Care Ethics and Activism in Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give

This chapter analyzes and compares Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give in the context of care ethics with a Black feminist lens, asking what caring is, who does the caring, and how it impacts people in the community. Cassie, the protagonist of Thunder , and Starr, the protagonist of THUG, are both portrayed as strong and caring young leaders who use their activism efforts as a way of caring for themselves, their families, and their communities. Both books reflect different moments in America’s racist history, from post-slavery to Jim Crow laws ( Thunder ) to the rise in awareness of police brutality and Black Lives Matter ( THUG ). Tidmarsh analyzes the context of both books in relation to the activism both Cassie and Starr undertake. This relation is then further analyzed under the context of care ethics.