Abstract:
Within African American literature, several authors feature
Black criminals as the focal characters of their novels. Through the literary
analyses of two such novels (Richard Wright’s Native Son and Angie Thomas’s The
Hate U Give), this presentation seeks to defend these authors’ controversial
character choices as a form of social protest. Some critics see the inclusion
of criminals in these novels as harmful stereotypes that prove detrimental to
the fight for civil rights, which is relevant in a time in which African
Americans killed by police are commonly attributed to these negative
stereotypes. Wright and Thomas, however, examine these characters not to
explore their statuses as criminals, but to explore why they resorted to crime
in the first place. This leads these authors to question the legitimacy of the
criminal justice system by highlighting its own violence. Their works show how
the criminal justice system oppresses the Black community and excessively
punishes individuals who resort to crime due to poverty, lack of opportunity,
and institutional exploitation. They conclude that when the criminal justice
system demands order for the State rather than for restorative justice and the
welfare of the people, it is inherently violent, and thus, needs major reform.
This presentation also calls to reject reliance on respectability politics, to
support antiracist policies that help alleviate crime, and to respect the Black
voices in literature who have provided contributions to social justice and
positive, societal change.