Hate U Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Hate U. Here they are! All 100 of them:

What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Brave doesn't mean you're not scared. It means you go on even though you're scared.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
That's the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I can't change where I come from or what I've been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Pac said Thug Life stood for 'The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody'.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
To every kid in Georgetown and in all “the Gardens” of the world: your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be roses that grow in the concrete.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Be roses that grow in the concrete.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Once you've seen how broken someone is it's like seeing them naked—you can't look at them the same anymore.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
You can destroy wood and brick, but you can't destroy a movement.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
People say misery loves company, but I think it’s like that with anger too.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts.
Hunter S. Thompson (Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century)
Good-byes hurt the most when the other person’s already gone.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Intentions always look better on paper than in reality.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Daddy once told me there's a rage passed down to every black man from his ancestors, born the moment they couldn't stop the slave masters from hurting their families. Daddy also said there's nothing more dangerous than when that rage is activated.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug. He lived, but not nearly long enough, and for the rest of my life I'll remember how he died. Fairy tale? No. But I'm not giving up on a better ending.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Your voices matter, your dreams matter, your lives matter. Be the roses that grow in the concrete.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I've seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve tweeted RIP hashtags, reblogged pictures on Tumblr, and signed every petition out there. I always said that if I saw it happen to somebody, I would have the loudest voice, making sure the world knew what went down. Now I am that person, and I’m too afraid to speak.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
My son loved working in the neighborhood," One-Fifteen's father claims. "He always wanted to make a difference in the lives there." Funny. Slave masters thought they were making a difference in black people’s lives too. Saving them from their “wild African ways.” Same shit, different century. I wish people like them would stop thinking that people like me need saving.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Don’t let them put words in your mouth. God gave you a brain. You don’t need theirs.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
A hairbrush is not a gun.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Funerals aren't for dead people. They're for the living.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
….watch me rise like smoke from fire. Watch me fly above your hate. Watch me dance upon your meanness like a ballerina with posture; grace. Watch me laugh over your hatred; watch me soar above your sea of grief. And know that I am out there somewhere… C R U S H I N G.
Coco J. Ginger
Holy shit. Who the fuck complains about going to Harry Potter World? Or Butter Beer? Or wands?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
THIS HATE U GIVE LITTLE INFANTS FUCK EVERBODY
Tupac Shakur
Listen! The Hate U—the letter U—Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. T-H-U-G L-I-F-E. Meaning what society give us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it?” “Damn.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
This is exactly what They expect you to do," Momma says. They with a capital T. There's Them and then there's Us. Sometimes They look like Us and don't recognize They are Us.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
It's kinda like how we have to do with ourselves. Get rid of the things that don't do us any good. If it won't help the rose grow, you've gotta let it go.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
If bravery is a medical condition, everybody's misdiagnosed me.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
When you fight, you put yourself out there, not caring who you hurt or if you'll get hurt.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
It’s also about Oscar. Aiyana. Trayvon. Rekia. Michael. Eric. Tamir. John. Ezell. Sandra. Freddie. Alton. Philando. It’s even about that little boy in 1955 who nobody recognized at first—Emmett.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
You still got that old laptop? The one you had before we bought you that expensive-ass fruit one?" I laugh. "It's an Apple MacBook, Daddy." "It damn sure wasn't the price of an apple. Anyway, you got the old one?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
He got a tan over break. I used to tell him he was so pale he looked like a marshmallow. He hated that I compared him to food. I told him that's what he got for calling me caramel. It shut him up.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
What is Tumblr anyway? Is it like Facebook?" "No, and you're forbidden to get one. No parents allowed. You guys already took over Facebook.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Besties before testes.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
People are realizing and shouting and marching and demanding. They’re not forgetting. I think that’s the most important part.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Living your life based off what other people think, ain’t living at all.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
Khalil, I'll never forget. I'll never give up. I'll never be quiet. I promise.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench.
