RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN ANGIE THOMAS’ THE HATE U GIVE AND NIC STONE’S DEAR MARTIN

This study examines racial discrimination as reflected in Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and Nic Stone’s Dear Martin, two contemporary African American novels that interrogate the lived realities of systemic racism, social inequality, and the struggles of Black youth in America. The research explores how both writers employ fiction as a mirror of society, using young protagonists—Starr Carter and Justyce McAllister—to expose the recurring injustices of police brutality, racial profiling, and the silencing of Black voices. Through the framework of Critical Race Theory, the study investigates how race and power intersect to shape individual and collective experience, while also analysing the use of narrative techniques such as repetition, epistolary form, and point of view in constructing emotional and moral depth. The methodology is qualitative and interpretive, relying on close textual reading and comparative analysis to reveal how both novels humanise the statistics of racial violence by giving them personal and affective dimensions. Ultimately, this study argues that The Hate U Give and Dear Martin do not merely recount the pain of Black existence; they reclaim agency through language, resistance, and truth-telling, positioning young Black voices at the centre of America’s ongoing discourse on justice and equality