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GARCIA-NAVARRO: She gets a lot of support throughout the book, your character Starr.

So Khalil is a combination of a lot of what we see with young black men, particularly, when they lose their lives. But at the time when Khalil is in his last moments of his life, his past should not have an effect on what happens to him in that moment. I grew up with Khalils who have made decisions that may not be the best. Michael Brown - when he lost his life, there was more focus on what he had done sometimes than what was done to him.Р”Р„nd I looked at Khalil because I know Khalils. And honestly, there was inspiration from a lot of these cases that we see with unarmed black people losing their lives. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So the central catalyst of the novel is the death of Starr's old, dear friend Khalil.

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And the only thing I knew how to do at the time was write, so I actually wrote the short story that would later become 'The Hate U Give' while I was a senior in college. But at home, he was one of our own, and we knew Oscar and we saw Oscar every single day. And at the time when his death was making headlines, more people were talking about what he had done in his past than the fact that he unjustly lost his life.Р”Р„nd at my school, I heard a different conversation than I may have heard in my neighborhood about Oscar. He was an unarmed young black male who had a record. At the time when I was in college, Oscar Grant had just lost his life in Oakland, Calif. Is that the model? Is - did you use your experiences in informing how she is presented in the book? GARCIA-NAVARRO: You just mentioned that you went to a mostly white college, similar to Starr, your main character. So I knew I had to fight against the stereotype of being a ghetto girl, and I had to fight even harder to show that I was intelligent and that I was capable of being there, just like my counterparts. I went to a mostly white upper-class private college here in Jackson, but I was from a neighborhood that is known for all of the wrong reasons and, for lack of better words, we will call it the hood. THOMAS: I absolutely have experience with it.

Is it something you have experience with?

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GARCIA-NAVARRO: You talk about how code switching is something that African-Americans have to do a lot. And once this unfortunate event happens in her life, the struggle becomes even harder. So she has to try to figure out who she is where she is. She has classmates who are driving Benzes (ph), whereas she's dropped off every morning. And it comes from a small place of shame, but it's also a place of trying to fit in because she's in a school where it's mostly white and it's mostly upper class. But there's also his past that sometimes is brought up.Р”В«ut there's Williamson Starr who does not speak about where she's from. Her father was a former gang member, and he's turned his life around. At Starr's neighborhood, Starr is known as Big Mav's daughter. THOMAS: Well, the two Starrs, I think a lot of young African-Americans can relate to because there's this whole thing of - that we call code switching. Can you describe the two Starrs we meet in the book? It's gotten rave reviews, and it's Angie Thomas' debut novel. The book is called 'The Hate U Give.' It's a hotly anticipated book.

She lives in Garden Heights, the gang-ravaged neighborhood where her father keeps his store, but she goes to school at Williamson Prep, where she's only one of a handful of black kids. The case becomes national news, putting a dichotomy in Starr's life into even greater relief. She's in the car with her friend Khalil when he is shot and killed by a cop. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Starr Carter is 16 when she confronts the exact situation her father warned her about. Starr-Starr, you do whatever they tell you to do, he said. He argued that I wasn't too young to get arrested or shot. THOMAS: (Reading) Mama fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. That's Angie Thomas reading in the voice of her narrator, Starr Carter, early on in her debut novel. The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me. ANGIE THOMAS: (Reading) When I was 12, my parents had two talks with me.

The hate you give cop