The Hate U Give: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

Khalil’s name finally appears on the news, along with the title “Suspected Drug Dealer.” The news does not mention that he was unarmed, and says the police spoke to an “unnamed witness.”

At Williamson, fried chicken is served for lunch in the cafeteria, much to Starr’s delight. In gym class, Starr sits between Hailey and Maya and scoffs at a girls vs. boys basketball game in which the girls mostly flirt instead of playing. Starr spots Chris on a bench, and looks at him as though she has suddenly “really, really” realized that he is white—a fact that feels like a “fuck you” to the black men in her life. She wonders if she is betraying Khalil by dating him.

Hailey drags Starr and Maya onto the basketball court to play. Starr doesn’t really want to join in the game, and reflects that, without her noticing it, Hailey has somehow become the leader in their friend group. The game starts off well until Starr becomes distracted by Chris. To Starr’s shock and disgust, Hailey yells for her to “pretend the ball is some fried chicken.” They lose the game, and afterwards Starr calls Hailey out about “making a fried chicken comment to the only black girl in the room.” Hailey is utterly indignant at the insinuation that she could possibly have said something racist, insisting it was just a joke in reference to lunch earlier that day.

Hailey and Maya ask if the Khalil they heard about on the news was the same Khalil who attended Starr’s birthday parties as a child, and if that is why she is behaving weirdly. Hailey dismissively refers to Khalil as “the drug dealer,” and Starr realizes that is all the world will ever see Khalil as. Worried what they will think of her, Starr denies knowing Khalil. She feels as though this is the ultimate betrayal.

Hailey then asks Starr if she is upset because of the anniversary of Natasha’s death, reminding Starr that the anniversary of her own mother’s death was a few weeks earlier. Starr bursts into tears and the gym teacher sends her to the school shrink. Not wanting pity, Starr runs off before her classmates see her crying and think of her as a “the Weak Black Girl.”

Starr goes to the headmaster’s office instead of the shrink’s, and fakes menstrual cramps to convince Carlos to sign her out of school. He takes her to get frozen yogurt, and, unconvinced by her act, asks what is going on. Starr says that because she had not seen Khalil in months before his death, she is worried about attending the funeral. She then pushes Carlos to explain why One-Fifteen has not been arrested yet. Carlos defends his colleague, saying one can never know how they will react in that sort of situation. He cannot say definitively whether he would have shot Khalil too. Starr confesses that One-Fifteen pointed his gun at her, too, and Carlos holds her. He repeatedly tells her “I’m sorry,” and that he knows “that’s not enough.”