THUG LIFE...

When I read Invisible Man in class I thought it was relevant to today even though it is very old. When coming up with this blog post I thought about what I wanted to connect to our class and the first thing that popped into my mind was The Hate You Give. A movie about a black girl growing up in the time where police brutality is being talked about openly and the Black Lives Matter Movement. I personally connect with both these mediums of telling the history and truth about Black Life in America and wanted to see where  they merged for me.

I watched The Hate You Give again looking at it with a fresh mind and being more analytical about it than emotional. After watching the movie and reflecting on both it and the book I found that ignorant but well-intentioned microaggressions have a greater impact on people. In both examples it is microaggressions that hurt the most. They usually come from people we have good relationships with, expect more from, and/or we trust. These microaggressions also cause the most extreme reactions from people. 

The microaggressions in The Hate You Give come mostly from Starr's friend Hailey. She says things like "Pretend the ball is a piece of fried chicken" and tells Starr that she is a nonthreatening black person. These hurt Starr as Hailey is her friend and while it is not overtly racist or hateful to black people it shows that the subtle fear or preconceived notions about black people show up in the form of "funny" or "sweet" comments from your friends. The microaggressions in the Invisible Man mostly occur with Brother Jack. He says things like “ you weren’t hired to think” and “You are from the South and you know that this is a white man's world. So take a friendly advice and go easy so that you can keep on helping the colored people.” These things show that as a white man he thinks that black people need to be managed and are easily sacrificed. 

These microaggressions hurt the most and stick with you the most. The impact of these events on the characters is great. For Starr she comes to realize that she was always following Hailey around looking to fit in and never really thought for herself. She blows up and ends her friendship with Hailey messily. For Brother Jack and the Narrator it is a messy end for them as well. The Narrator calls Brother Jack the “great white father” and they get into an altercation, after which Jack tells him to wait for Brother Hambro for further instruction and education about how the Brotherhood works and the Narrator becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood and leaves.

The Hate U Give and the Invisible Man show how painful and life changing microaggressions can be. More than overt racism, it comes from people who are supposed to care about us or be on our side. While painful it allows for growth for Starr and the Narrator. One dropped a toxic relationship and another left a group that was using him but had no intentions to improve the lives of those he felt needed help. While it seems like things turn out well for everyone that isn’t really the case. After witnessing multiple microaggressions, in part if the police and others, Starr’s little brother Sekani pulls out a gun and almost gets shot by the police. For the Narrator he is attacked for still preaching the Brotherhood’s ideology and ends up living underground for a couple of months to regroup. These microaggressions almost killed people in both the book and the movie. They have great impact and can be very harmful if one doesn’t have a strong head on their shoulders. Like Tupac said “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody”. THUG LIFE.