critical role in the days and weeks after Khalil’s death, leading up to the day Starr testifies before the Grand Jury, and in their coverage of the protests that follow their verdict. The role of the media in Thomas’ books is, sadly, eerily similar to how the news in the real world discusses and reports police brutality against Black people. It starts with the earliest glimpse we receive of the news on page 47: “Between a story about a bad car accident on the freeway and a garbage bag of live puppies that was found in a park, there’s a short story about an officer-involved shooting that is being investigated. They don’t even say Khalil’s name. Some bullshit.” We can see here that at the earliest stage of the investigation in the day(s) after Khalil’s murder, the news barely touches on the event.

    Now, I understand that the events in Hate are different from the ones we have most recently seen in the news. There was video footage of Ahmaud Arbery when he was shot and killed, and there was footage as well when police officers knelt on George Floyd’s neck. It is not very often that there are witnesses to police killings like Khalil’s. If Starr had been able to record the events and post them on social media, then the events in this book would be a lot different. But, still, I think it is the moral imperative of every media organization to put the spotlight on the organizations tasked with supposedly keeping the general public safe—especially when they kill a member of the public.


            The next example of the media playing an important role in Hate comes in when they report that Khalil was a potential drug dealer, or that he was reaching into the car to grab a gun. In so many of the cases we have seen over the past few years the media and the police departments involved in the killings have always tried to find a way to justify the loss of life. In 2014, Eric Garner was put into a chokehold by police in NYC for selling cigarettes illegally. Yes, Garner committed a crime, but it doesn’t justify this death. Again, in 2014, Tamir Rice, as 12-year-old boy, was shot and killed by police who were called to the playground where Rice was because he was playing with a toy gun. This police officer arrived on the scene and immediately shot Rice before even attempting to understand the situation. And it gets even worse than this. George Floyd died because he was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. And Breonna Taylor was shot multiple times in her own home while she was sleeping. In Hate there has to only be the rumor that Khalil was a drug dealer or reaching for a gun for people like Hailey and other (white) people to say that Khalil’s murder was perfectly legal and the officer shouldn’t be charged.


            And we also have to talk about the role the media played in the protests that occurred after it was announced the Grand Jury were not going to press charges. We see in the scenes after Starr’s speech they are accompanied by an anchorman and cameraman from a major news network. They talk to them, travel to Maverick’s store, and the news people eventually leave to go and cover more of the protests. In our own news this summer, we saw the media covering protests from across the nation after the death of George Floyd. But now, most of that coverage has stopped, even though protests have been happening every day since. I think this happens in part because the American attention span has become so small. Our attention spans are no longer than the 280 characters in a tweet, or the length of an Instagram story. Media companies understand that if they continue to play the same stories over and over again then they will lose their high ratings because Americans will have moved onto the next news cycle.

 

            Had the news in The Hate U Give given more coverage time to Khalil and Starr, and focused less on how the officer’s live had been changed, and more on how the loss of Khalil’s life had affected his loved ones and community, I am sure the Grand Jury would have made a different decision.

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