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The Hate You Give: A Movie Critique Paper

Hazel Gomes Collins

Social and Cultural Counseling Foundations

Pillar College
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Provide a Brief Description of the Movie and Movie Characters.

This movie tells the narrative of a sixteen-year-old black teenager named Starr Carter,

who is the movie's main character.  Starr is between two worlds and has two identities that

support her behavior in both environments. The first version is of an African American teenage

girl living in a predominantly black middle to lower class neighborhood called Garden Heights.

The other is the non-confrontational girl attending a wealthy, primarily white school called

Williamson Prep. In the school environment, Starr's persona takes on another form to adapt to an

affluent Caucasian environment. 

However, everything changed when Starr witnessed her childhood friend Khalil being

shot and killed by a white cop. This horrific turn of event disrupts Starr and her family's life. The

devastating crime forces her to question her relationship with Chris, her Caucasian boyfriend, her

identity as a young black woman, and her place in society. Star is faced with the dilemma of

making a difficult choice of speaking out as the star witness to Khalil's unjust murder.

Eventually, Starr became part of a movement that marched for Khalil's social justice with

Starr as the leading spokesperson. However, justice was not served, which sparked anger in

society. King, the neighborhood's drug lord, also targeted the Carter family due to Starr revealing

his association in other crimes, which caused her youngest brother Sekani to point a gun.

Sekani's actions forced everyone, including King and the white cops, to think about their actions

and how discrimination can quickly invite others., regardless of age, to become violent. 

The movie The Hate You Give has several characters. However, the plot revolves around

Starr and her family. Her father, Maverick Carter, owned a small grocery store and is seen as the

community's pillar. According to the Black Panther's law, Maverick taught Starr, and her

brothers how to act should there a confrontation with the police. Lisa Carter is Maverick's wife,
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mother to Starr, Sekani, Starr's youngest brother, and stepmother to Maverick's son Seven. She is

also a supportive presence in the lives of her children and husband. Lisa and Maverick both

works together to educate their children about racial injustice. Another important character in

this movie is April Ofrah, Starr's lawyer, and an activist who encourages Starr to speak out for

Khalil's justice.

. How Does the Movie Relate to Multicultural or Social Justice Considerations.

A counselor can promote social justice and social change on behalf of the clients. This

population may include individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. The

professional counselor must also be sensitive to a community's cultural and ethnic diversity and

strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice (Social

Justice, Multicultural Counseling, and Practice. Heesoonjun, 2018, p. 2).

The movie's multicultural considerations would be for the counselor to be aware of how

someone can be discriminated against or negatively stereotyped because of cultural differences.

Therefore, the counselor would benefit from acquiring a multidimensional approach to the

client's identity with a clear understanding of their ethnicity, belief system, and background to

serve the client without misunderstandings. The movie The Hate You Give also tells how people

from different cultures could be affected negatively by those unfamiliar with their cultures'

opinions and actions.

The oppression of a race does not only harm the victims but can affect others' mental

well-being causing one to kill and become angry. Besides, the movie also reveals the social

injustice of how police brutality negatively affects the psychological well-being of the black

communities at large. Therefore, the social justice consideration would be for a therapist to

consider advocating for a disadvantaged client such as Starr and to address the issues of injustice
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as it relates to justice for a loved one or the problem of oppression in the society. However, the

counselor should also be aware of her own multicultural identity and be committed to promoting

change by respecting the client's rights and dignity to be treated fairly and equally. 

How Would You Use the Movie to Do the Following?

Strength Your Personal Awareness of Cultural/Class/Ethnic Issues.

A professional counselor can use racial issues and cultural biases in the movie to

strengthen their awareness of cultural, class, and ethnic issues related to racial discrimination and

social injustice. The counselor can also search themselves for any held biases or preconceived

notions concerning specific populations based on their race, culture, and ethnicity.

The movie The Hate You Give also instigates the counselor to be culturally sensitive so

that the client may feel more comfortable and not judged in a session because of their identity.

The counselor can also use the social injustice and multicultural issues of the under and over-

privileged, marginalized statuses, cultural values, beliefs, and biases in the movie to renew and

reinforce their outlook to develop social justice and multicultural competence.

How Would You Work with the Characters in the Movie?

To work with the characters in the movie The Hate You Give, a counselor would first

need to be aware of her assumptions, biases, cultural values, and expectations and develop

advocacy skills. Next, the counselor would need to understand how discrimination and

oppression can affect the emotions of both the privileged and the underprivileged as injustice

affects both populations differently. Moreover, the counselor would have to determine what

therapy would be the right fit for the client. 