Bahá'u'lláh
The truth casts a shadow over the kitchen—people like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice. I think we all wait for that one time though, that one time when it ends right.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Something to live for, something to die for.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
He was more than any bad decision he made.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Don’t fall for that trap. That’s what they want. If you don’t wanna speak out, that’s up to you, but don’t let it be because you’re scared of them. Who do I tell you that you have to fear?” “Nobody but God.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
I've taught myself to speak with two different voices and only say certain things around certain people. I’ve mastered it.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That's Thug Life.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
But I realize that being real ain't got anything to do with where you live.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
DeVante’s got a point. What makes his name or our names any less normal than yours? Who or what defines ‘normal’ to you? If my pops were here, he’d say you’ve fallen into the trap of the white standard.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Daddy claims the Hogwarts houses are really gangs. They have their own colors, their own hideouts, and they are always riding for each other, like gangs. Harry, Ron, and Hermione never snitch on one another, just like gangbangers. Death Eaters even have matching tattoos. And look at Voldemort. They’re scared to say his name. Really, that “He Who Must Not Be Named” stuff is like giving him a street name. That’s some gangbanging shit right there.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
Son, one of the biggest lies ever told is that black men don't feel emotions. Guess it's easier not to see us as human when you think we're heartless. Fact of the matter is, we feel things. Hurt, pain, sadness, all of it. We got a right to show them feelings as much as anybody else.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
And at the end of the day, you don’t kill someone for opening a car door. If you do, you shouldn’t be a cop.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
Right. Lack of opportunities," Daddy says. "Corporate America don't bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain't quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don't prepare us well enough. That's why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed. Our schools don't get the resources to equip you like Williamson does. It's easier to find some crack that it is the find a good school around here. "Now, think 'bout this," he says. "How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry we talking 'bout, baby. That shit is flown into our communities, but I don't know anybody with a private jet. Do you?" "No." "Exactly. Drugs come from somewhere, and they're destroying our community," he says. "You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can't get jobs unless they're clean, and they can't pay for rehab unless they got jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That's Thug Life.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Defend my honor protect my pride the good advice i always hated but looking back it made me greater .. u make me laugh u make me hoarse from yelling at you and getting at u ...
Nicki Minaj
When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me. One was the usual birds and bees. Well, I didn't really get the usual version. My mom, Lisa, is a registered nurse, and she told me what went where, and what didn't need to go here, there, or any damn where till I'm grown. Back then, I doubted anything was going anywhere anyway. While all the other girls sprouted breasts between sixth and seventh grade, my chest was as flat as my back. The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me. Momma fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. He argued that I wasn't too young to get arrested or shot. "Starr-Starr, you do whatever they tell you to do," he said. "Keep your hands visible. Don't make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you." I knew it must've been serious. Daddy has the biggest mouth of anybody I know, and if he said to be quiet, I needed to be quiet. I hope somebody had the talk with Khalil.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
You need Saturday to recover and Sunday to repent.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Are you serious right now?” Hailey asks. “What’s wrong with saying his life matters too?” “His life always matters more!” My voice is gruff, and my throat is tight. “That’s the problem!” “Starr!
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
looked me in the eye and, said, ' Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
It's like a 'Fragile' sticker's on my forehead, and instead of taking a chance and saying something that might break me, they'd rather say nothing at all. But the silence is worst.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
You gotta love people enough to let them go, especially when you're the reason they're gone.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
Nobody can hate man more than man.
Karel Čapek (R.U.R.)
Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is never stop doing right.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I never know which Starr I should be. I can use some slang, but not too much slang, some attitude, but not too much attitude, so I’m not a 'sassy black girl.' I have to watch what I say and how I say it, but I can’t sound 'white.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
But you just choose because that's where you want to be. Not because you were trying to do somebody else's job. You hear me?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I'd ask him if he wished he shot me too.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I hope none of them ask about my spring break. They went to Taipei, the Bahamas, Harry Potter World. I stayed in the hood and saw a cop kill my friend.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Slave masters thought they were making a difference in black people’s lives too. Saving them from their “wild African ways.” Same shit, different century. I wish people like them would stop thinking that people like me need saving.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
God gave you a brain. You don't need theirs.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Because he never said it first---he would only ever say 'I love you, too.' And I would hate to think that he was talking about the band U2 the whole time, you know?
