Chapters 7–9 Summary and Analysis
Chapter 7
On the day before Khalil's funeral, Starr is at school, worrying about how Khalil will look in the coffin. Maya and Hailey are protecting her from Chris; Starr has begun to feel it is disrespectful to the Black men in her life to have a white boyfriend.
The girls are watching a basketball game, and Starr notes that Hailey is expressing feminist anger about double standards yet doesn't seem as concerned about racial inequality. When the girls join the game, Chris makes his way over to Starr and tells her he misses her. She confesses that she misses him, too, and he begs her to talk to him.
Hailey shouts at Starr to stay on the ball as she would if it were "fried chicken," which astonishes Starr. Hailey denies that the remark was racist. This leads to a conversation about the shooting in Starr's neighborhood, which the press has described as the shooting of a drug dealer. Starr lies that she didn't know Khalil and then denies that this is the anniversary of Natasha's death. She begins to cry and is called to the headmaster's office, where she says she is unwell and calls Carlos to come and collect her.
Carlos signs her out and takes her for frozen yogurt. He doesn't believe her claim that she is suffering from "feminine problems," and nor does Lisa when he calls her. Lisa asks what happened and whether she is upset about Khalil. Carlos pushes Starr to answer, and Starr asks him whether he is friends with One-Fifteen. Carlos says the case is difficult, but Starr asks whether he, Carlos, would have killed Khalil and then tells him that One-Fifteen pointed his gun at her. Carlos hugs her and apologizes, but it feels inadequate.
Chapter 8
Khalil's funeral is at Christ Temple, a church the Carter family no longer attends because of an altercation involving Starr's grandmother and a church picnic. Starr thinks Khalil's body in the casket looks like a mannequin, just as Natasha's did.
The choir sings upbeat songs in celebration of Khalil's life, but Starr doesn't feel like celebrating. A woman with natural twists announces herself as April Ofrah of Just Us for Justice, an association demanding police accountability. She says that Khalil was unarmed when he was murdered and that she won't give up until Khalil receives justice, so after the service, the group will march peacefully past the police station to the cemetery.
At the end of the ceremony, King and his men arrive as they would at a funeral for a member of their gang, the King Lords. They go up to Khalil's body, and King lays a gray bandana across his chest. Rosalie leaps up and takes it off him, then shouts that Iesha has come into church dressed as a prostitute. Eventually the King Lords leave, and Starr processes the information that Khalil, too, must have been a King Lord, which horrifies her.
Starr begins to cry. Lisa decides to take her back to their store while Maverick joins the march with the other young people, but April Ofrah intercepts them and says she wants to represent Starr to make sure her voice is heard. She asks Starr to call her when she's ready to speak.
Chapter 9
That night, gunshots ring out in the neighborhood. Maverick calls home to say his wife and children should hide in the den, as it has no exterior walls, and lock the door. He is staying at the store. The cops fire tear gas into the crowd of protestors, and the neighborhood sounds like...
(This entire section contains 1169 words.)
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a warzone. Because it's on television, Starr's friends call and text to check she's okay, as does Carlos. Khalil's name is being given on television, but the reports say there was a gun in his car and suggest he deserved to die.
The next morning, Seven wakes Starr for basketball at the park as if nothing has happened. While they're playing, some young boys come over and ask whether Seven is a King Lord, then try to mug him—they're members of the Garden Disciples, a rival gang. However, a King Lord comes over to break up the altercation. Seven introduces him as DeVante, and Seven realizes this is the boy Kenya is interested in.
When Maverick arrives, the King Lords in the park laugh, but Starr and Seven are forced to get into the car. Maverick criticizes them for leaving the house without telling anyone; Lisa punishes them both when they get home by taking their phones from them.
Lisa, Sekani, and Starr go to Carlos's house, and in the car, Lisa reminds Starr that none of this is her fault. She says that Maya, who lives near Carlos, can come and see her if she likes, but Starr is grounded. Carlos, his wife, various of Starr's aunts, and her Nana are all at Carlos's house, where a barbecue is being held.
Chris knocks on the door and apologizes again about the condom incident. Starr says she hasn't been ignoring him because of that, but she can't explain because he wouldn't understand. When he presses, she shouts that it's because he's white. Chris doesn't understand, and eventually when he says he needs to have Starr in his life, Starr relents and takes his hand. She thinks she can never tell Chris she is the witness in the shooting, because he makes her feel normal.
Analysis
Starr's argument with Chris at the end of this section, in which she tells him that she has been avoiding him because he is white and she is Black, serves as an illustration of Starr's situation in microcosm. While she feels as if everything is black and white, in fact there are many shades of gray that are making Starr begin to doubt herself. On one level, she knows that Khalil was unlawfully killed by a white police officer, and this has made her struggle with the idea of dating a white boy. However, she also realizes that things are not as black and white as this: Chris is not the police officer who shot Khalil, and he understands her in many ways and can support her in a way that she needs, even though she feels sure he would never be able to deal with the fact that she is the witness in Khalil’s shooting. At the same time, Starr is also beginning to recognize that Khalil was far more involved with drugs than she ever knew. This makes her uncomfortable because it has become the focus of the press reports about the shooting and because it paints a picture of Khalil that is, once again, less black and white than she had thought. Although Khalil's involvement with drugs was not directly a factor in his shooting, Starr recognizes that it problematizes the situation as a whole. This understanding also helps her to think differently about her Uncle Carlos as a police officer but also a Black man she adores and respects.
