The opening scene in The Hate U Give is a flashback to patriarch Maverick Carter (Russell Hornsby) giving his children a stern lesson on how to behave when engaging with the police. As his wife Lisa (Regina Hall) looks on — finding the whole ordeal to be a bit much for their young children — he demands that they demonstrate how to place their hands flat on a visible surface. Maverick subscribes to the 10-point program of the Black Panther Party and has raised his children to keep it memorized and use it as a moral compass. On one hand, Maverick embodies a "strong Black man" archetype that is romanticized as the only kind of masculinity suited to lead a Black nuclear family. He is a woke king, with his own checkered past that includes gang affiliations and a prison stint that took him away from his wife and children. However, his experiences — and genuine love for his wife and children — have armed him with the tools to help his daughter through one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.