Alicia Thompson (Psych Major Syndrome)
Her red eyes remind me of what Khalil said when we were little, that his momma had turned into a dragon. He claimed that one day he’d become a knight and turn her back.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Granny do them long prayers, man. She act like God don't know what's going on and it's her job to fill him in
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
Even if he was, I knew that boy. Watched him grow up with you. He was more than any bad decision he made,” he says. “I hate that I let myself fall into that mind-set of trying to rationalize his death. And at the end of the day, you don’t kill someone for opening a car door.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give)
Once upon a time there was a hazel-eyed boy with dimples. I called him Khalil. The world called him a thug.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Our friendship is based on memories. What do we have now?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
My two worlds just collided. Surprisingly, everything's all right.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I'm tired of hearing about all these fucked-up white people who did a bunch of fucked-up stuff, yet people wanna call them heroes
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
Marie's drunk texts: Marie: Horse, muss yu Marie: Why dont anser? Marie: Horse like yur name. Horsey. I'd like to rid u horsey, LOL. You sleeping? Or busy with someone? Marie: I know yur there. I bet you got a new gurl alredy. Screw you. Marie: Screw you and your slut. I hate you. Take yur club and shove it up yur ass I wudn't be yoor old lady for ten milion dollrs.
Joanna Wylde (Reaper's Property (Reapers MC, #1))
I don't have to wait around for her to change. I can let go.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Keep Pushing Mav," Rico Says ," Tough situations don't last. Tough People Do.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
I'll never forget. I'll never give up. I'll never be quiet. I promise.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
But I'm tired of them just assuming.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
You have to decide if the relationship is worth salvaging. Make a list of the good stuff, then made a list of the bad stuff. If one outweighs the other, then you know what you gotta do. Trust me, that method hasn't failed me yet. . . . What if the good doesn't outweigh the bad? . . . Then let her go. And if you keep her in your life and she keeps doing the bad, let her go.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Some things I can't reveal, like Natasha. One you've seen how broken someone is it's like seeing them naked—you can't look at them the same anymore.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
I look at the stars again. Daddy says he named me Starr because I was his light in the darkness. I need some light in my own darkness right about now.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
The world got some nerve going on without him. People laughing and dreaming when Dre can't.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
They act like I’m the official representative of the black race and they owe me an explanation. I think I understand though. If I sit out a protest, I’m making a statement, but if they sit out a protest, they look racist.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Hoedom is universal.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
Loving you isn't enough. Being hard on you isn't enough. I haven't been enough.
Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0))
Who said talking isn’t doing something?’ she says. It’s more productive than silence.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
We ain't gotta live there to change things, baby. We just gotta give a damn...
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
We want freedom,' I say. 'We want the power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
A hairbrush. Khalil died over a fucking hairbrush.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
What is morality? It is not the following of enjoined rules of conduct. It is not a question of standing above temptations, or of conquering hate, anger, greed, lust and violence. Questioning your actions before and after creates the moral problem. What is responsible for this situation is the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong and influencing your actions accordingly.Life is action. Unquestioned action is morality. Questioning your actions is destroying the expression of life. A person who lets life act in its own way without the protective movement of thought has no self to defend. What need will he have to lie or cheat or pretend or to commit any other act which his society considers immoral?
U.G. Krishnamurti (The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U.G. Krishnamurti)
How could I explain why I'd acted that way? How could I explain how scary it was, to find out that I needed her so much? Was I supposed to tell her how she'd changed everything? Like how U hadn't even realized how bad I felt until she'd made it better, just by looking at me. Like how I thought she was awesome, bad-ass ninja, and what I hated was the fact that I knew I couldn't protect her, when that's all I wanted to do. How could I explain, without sounding like a complete asshole, that I was so afraid of losing her I pushed her away? I couldn't.
