Race relations are a core theme of the novel.[13] Professor Khalil Muhammad of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government sees the novel as a way to have discussions among people who might not otherwise discuss Black Lives Matter: "The book – and to some degree the movie – has been read and will be read by students in all-white spaces, where otherwise the urgency of these issues has not affected them personally."[13] At the same time, it could offer solace for black teens who have faced similar challenges to Starr.[14] An example of this is Starr's ability to code switch between her private school and home, which Thomas demonstrates through the slang that Starr uses in each context's dialogue.[13][15] Also helping Starr is her family who offer a variety of points of view, including her Uncle's thoughts as a police officer and her father teaching Starr and her siblings about the Black Panther Party.[14][16] The novel also shows Starr's parents' struggles with remaining connected to their community while needing to protect and give opportunity to their children.[17]
The Hate U Give shows Starr's dual need to respond both to the trauma of witnessing Khalil's death and her need to do so politically.[14] This dual need, combined with Thomas's ability to root these struggles in their historical context, helps give the book its power, according to Jonathan Alexander writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books.[14] Los Angeles Times' critic Adriana Ramirez sees Starr as similar to the protagonists of fantasy dystopian novels like Divergent and The Hunger Games as she seeks to change an entrenched system of power, noting, "it is also a dystopian young adult novel that happens to be set in reality."[18] Nick Smart, a professor at the College of New Rochelle, takes this further, stating, "In The Hate U Give, there's also a girl – who happens to be a black girl – being sent out against the system, against the world, against an entrenched opposition," while Ramirez notes that Starr's blackness is a core element for some readers.[18] Before its publication, exploring a female perspective on the isolation and need to be a model minority at an elite private school was something which had not been conducted in literature or film with the same frequency as for males.[19] Thomas's ability to capture these feelings stemmed from her own experiences with the reactions of her white classmates following the death of Oscar Grant.[19]
Discussing the title, The Atlantic wrote, "Thomas’s book derives its title from the rapper Tupac Shakur’s philosophy of THUG LIFE—which purportedly stands for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody”—and it’s a motif the novel returns to a few times. The acronym tattooed across Tupac’s abdomen could be read as an embrace of a dangerous lifestyle. But, as Khalil explains to Starr, just minutes before the cop pulls them over, it’s really an indictment of systemic inequality and hostility: “What society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out.” [10]
The novel does not shy away from the realities of urban life, exemplified by the title's reference to the Tupac Shakur quote.[20] Starr's feelings about Khalil evolve during the novel. The reader is first introduced to him at the party as a friend of Starr's and as a victim of a police shooting. This narrative is then complicated both for Starr and in the novel's world at large when it is learned that Khalil dealt drugs.[10][21] However, Starr comes to disagree with the way the media is portraying Khalil.[22] As Starr finds her own agency, she is able to challenge this narrative first for herself and then for others, recognizing that Khalil was forced into these circumstances by poverty, hunger, and a desire to care for his drug addict mother.[10][14] She is able to show her courage speaking to the grand jury, and realizes that she needs to participate in the protests which follow its decision.[16][23] How and where Khalil and Starr can find justice also drives Starr's decision to join in the protests.[21][24][25]
