The Hate U Give: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

The next day at Williamson things are eerily quiet. Starr asks what is going on, and Hailey reveals that her brother, Remy, is starting a protest for Khalil simply to get out of class. Making matters worse, Hailey says it is messed up that they’re protesting a “drug dealer’s” death. A disgusted Starr tells her that should have nothing to do with it and tells Hailey to leave her alone. She decides she is “done following Hailey.” Five minutes into class students start chanting “Justice for Khalil” and students walk out of the classroom. Only Starr and Chris stay behind. Later in the lunchroom, Starr is happy to see that Jess, a friend from the basketball team who is white, refused to join the protest as well.  She, Starr, Chris, Seven, and Layla joke that they are protesting the “Get Out of Class Protest.”

After school, Starr sees Mr. Lewis standing outside Maverick’s store and preparing to give an on-camera interview. Maverick says it is in response to some cops getting jumped around the corner. Starr mentally begs the news crew not to put Mr. Lewis on live TV, but the interview begins. Mr. Lewis bluntly tells the interviewer that thugs have been terrorizing Garden Heights for years, and he will “name one right now they can come and get.” Much to Starr and her family’s horror, he then snitches on King.

Maverick calls Mr. Lewis crazy after the interview for snitching on television, insisting he is “a dead man walking.” Mr. Lewis asserts that unlike the rest of the neighborhood, he isn’t scared of King. He reveals the prosthetic leg he got from the war as well as a scar on his stomach he got “after some white boys cut me ‘cause I drank from their fountain.” Compared to all that, he says, King’s “games” are nothing. He says King is still controlling everyone in Garden Heights, including Maverick.

A police car with two officers shows up and they approach Maverick and Mr. Lewis. An officer named Larry, who is black, accuses Maverick of harassing Mr. Lewis, a claim both calmly deny. Starr notes that Mr. Lewis has his hands by his sides, and must have had “the talk” too. She also thinks they have targeted her father because of his baggy clothes and tattoos. Larry asks for Maverick’s ID, which he very slowly hands him, not wanting to make any sudden movements. Upon seeing his name, Larry forces Maverick to the ground and thrusts his knee into his back. A crowd of familiar neighborhood faces, including Mr. Reuben’s nephew Tim, has formed at this point; the officers tell them to leave, but they insist they this “is their business.” Larry begrudgingly lets Maverick up. Before the cops leave, Larry tells Maverick he will “keep an eye on him.”

After the incident, a shaken Maverick and the others go inside the store. Maverick slams his fists on the counter in anger. Mr. Lewis, no longer at odds with Maverick, tries to comfort him, while Sekani asks his siblings why the officers treated “daddy like that”? Seven comforts his little brother. Tim says that the officers humiliated him in order to scare Starr off from speaking up; news had spread that she was the witness.

Kenya overhears this and calls Starr a coward for not speaking up more on behalf of Khalil. She says that if Khalil were from Williamson, Starr would be have defended him, and further accuses Starr of abandoning both Khalil and her for the bougie world of her private school. Kenya insists Starr has a chance to help the entire neighborhood, and that Khalil would have spoken up for her.