Madonna, Tupac, and The Hate U Give

Just a few days ago, I was sitting in my interdisciplinary studies class at my junior college, where I am enrolled in my first semester. We were reading a book called The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse, a novel told as a series of vignettes from Mexican immigrants living in Echo Park, Los Angeles. A few times the book makes reference to Madonna's 1984 hit "Borderline." We watched the music video in class, in which Madonna plays a young woman enticed by a photographer to model for him. When he shows a romantic interest in her, she is forced to choose between him and her young Latino boyfriend, with whom she hangs out in the streets of LA. The boyfriend turns her down, however, only to walk by a newsstand one day and realize she's a successful rising star and takes her back.

The video was revered by viewers and critics for pushing cultural boundaries – or "borderlines," you might say. ;-) In the video, Madonna appropriates certain fashion and hairstyles to emulate a typical Latina girl growing up in East Los Angeles, the most predominantly Latino neighborhood (there is even a shot of a street sign reading 6TH ST).

After the viewing, my professor showed us about 30 seconds or Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" (some things will never change...) followed by the music video for Tupac Shakur's "Changes." Shakur - or 2pac, as he went by professionally - sampled the piano interludes as well as the chorus from Hornsby's song. Meanwhile, the verses are his reflecting on growing up "poor, and even worse, black." He also expresses frustration with the war on drugs and police treatment of black people.

I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
Unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes
Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
But things changed, and that's the way it is

Coincidentally, that same week, I had decided it was about time to read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The movie starring Amandla Stenberg was coming out soon, and while I knew it was an important book to read, I had put it off because it seemed pretty intense and I wasn't sure I was ready to immerse myself in such a heavy - and politically relevant - story.

Let me just say I'm glad I didn't postpone it any longer. It was such a coincidence after having a mini-lesson about Tupac and cultural shifts in IDST class because this book mentions Tupac several times. In fact, the title is based on Tupac's philosophy of what THUG LIFE really stands for:

The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody.

Essentially, it's this idea that whatever we, as a society, teach our children – intolerance, violence, racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc. – will come back and bite everyone in the a** when those kids are grown-up.

In case you don't already know, The Hate U Give is about a 16-year-old girl named Starr Carter. She's African American and lives in Garden Heights, a mostly black neighborhood but goes to a predominantly white private school, Williamson Prep, on the other side of town. After leaving a Garden Heights party one night with her friend Khalil, they are pulled over and Khalil is shot and killed by a white cop. Starr has to learn to speak out herself and Khalil while also code-switching between two different worlds.

I thought this book did an amazing job at speaking to a wide audience and being relatable, while also educating about things that are very specific to the protagonist and that I have no experience with. For example, code-switching is something I think everyone can understand. For most people, you're not the same you around your colleagues at work as you are around your close friends as you are around your family. But in Starr's experience, failure to code-switch can be dangerous and even fatal.

While the story mostly focuses on Starr's journey to find her voice and discover her place in the world, there's also a lot of subplot regarding gangs, drugs, violence and other issues that take place in a poor and destitute neighborhood like Garden Heights. And the book does a great job of helping privileged folks - like myself, in this case - understand where these issues stem from and how they're perpetuated by racism and prejudice. There's a really amazing dialogue in the middle of the book that takes place between Starr and her dad, Maverick. I think it's the turning point when Starr starts to understand that the anger surrounding Khalil's death is about much more than just him, and she has an obligation to speak out for him if she wants things to change.

"I remember what Khalil said-He got tired of choosing between lights and food. 'They need money,' I said. 'And they don't have a lot of other ways to get it.'
'Right. Lack of opportunities,' Daddy says. 'Corporate America don't bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain't quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don't prepare us enough. That's why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed'" (169). 

I'm excited to see the movie as soon as I can. I hope they include all the backstory regarding Seven's family, DeVante, and the Kinglords because I found all of that really interesting and it added extra depth to the book. If you have a chance to read this book, I hope you do. I listened to it on Audible and the narrator, Bahni Turpin, was amazing. She had great pacing and a consistent tone but gave the right amount of attitude or emotion or emphasis in the right places. Overall, I felt The Hate U Give was really educational to me but also enjoyable. I look forward to reading what Angie Thomas publishes next.