The Hate U Give

    The thing that struck me the most about the latter half of The Hate U Give is the importance of names. 

    Not only do the actual names of the characters have significance: Sekani's name means joy, Starr is named that because she gave Maverick light in a time of darkness, Seven is named after the holy number, etc..

    The discussion DeVante, Seven, Starr and Chris have about naming really stuck out to me. Black people's names are seen as weird or not normal, and are made fun of or made into memes (à la "bye Felicia"), when. really it is just a matter of perspective and understanding. For non-black people, these names are uncommon, but among black communities, they are normal and wide-spread, like how DeVante claims that he knows three other people named DeVante. The lack of understanding also impacts this, where there are ideas that black parents just name their kids whatever word comes to mind, when there are real stories and reasons behind these names, and they are ostracised and made fun of just because they are unique. The fact that this conversation stems from someone named "Chris" is especially interesting in this discussion too, since Chris seems like the quintessential white American boy name, along with names like John or Matthew, and I think this brings into the conversation the idea of assimilation. When a kid is called Chris or some vaguely biblical name, it is easy for these kids to fit in with the people around them, who have meant countless others of the same name, and teachers know exactly how to pronounce those names. However, when a kid is named something not popular in the white Anglo-American mainstream, that means that they can't disappear among countless others, they are unique in the minds of the people around them, they are remembered if, for nothing else, because that person has never met anyone else with a name like that, and people might actually have to try to learn how to pronounce their names. 

    I think its really commendable to present non-stereotypical white names in the book as something to be proud of, rather than the characters being ashamed of their names being weird or unique. Too often, people with unique names have to assimilate to whatever the white Anglo-American crowd accepts as a proper name or however they butcher the pronunciation of those names. This is extended beyond just the black community as well. It can be seen by exchange students from countries like China or Japan being asked to choose "American" names instead of going by their real names, my brother's girlfriend telling my dad's english-speaking family that they can call her just one of her names because having two first names is too much for Americans, or Hispanic people having to accept butchered pronunciations of their names because Spanish "r"s are "too hard" or "too much work" to learn how to pronounce. 

    The list of names of victims of police brutality near the end of the book, then, is a refusal to stay silent or to allow these names to fade to the background. These victims are not just victims, they were people and deserve to be named and known and recognised. Their names shall be known and repeated and remembered. Through this, some type of justice is come to, where people who have been brutalised by the police are spread/immortalised throughout the public consciousness, and the crimes against them, though not carried to justice by the legal system, are brought to justice in the community, where everyone knows and everyone remembers their existence and the unjust structures of society that caused their deaths.