
Have you seen the movie?
Bright lights flicker and fade to grey and then darkness.
I scooch back into my snuggly, red plush seat, and the projector reveals a figure on the screen. I look right, barely able to make out the face of my girlfriend sitting only inches away. The pitch black of the theater invites me to focus on one image — the man about to speak to me, large and looming, straight ahead. I feel a connection with the man on the screen because his face is the only face that is illuminated. The darkness of the theater has a special kind of superpower. It creates an intimacy between myself and the man who has just introduced himself as George Tillman, Jr — the incredibly gifted and bold director of The Hate You Give.
His deep voice speaks. With conviction, Tillman looks into the camera, his eyes seemingly focused on the millions of us sitting in the theater. He introduces this story of Starr, an African-American teenager whose name was gifted her by her father, that she might be a bright light for truth. The book was written by Angie Thomas.
But the story is also being written out in our lives today. How will we respond in conversations about racism? Will we be receptive to hearing and seeing the social ramifications created by hundreds of years of white-impelled shame on people of color? [Read more…] about The Hate You Give, Brene Brown, and Jesus