Thomas responded to these challenges by defending the book's message and saying that it is a spur for conversation. Daddy believes in Black Jesus but follows the Black Panthers’ Ten-Point Program more than the Ten Commandments. At first I thought my mom might say something about it, but she was like, “He could be polka dot, as long as he’s not a criminal and he’s treating you right. Hailey demands an apology from Starr for her poor behavior and suggests Khalil deserved to die because he was a drug dealer. She navigates this differing terrain every day of her life until her worlds collide when she witnesses the fatal police shooting of her best friend, Khalil, an unarmed black teen.

I've seen it happen over and over again: a black person gets killed just for being black, and all hell breaks loose. After a grand jury fails to indict One-Fifteen, Garden Heights erupts into both peaceful protests and riots.These themes, as well as the vulgar language, attracted some controversy and caused the book to be one of the most challenged books of 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 according to the American Library Association. What happens next crystallises the Black Lives Matter movement and indeed, the whole debate about race in America. It’s unnerving to read that part of the toolkit for raising a black child in America is to coach them on the dos and don’ts if confronted by the law. Some days, we are at the bottom in Garden Heights, but we still share the feeling that damn, it could be worse.

Widely feared in the neighborhood, King now lives with Seven's mother, Seven's half-sister Kenya, who is friends with Starr, and Kenya's little sister, Lyric. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, it involves the police shooting of an unarmed black teen. At the party, Starr is acutely aware of the double-sided personality this lifestyle engenders: she tries not to act “ghetto” at school, but neighborhood kids accuse her of abandoning them for white friends.Starr’s boyfriend, Chris, and her other friend, Maya, support her, but they still do not know she is the witness to Khalil’s murder. I knew I’d be uncomfortable as hell, but every time I told Kenya no she said I act like I’m “too good for a Garden party. She left them as she was furious that her classmates are using Khalil’s death as a break from school. Maverick inspires Starr by educating her on Black Power philosophy, but he struggles with balancing his values of Black liberation with the reality that those values put him and his family in danger.