Maggie Spire

Mrs. Fillman

Hon. English 10

10 January 2020

THUG ​Argumentative Analysis Essay

Nearly six-in-ten African Americans (58%) say that blacks are portrayed too negatively in

news coverage along with a sizeable minority of whites, (31%), yet nearly half of whites (48%)

still say that the media’s treatment and portrayal of blacks is generally fair (Pew Research

Center). These statistics all go to show how racism is able to prevail in society due to the implicit

bias that is blazoned in media and news coverage of minorities. This flaw in the system is

exemplified in Angie Thomas’s fictional but true to life novel ​The Hate U Give. ​In the novel, Starr

Carter, a young black girl living with her family in a low income, predominantly black

neighborhood called Garden Heights, witnesses the death of one of her best friends, Khalil, by

the hands of a white police officer. Khalil was unarmed and in no way a threat to the officer who

shot him after pulling him over for a broken taillight. The tragedy becomes national news and as

the situation unravels and protests break out, Garden heights becomes a war zone. With the

guidance of her family, friends and her lawyer, Ms. Ofrah, Starr finds her voice to stand up for

Khalil and goes to any measure to ensure that the truth is heard.The coverage of minorities in

the news often portrays them in a negative light, which not only confirms the biases of viewers

but also puts added constraints on the identities of the members of those already

underprivileged groups, which thereby perpetuates racism.

The media often exaggerates negative associations with minorities, particularly blacks,

specifically aspects including criminality, unemployment, and poverty and limits the positive

associations when covering news. From the very first bits of news coverage that the shooting
receives in ​The Hate U Give, ​biases are present. Shortly after the night Starr witnesses Khalil’s

death, her and her friend Kenya are sitting in Mr. Reuben’s restaurant while the news plays on a

small television in the corner of the ceiling. Starr watches the news with anticipation, until

“between a story about a bad car accident on the freeway and a garbage bag of live puppies

that was found in a park, there’s a short story about an officer-involved shooting that is being

investigated. They don’t even say Khalil’s name” (Thomas 47). The fact that Khalil’s name is not

mentioned right away makes the shooting seem like a victimless incident and like the officer

didn’t do anything wrong. The degrading portrayal of minorities in news and television coverage

is almost an epidemic. Many studies have documented the high rate at which people of color

are portrayed as violent or dangerous in the media. According to John Wihbey of Journalist’s

Research, “in a 2000 paper published in the Journal of Communication — which has been cited

hundreds of times subsequently… [it was] found that, when compared against relevant crime

data, ‘African-Americans were overrepresented as perpetrators, and Latinos and whites were

underrepresented as perpetrators’. Further, the study showed that whites were overrepresented

as police officers on television, despite significant numbers of racial minorities in law

enforcement in the counties examined” (Wihbey). The impact of this constant negative portrayal

of minorities on television can be seen in the behavior and reaction to Khalil’s death of one of

​ fter seeing news stations describe Khalil as a drug

Starr’s friends, Hailey, in ​The Hate U Give. A

dealer and a threat, Hailey’s bias against African-Americans and people of color is confirmed

and even heightened when the white officer who shot Khalil is portrayed on the news as an

innocent family man. This confirmation-bias leads Hailey to believe that Khalil deserved to die

and that he was going to “get shot eventually” and that the police officer didn’t do anything

wrong.​ ​The frequent portrayal of minorities in a negative light in the media serves as a window
into the unconscious biases that are held by many people and spread throughout our society via

outlets such as television and news coverage.

This negative portrayal of minorities, particularly African-Americans in news coverage,

confirms the preexisting biases of viewers as their one-sided understanding and stereotypes of

minorities are reflected in that of the media producers who at times present a distorted,

inaccurate view because of their own conscious or unconscious biases and stereotypes.

