Garden Heights (Symbol)
The neighborhood of Garden Heights acts as a concrete symbol for the idea of a place where black people can have community and find connection with one another. Maverick is from Garden Heights, and even though he and Lisa could afford to move their family somewhere else, he chooses to stay there so that they can be part of the community and help make it a better place to live. Garden Heights can be a dangerous place, and in some ways also represents the effects of black Americans being left behind by structures of power, the ways that they are held back and pushed into desperate situations. Ultimately, the Carters choose to stay in the community, even after all they have been through, so that they can continue to make it a safer and better place to live for their children. Garden Heights represents a place with immense potential and a strong sense of community.
Staring (Symbols)
We see Starr and Chris kiss in the hallway at Williamson, the fancy, predominately white prep school they both attend. As they kiss, we see two white girls staring at them coldly. Their stares are a symbol of the underlying racial prejudice held by the people at the school. They are skeptical and curious about Chris and Starr's relationship, and their stares represent the alienation that Starr faces in her affluent school community.
Wand (Symbol)
Starr has a box with objects that hold great meaning to her. In it, she has two Harry Potter wands. One is hers, another Natasha's. She, Natasha, and Khalil used to play with the wands as children, and at the end of the film, she goes into Khalil's bedroom and finds his wand, putting it in the box with the others. As she holds up her own wand, it represents her sense of self, and her grasp of her own "super powers." Having been through so much adversity, Starr now picks up a wand that symbolizes the ways that she will continue to overcome the unthinkable and fight for what she believes in.
Guns (Motif)
Guns are a motif throughout the film. The very first scene shows Maverick teaching his young children what to do if they are ever pulled over by a cop, to ensure that the cop does not shoot them. Later, when Khalil grabs his hairbrush, the officer mistakes it for a gun and kills him. Starr's friend Natasha is killed as a child by a drive-by shooting. Then, at the end, Sekani gets ahold of a gun and points it at King. The police officers who arrive at the scene point their own guns at Sekani, and Starr must step in front of him with her hands up to get everyone to put down their guns. Guns represent aggression in the face of fear. Everyone who brandishes a gun in the film has something to fear: the cop who kills Khalil is afraid of Khalil, King is afraid of being arrested, Sekani is afraid of King killing his father. The guns represent the ways that people act out and spread hate in the face of their own fear.
THUG LIFE (Allegory)
Originated by the rapper Tupac Shakur, the acronym "THUG LIFE" stands for "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody." It's an allegory for the oppression of the black race, the fact that the hatred transmitted to black children only turns them into dangerous adults, thus creating a repetition of violence. The acronym represents the ways that violence begets violence, the fact that the issue of racism is a structural problem that reverberates across history. It takes a brave soul (like Starr) to break this cycle.