Susan Bischoff (Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles, #2))
As I brush my teeth, I scroll through my phone to see if Sabrina texted when my phone was on silent last night. She didn’t. Damn. I was hoping my speech—and that amazing fucking kiss—might’ve changed her mind about going out with me, but I guess it didn’t. I do, however, find the most mind-boggling conversation in the group chat I have with my roommates. All the messages are from last night, and they’re bizarre as fuck. Garrett: The hells, D?! Dean: It’s not what you think!! Logan: It’s hard to mistake ur romantic bath with that giant pink thing! In ur ass! Dean: It wasn’t in my ass! Garrett: I’m not even going to ask where it was Dean: I had a girl over! Garrett: Suuuuuuuuure Logan: Suuuuuuuuure Dean: I hate you guys Garrett: <3 Logan: <3 I rinse my mouth out, spit, and drop the toothbrush into the little cup on the sink. Then I quickly type out a text. Me: Wait… what did I miss? Since we have practice in twenty minutes, the guys are already awake and clearly on their phones. Two photos pop up simultaneously. Garrett and Logan have both sent me pics of pink dildos. I’m even more confused now. Dean messages immediately with, Why do you guys have dildo pics handy? Logan: ALINIMB Dean: ?? Me: ?? Garrett: At Least It’s Not In My Butt. I snort to myself, because I’m starting to piece it together. Logan: Nice, G! U got that on the first try! Garrett: We spend too much time 2gether. Me: PLEASE tell me u caught D playing w/ dildos. Logan: Sure did. Dean is quick to object again. I HAD A GIRL OVER! The guys and I rag on him for a couple more minutes, but I have to stop when Fitzy stumbles into the bathroom and shoves me aside. He’s got crazy bedhead and he’s buck-naked. “Gotta piss,” he mumbles. “Mornin’, sunshine,” I say cheerfully. “Want me to make you some coffee?” “God. Yes. Please.” Chuckling, I duck out of the bathroom and walk the four or so steps into his kitchenette. When he finally emerges, I shove a cup of coffee in his hand, sip my own, and say, “Dean shoved a dildo up his ass last night.” Fitzy nods. “Makes sense.” I snicker mid-sip. Coffee spills over the rim of my cup. “It really does, huh?
Elle Kennedy (The Goal (Off-Campus, #4))
Daddy, you’re the worst person to watch Harry Potter with. The whole time you’re talking about”—I deepen my voice—“‘Why don’t they shoot that nigga Voldemort?’” “Ay, it don’t make sense that in all them movies and books, nobody thought to shoot him.” “If it’s not that,” Momma says, “you’re giving your ‘Harry Potter is about gangs’ theory.” “It is!” he says. Okay, so it is a good theory. Daddy claims the Hogwarts houses are really gangs. They have their own colors, their own hideouts, and they are always riding for each other, like gangs. Harry, Ron, and Hermione never snitch on one another, just like gangbangers. Death Eaters even have matching tattoos. And look at Voldemort. They’re scared to say his name. Really, that “He Who Must Not Be Named” stuff is like giving him a street name. That’s some gangbanging shit right there. “Y’all know that make a lot of sense,” Daddy says. “Just ’cause they was in England don’t mean they wasn’t gangbanging.” He looks at me. “So you down to hang out with your old man today or what?
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
WebMD calls it a stage of grief - anger. But I doubt I'll ever get to the other stages. This one slices me into millions of pieces. Every time I'm whole and back to normal, something happens to tear me apart, and I'm forced to start all over again. The rain lets up. The devil stops beating his wife, but I beat the dashboard, punching it over and over, numb to the pain of it. I wanna be numb to the pain of all this.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
A’ight, so what do you think it means?” “You don’t know?” I ask. “I know. I wanna hear what YOU think.” Here he goes. Picking my brain. “Khalil said it’s about what society feeds us as youth and how it comes back and bites them later,” I say. “I think it’s about more than youth though. I think it’s about us, period.” “Us who?” he asks. “Black people, minorities, poor people. Everybody at the bottom in society.” “The oppressed,” says Daddy. “Yeah. We’re the ones who get the short end of the stick, but we’re the ones they fear the most. That’s why the government targeted the Black Panthers, right? Because they were scared of the Panthers?” “Uh-huh,” Daddy says. “The Panthers educated and empowered the people. That tactic of empowering the oppressed goes even further back than the Panthers though. Name one.” Is he serious? He always makes me think. This one takes me a second. “The slave rebellion of 1831,” I say. “Nat Turner empowered and educated other slaves, and it led to one of the biggest slave revolts in history.” “A’ight, a’ight. You on it.” He gives me dap. “So, what’s the hate they’re giving the ‘little