Dear Martin
Summary:
Justyce is a Black seventeen-year-old high school student at an almost all-white private school. When Justyce is arrested when police misinterpret him helping his girlfriend, the injustices of the experience of young Black men become heightened for Justyce. He begins studying the work of Dr Martin Luther King, keeping a diary of letters to Martin, charting his experiences and emotions as he struggles to understand the ongoing injustices faced by the Black community in the USA.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
The novel confronts the violence against young Black men in various ways throughout the novel, how Black boys are racially profiled and constructed as a threat in contemporary US society, and how this all too frequently results in the perpetration of violence and murder in the Black community. Throughout the book, incidents from the news are reported about the killings of Black boys, and Justyce experiences racism in a myriad of ways. However, Black girls are not represented with the same depth or complexity.