How and why does the neighborhood react to the grand jury’s decision (Chapter 23)? How does Starr use her voice as a weapon, and why does she feel that it is vital that she does? Refer back to “Thug Life” and discuss how the acronym resonates in this chapter.
After a radio program announces that the grand jury decided not to indict Officer Cruise, Starr decides that she wants to protest and riot—since the police don’t care about her, she doesn’t care about the police. Kenya takes Lyric into her grandmother’s house in case Iesha shows up, while Seven, Chris, DeVante, and Starr drive to Magnolia where protests are occurring.
They park and walk onto the street, where King Lords and Garden Disciples burn a police car together, then move onto burning and looting all the stores on the street that aren’t tagged with “Black owned” graffiti. Groups of people chant “Fuck the police!” to an NWA song playing on a speaker, while a line of police in riot gear march down the street, followed by tanks. As more explosions occur and smoke fills the street, Starr and her friends rush back to Seven’s car and drive away.
Back in the car, conversation turns to the differences between black and white people. Seven points out that Chris has fallen into the trap of the white standard when Chris asks why black people have “odd” names. The group decides to go help Maverick protect the store, but there are so many roadblocks that they are forced to go to the east side—Garden Disciples territory. Seven’s car runs out of gas, and they are forced to abandon it to walk down the street to a gas station.
On their way to the gas station, the group runs into more protests occurring on Carnation, the street where Khalil was shot. Starr sees Ms. Ofrah leading protest chants from the top of a patrol car.
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