Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Elham Omrani ¹
• Seyed Mohammad Marandi ²
• Maryam Soltan Beyad ³

¹ PhD Candidate of English Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

² Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

³ Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The chronic problem of police brutality against Black communities prompted the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Rising protests revealed that the killings of African Americans were not isolated events, but symptoms of a system of racial injustice. Literature, in this respect, emerged as an important locus through which marginalized groups voice counter-narratives that oppose hegemonic racial logics and stereotypical representations of Blackness as criminality. While the sociopolitical implications of BLM have been thoroughly analyzed, there has been relatively less scholarly focus on how African-American Young Adult Literature (YAL) engages with, rearticulates, and negotiates these discourses. This article bridges that gap by subjecting Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give to the hotly debated Critical Race Theory to examine how the novel engages with the ideas of BLM and illuminates the structural dimensions of racism in America. The critique indicates that Thomas constructs a counter-narrative revolving around systemic racism, racial profiling, police brutality, white privilege, implicit bias, and the intersection of race with other forms of marginalization. Situating the novel in literary and activist contexts, this study highlights YAL’s potential to mirror, challenge, and redefine cultural consciousness, thus positioning the genre as an essential site of contemporary social justice activism.

Keywords

• Angie Thomas
• Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement
• Counter-narratives
• Critical Race Theory (CRT)
• Police brutality
• The Hate U Give
• Young Adult Literature

Main Subjects

• Sociopolitical Analysis of Literature