美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Hate U Give' Author And Director Discuss Representing The Black Community

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

"The Hate U Give" tells the story of a 16-year-old girl named Starr Carter. She lives in a mostly black, lower-income neighborhood called Garden Heights. Williamson Prep, her high school, is in a mostly white, affluent² part of town.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HATE U GIVE")

AMANDLA STENBERG: (As Starr Carter) Garden Heights is one world. Williamson is another. And I got to keep it separate. So when I'm here, I'm Starr version two.

CHANG: But Starr can't keep her two worlds separate after she witnesses a white police officers shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. "The Hate U Give" was first a YA novel by Angie Thomas. Now it's also a movie directed by George Tillman Jr. The three of us began our conversation with the scene that opens the film. Starr's father, Mav Carter, is giving his young children the talk.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HATE U GIVE")

RUSSELL HORNSBY: (As Mav Carter) Now, one day, y'all going to be with me, and you best bet we going to get pulled over. Now, that don't mean I did something wrong. Maybe I made a mistake driving, or maybe I ain't do nothing at all. You going to see me with my hands like this on the dashboard. Now, you keep your hands posted 'cause moving makes the police get all nervous. It can get real dangerous, so don't argue with them. But keep your hands where they can see them. This is how you going to act. We straight?

STENBERG: (As Starr Carter) I was 9 years old when I first got the talk.

CHANG: George, I know you based this scene on talks you yourself got growing up. What is it like to film a scene that's fictional³ but that represents something completely real to most of the black community?

GEORGE TILLMAN JR: You know, it was a very emotional scene. I remember Russell Hornsby, who plays Mav Carter, would choke up because he has kids himself. I have a 15-year-old son. So it was a very emotional time because in the African-American community, that is something that every kid have been through one way or another. For me, it was with my uncles and my dad. You know, they came out of the MLK riots, you know, in '68 with family members in Detroit and Milwaukee, Wis. So all those things were planted inside me.

So in the movie, you know, it's two young kids who actually hearing the scene for the first time. It was just emotional. This deals with history. This deal with survival and how we can continue to stay on this earth without police brutality⁴ or being shot or being killed. You know, this is part of the fear of the African-American community.

CHANG: One of the most fascinating storylines for me is how Starr feels like she has to be two different people all the time. And she thinks part of that means literally⁵ subduing⁶ her blackness while she's walking around her mostly white high school, Williamson Prep.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HATE U GIVE")

STENBERG: (As Starr Carter) Slang makes them cool. Slang makes me hood¹.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Yo, those kicks are lit.

STENBERG: (As Starr Carter) Thanks - Space Jams.

(As Starr Carter) Basically Williamson Starr doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto⁷. And I hate myself for doing it.

CHANG: Angie, I read that part of the inspiration for Starr's double life came from your own life because you also lived in a mostly black neighborhood while attending a mostly white, private, Christian⁸ college in Mississippi. What was that like feeling like you had to be two different people all the time?

ANGIE THOMAS: It was a struggle. I did - I lived in a mostly black, poor neighborhood in Jackson, Miss. And I went to a mostly white, upper-class, private school just 10 minutes away from my home. But in 10 minutes, it was like going into an entirely⁹ different world. So I overcompensated by doing what's called code switching.

CHANG: Yeah.

THOMAS: I would make myself more presentable I thought. I was careful of how I spoke¹⁰. I was careful of how much emotion I showed. And it was a struggle because so often I was silent on things that mattered to me. And I would experience microaggressions from my classmates, and I was silent about them. I never called out the racism¹¹.

CHANG: Like what?

THOMAS: Well, one time, one of my professors had a party at his house for Christmas, and he had a huge Christmas tree with a big pile of gifts underneath¹². And we could all pick a gift. And it was like gag gifts like whoopee cushions and all of this other stuff he was just trying to get rid of. And when it was my turn, I picked a gift. And there was a prescription¹³ drug book inside and a toy water gun. And one of my classmates goes, oh, my God, the black girl from the ghetto got the drug book and the gun - how funny.

CHANG: Wow.

THOMAS: And because some of my classmates were laughing - and I just made myself laugh because I thought I had to. And that was one of those moments where I was so angry at myself for not speaking up. And honestly, that was a defining moment for me because I had to realize that I was worth speaking up for if nothing else and that they needed to know that even a joke like that is not OK. So for me, that was the moment I said, you know what? I am not going to be silent again.

CHANG: Yeah. One thing that was so fascinating was this movie doesn't only look at the disconnect between black and white. It also touches upon where the black community can disagree, like when Starr's Uncle Carlos, who's a cop, straight up tells Starr how he would react to a black suspect.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE HATE U GIVE")

COMMON: (As Carlos) A lot goes through a cop's mind when they pull someone over. Are they hiding something? Is the car stolen?

STENBERG: (As Starr Carter) But you still don't know if they did anything wrong.

COMMON: (As Carlos) That's why we search them. But if they open the door or reach through an open window, they're probably going for a weapon. So if I think I see a gun, I don't hesitate. I shoot.

CHANG: It was so interesting to hear a black man own that in this movie because it shows that, you know, this isn't just white-against-black racism. It's much more complicated, right? You're saying, George, that it's not just white people that are to blame for the racial bias¹⁴ we see in policing.

TILLMAN JR: Yes, definitely. It's - that scene was a very important moment in the book. And I really wanted to show all the sides, you know? Two is this - the idea of how the system, you know, for police officers - and how that goes all the way back to the idea of the slave patrols with free slaves. And that's a system that is taught. And sometime that system can be taught with African-Americans as well. So you have that version. And then also you have another layer on top of that - is that sometimes as African-Americans, we have racism and biism (ph) inside ourselves and how we see other African-Americans as well.

CHANG: Angie, you told this story through the eyes of a 16-year-old. Do you think audiences are more capable of empathy when they're watching a kid rather than an adult grapple with this kind of trauma¹⁵, receiving this kind of trauma?

THOMAS: Unfortunately yeah.

CHANG: Yeah.

THOMAS: Yeah. When I first decided¹⁶ to write it - I'm a huge young adult fiction fan anyway, and I always knew I wanted to write young adult fiction. But it was definitely a decision early on to write this from the perspective of a 16-year-old girl for several reasons. The first reason for me was because so often, victims in these cases are teenagers. They're young people. Trayvon Martin was 17. Tamir Rice was 12. And I think about those kids who look at them and see themselves, and I wanted to talk to them first and foremost.

But I also knew that when adults pick this book up, they would be more likely to empathize with a 16-year-old girl than a 30-year-old woman. For some audiences, there is something about getting it from the perspective of someone who has so much innocence¹⁷, who has so little experience. You literally witness this girl become a woman. You see her forced into adulthood¹⁸ because of her trauma. And I think there's something about that. At least for adults, there's something about seeing a child go through this. And my hope was that people will look at real-life 16-year-olds in these cases and actually see them as children and not as adults.

CHANG: Writer Angie Thomas and director George Tillman Jr. - their new movie is called "The Hate U Give." Thank you both very much. It was a real pleasure to talk to both of you guys.

TILLMAN JR: Thank you for having us.

THOMAS: Thank you.

TILLMAN JR: Thank you.

1 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

2 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

3 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

4 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 subduing   

征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗

参考例句：

• They are the probation subduing the heart to human joys. 它们不过是抑制情欲的一种考验。
• Some believe that: is spiritual, mysterious and a very subduing colour. 有的认为：是精神，神秘色彩十分慑。

7 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

12 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

13 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

14 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

15 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

16 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

17 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

18 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。