The counselor can work with the movie characters using psychological treatments, such

as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which will be the proper action to improve the characters'
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mental well-being. This therapy has demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness in decreasing

mental health symptoms in clients facing oppression and cultural racism

(https://ct.counseling.org/2018/12/the-use-of-evidence-based-practices-with-oppressed-

populations). 

Everyone in the movie suffered differently from the backlash of racial discrimination and

trauma by Khalil's murder. Working with these characters would require the counselor to be

culturally sensitive and value and respect the client's culture and beliefs. According to

Heesoonjun (2018), "multicultural competencies require tolerance for ambiguity, assigning equal

importance to others' cultural values, beliefs, and ways of making meaning and respect for being

from their cultural perspective, including the others' traditions" (p, 3).

What Character Would You Find Easier to Work with and Why?

The character that would be easiest to work within the movie would be Starr because she

recognized and accepted the need for change. Starr's fear of being viewed differently by her

white friends and boyfriend if she spoke out about Khalil's death put her in an uncomfortable

position. However, Starr realized that she could no longer have two identities by confining

herself to a lower social standing level as a middle-class black girl while pretending to be a high

society person. She realized that her friends must learn to accept her for who she is and not the

illusion she pretended to be. 

Starr also understood that being aware and comfortable with her identity as an African

American also shows respect for her race and her parents' values. The professional counselor can

empower such a client to identify the potential roadblocks and prepare strategies to overcome

obstacles limiting her desire to change.

What Character Would You Find Difficult to Work with and Why?
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The character that would be difficult to work with is Maverick Carter, Starr's father. He

showed an unwillingness to change despite the difficulties facing his family. He seems settled in

his environment and did not pay much attention to the challenges associated with drugs and

police brutality surrounding them. His adherence to the Black Panther Party philosophy by which

he lived and taught his children from a young age shows that he felt that he had equipped his

family with the knowledge necessary for protection. Such a client would be opposed to change as

he is rooted in his ideologies. A professional counselor would benefit from being knowledgeable

about the client's diverse background and acquire the skills to work with this client effectively.

How Can You Work Effectively with a Diverse Population of Clients?

A professional counselor can work effectively with a diverse population of clients by

educating themselves about the client's belief system, values, demographics, ethnicity, and social

background. To view the client on a holistic level, the counselor should approach each client

within their cultural context. Heesoonjun (2018) states that " each client identity construction

results from not a single factor but multiple factors that interact with each other, such as race,

gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, religion, language, and sociocultural contexts" (p, 3).

Therefore, having multicultural competence would be an asset to any counselor who learns to

recognize and respect the client's cultural differences.

Moreover, a therapeutic relationship can be formed by listening to the client with an

open mind free from prejudices and biases as each client is unique as their culture and race.

According to Heesoonjun (2018), "the dominant discourse in multicultural counseling theories is

still race; the counselor should therefore obtain and accurately apply learned knowledge about

their client's racial group without minimizing or missing idiosyncrasies of the individual within

it" (p,3).
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What Areas of Multicultural and Social Justice Do You Need to Improve Upon to be an

Effective Counselor Working with a Diverse Population of Clients?

According to Heesoonjun (2018), "the foundation for assessment, diagnosis, and

treatment of a client is the counselor's intrapersonal communication on her perception,

worldview, interpersonal communication, with the ability to view the client's worldview" (p, 21).

To be effective, the counselor must be aware of her own biases, beliefs, and cultural values

during the counseling process and be mindful of the client's social environment. The counselor

must understand the complexities of multiculturalism and diversity in the relationship with their

clients in the areas that need improvement. 

The counselor would also need to know about integrating social justice advocacy into the

professional counseling arena's various modalities (Heesoonjun, 2018, p. 6). To become better in

their profession, the counselor would also need to identify and acknowledge the existence of

oppression and its negative influences on specific populations' psychological well-being. The

movie The Hate You Give shows how essential it is to understand the black communities'

cultural and social dissonance. For the advancement in working with a diverse population of

clients, the counselor would need to improve her multicultural competencies and learn what it

means to advocate for clients by being educated about society's opportunities and privileges
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References

Johnson, G. S., & Miller, G. (2018, December 07). The use of evidence-based practices with

oppressed populations. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from

https://ct.counseling.org/2018/12/the-use-of-evidence-based-practices-with-oppressed-

populations.

Jun, H. (2019). Social Justice, Multicultural Counseling, and Practice: Beyond a conventional

approach (2nd ed.). Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi:(eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72514-7.

Tillman, J., Jnr (Director). (2018). The Hate You Give [Video file]. United States: 20th Century

Fox. Retrieved August 25, 2020.

American Psychological Association 6th edition formatting by BibMe.org.