Racial Profiling And The Criminilization Of The Black Youth In The Hate U Give By Angie Thomas (2017)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the way aggressive policing affects the life of young black people in Thomas Angie's novel, The Hate U Give.(2017) The racial categorization of Black Americans as dangerous or violent criminals threatening the well being of the whites has resulted in a strong belief that they need to be controlled at whatever cost. (Henning,2021; Taylor, 2016 Weissinger et al, 2017). Accordingly, agencies of social control, like the police forces, and the legal system that are supposed to protect the Black community , have become a source of fear and despair, demeaning, humiliating, and killing young black people by virtue of their skin color. Through her female protagonist's experience with police brutality and racism, , Angie Thomas seeks to set the ground for discussion of black people's experience of racial profiling and criminalization. She addresses questions of social inequity, racist law enforcement , and the immunity of the white police. She also aims at celebrating the memories of the young people gone prematurely and tragically.