infants’ in today’s society?” “Racism?” “You gotta get a li’l more detailed than that. Think ’bout Khalil and his whole situation. Before he died.” “He was a drug dealer.” It hurts to say that. “And possibly a gang member.” “Why was he a drug dealer? Why are so many people in our neighborhood drug dealers?” I remember what Khalil said—he got tired of choosing between lights and food. “They need money,” I say. “And they don’t have a lot of other ways to get it.” “Right. Lack of opportunities,” Daddy says. “Corporate America don’t bring jobs to our communities, and they damn sure ain’t quick to hire us. Then, shit, even if you do have a high school diploma, so many of the schools in our neighborhoods don’t prepare us well enough. That’s why when your momma talked about sending you and your brothers to Williamson, I agreed. Our schools don’t get the resources to equip you like Williamson does. It’s easier to find some crack than it is to find a good school around here. “Now, think ’bout this,” he says. “How did the drugs even get in our neighborhood? This is a multibillion-dollar industry we talking ’bout, baby. That shit is flown into our communities, but I don’t know anybody with a private jet. Do you?” “No.” “Exactly. Drugs come from somewhere, and they’re destroying our community,” he says. “You got folks like Brenda, who think they need them to survive, and then you got the Khalils, who think they need to sell them to survive. The Brendas can’t get jobs unless they’re clean, and they can’t pay for rehab unless they got jobs. When the Khalils get arrested for selling drugs, they either spend most of their life in prison, another billion-dollar industry, or they have a hard time getting a real job and probably start selling drugs again. That’s the hate they’re giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That’s Thug Life.
Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give (The Hate U Give, #1))
It’s of some interest that the lively arts of the millennial U.S.A. treat anhedonia and internal emptiness as hip and cool. It’s maybe the vestiges of the Romantic glorification of Weltschmerz, which means world-weariness or hip ennui. Maybe it’s the fact that most of the arts here are produced by world-weary and sophisticated older people and then consumed by younger people who not only consume art but study it for clues on how to be cool, hip — and keep in mind that, for kids and younger people, to be hip and cool is the same as to be admired and accepted and included and so Unalone. Forget so-called peer-pressure. It’s more like peer-hunger. No? We enter a spiritual puberty where we snap to the fact that the great transcendent horror is loneliness, excluded encagement in the self. Once we’ve hit this age, we will now give or take anything, wear any mask, to fit, be part-of, not be Alone, we young. The U.S. arts are our guide to inclusion. A how-to. We are shown how to fashion masks of ennui and jaded irony at a young age where the face is fictile enough to assume the shape of whatever it wears. And then it’s stuck there, the weary cynicism that saves us from gooey sentiment and unsophisticated naïveté. Sentiment equals naïveté on this continent (at least since the Reconfiguration). One of the things sophisticated viewers have always liked about J. O. Incandenza’s The American Century as Seen Through a Brick is its unsubtle thesis that naïveté is the last true terrible sin in the theology of millennial America. And since sin is the sort of thing that can be talked about only figuratively, it’s natural that Himself’s dark little cartridge was mostly about a myth, viz. that queerly persistent U.S. myth that cynicism and naïveté are mutually exclusive. Hal, who’s empty but not dumb, theorizes privately that what passes for hip cynical transcendence of sentiment is really some kind of fear of being really human, since to be really human (at least as he conceptualizes it) is probably to be unavoidably sentimental and naïve and goo-prone and generally pathetic, is to be in some basic interior way forever infantile, some sort of not-quite-right-looking infant dragging itself anaclitically around the map, with big wet eyes and froggy-soft skin, huge skull, gooey drool. One of the really American things about Hal, probably, is the way he despises what it is he’s really lonely for: this hideous internal self, incontinent of sentiment and need, that pules and writhes just under the hip empty mask, anhedonia. 281 281 - This had been one of Hal’s deepest and most pregnant abstractions, one he’d come up with once while getting secretly high in the Pump Room. That we’re all lonely for something we don’t know we’re lonely for. How else to explain the curious feeling that he goes around feeling like he misses somebody he’s never even met? Without the universalizing abstraction, the feeling would make no sense.
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)