Black Lives Matter: Police Brutality, Media and Injustice in "The Hate U Give," "Dear White People," and "On the Other Side of Freedom"

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the connection between activism and the use of social media in contemporary stories, belonging to different genres. The study scrutinizes two literary works, Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give (2017), DeRay McKesson’s memoir On the Other Side of Freedom (2018), and a TV series directed and written by Justin Simien–Dear White People (2017). With a methodological approach constituted by works of sociology, history, and cultural studies, this text-focused analysis exposes the intersection of activism, literature, and television. Different genres address the same issues with a common ground: with the support and filter of social media, these stories reveal incidents of police brutality, and episodes traceable to the rise of#BlackLivesMatter. Moreover, the protagonists of these narratives find in activism a way to accomplish personal realization. All in all, the results of this investigation illustrate how social media are not the primary focus in the narration of moments of crisis or change, but slowly acquire a central role in the characters’ interactions and in the dynamics connected with forms of protests. McKesson’s memoir differs in its personal and specific representation of the use of social networks as an essential instrument for activism in the twenty-first century.