Thomas explores the implicit bias throughout all levels of society. When Starr goes to answer

questions for an investigation, the detectives ask her questions about Khalil’s background, for

example whether or not he sold narcotics, in an attempt to excuse his death. They did not find

that there was anything wrong with what the officer did and did not focus on the exact details of

what happened that night that Starr was trying to give them. After the interview is over, Starr

leaves the police station with her mom and thinks to herself: “both of us know the same thing:

This is gonna be some bullsh*t” (Thomas 103). The detectives’ questioning was them

confirming their biases, which would go on to confirm those of the viewers of national television

as information eventually got out. In his research, Martin Gilens, the Professor of Public Policy

at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs writes that he finds “that news media distortions

coincide with public misperceptions about race and poverty and that both are biased in ways

that reflect negatively on the poor in general and on poor African Americans in particular”

(Gilens 516). These “misperceptions” are viewer’s biases that are often brought out further in

the news. This confirmation bias induced by the media’s coverage of minorities is very hard to

avoid among people and groups/atmospheres that lack cultural empathy, and can easily

snowball from one to a wave of confirmed biases, contributing to a cycle of oppression.

The negative and single-storied portrayal of minorities in the news not only confirms the

biases of non-minority viewers, but also puts minorities in a position where they feel like they
are trapped in a box that only allows them to be seen a certain way, which can hinder the

development of one’s identity into anything more than what they see on the news, putting an

additional roadblock on the pathway to success of already underprivileged individuals. A main

component of Thomas’s novel is the idea that many underprivileged members of minorities can

often become trapped into a certain lifestyle due to the uncontrollables of their situations and

backgrounds. Khalil was forced into selling drugs to pay off a debt on behalf of his mother, and

DeVante got into gangbanging because he didn’t know any better because he had no one to

guide him or to look up to. Starr realizes this and thinks to herself: “DeVante. Khalil. Neither of

them had much of a choice. If I were them, I’m not sure I’d make much of a better one” (Thomas

239). In a research paper from The Opportunity Agenda that focuses on how biases in media

representation specifically impact the lives of black men and boys, the author states that

“Negative media stereotypes (thugs, criminals, fools, and the disadvantaged) are demoralizing

and reduce self-esteem and expectations”. The author goes on to explain that “dealing with

negative expectations may also create stress and drain cognitive resources in some contexts —

leading to the lowered performance associated with ‘stereotype threat’” (Social 15). According to

the research paper, the media’s influence on public attitudes toward black men can lead to a

general antagonism against black males, exaggerated views related to violence and crime, and

a lack of identification or sympathy for black males. The paper also points out the fact that black

men, too, are a part of the public and are therefore also subject to these attitudes, hence the

demoralizing impacts they can have. By being exposed to a single story of oneself, that

person’s ability to develop and understand their own identity is limited with the added

constraints that they see on the news that make them feel as if they are unable to amount to

anything more than that. This makes it even harder for especially young people to become

motivated to work hard in school and beyond.

 The coverage of minorities in the news often portrays them in a negative light, which not

only confirms the biases of viewers but also puts added constraints on the identities of the

members of those already underprivileged groups, thereby creating an additional obstacle in

their pathway to success. The media often exaggerates negative associations with minorities,

particularly blacks, specifically criminality, unemployment, and poverty and limits the positive

associations when covering news. This common, one-sided depiction of the negative

connotations of minorities is an epidemic in the American news industry and can be seen

throughout Angie Thomas’s highly relevant novel ​THUG ​as much of the nation-wide news

coverage of the incident essentially makes it seem like Khalil was killed with good reason by the

white officer who was made to be the victim on the news. This negative portrayal of minorities,

particularly African-Americans in news coverage confirms the preexisting biases of viewers as

their one-sided understanding and stereotypes of minorities are reflected in that of the media

producers who at times present a distorted, inaccurate view because of their own conscious or

unconscious biases and stereotypes. The negative and single-storied portrayal of minorities in

the news not only confirms the biases of non-minority viewers, but also perpetuates the self

inflicted judgements and stereotypes of the members of the minority group being portrayed,

which can hinder the development of one’s identity into anything more than what they see on

the news, putting an additional roadblock on the pathway to success of already underprivileged

individuals. If people were exposed to unbiased news portrayal of minorities, which could be

plausible if cultural empathy were to become common among people in the news industry,

society would be better able to break down the social constructs that hinder the identities and

the ability to achieve of minorities and cultural empathy would become the new code of conduct

for all members of society.