The Hate U Give

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of racism and violence.

April Ofrah secures Starr an interview with a local news station. The whole family accompanies her to the station. There, a producer calls Starr brave, but she doesn’t feel like it. Her interviewer is Diane Carey, a local reporter whose broadcasts Starr has watched with her grandmother for years. After recording some B-roll footage of them walking around, Diane and Starr sit down. She asks Starr who Khalil was to her. Starr says that he was just a kid and explains why he started selling drugs. Even though she knows that King will watch the segment, Starr tells Diane that Khalil sold drugs to pay back the biggest drug dealer in the neighborhood. She doesn’t name King, concluding that “it’s dry snitching, but it’s still snitching” (288).

Starr tells Diane that the media portrayal of Khalil annoys her because it’s as if news reporters have charged Khalil with his own murder. She explains that he opened the car door to ask if she was ok when Officer 115 shot him. She also says that the officer pointed his gun at her, which no one but Carlos knew before now.