Breaking Down #NiggaTheory

Jody Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California (USC).  He is a tenured professor and sits on an endowed chair, funded by the Crocker Foundation.  Armour’s research centers around the disparity in how the law effects people of color.  He has coined the term “Nigga Theory” which looks at the manufacturing of “niggas” and how laws are shaped to create a thriving and sustainable prison pipeline, full of “niggas”.  His recent brief was published in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, which holds a special place in Professor Armour’s heart.

Professor Armour doesn’t mince words on those who have co-signed this travesty of the mass incarceration of black men.  Many of those in the black community have aided and abetted and he’s calling out names.  He offers this staggering statistic:

up to 90% of young black men, in some inner city neighborhoods, will end up in jail, on probation or on parole, at some point in their lives

Professor Armour asks a very poignant question, that Chris Rock has famously explored, “should good negroes distance themselves from bad niggas?”

Professor Armour went into the legal profession as a result of watching his father be sentenced to an absurd length of time, for a minor offense, who then defended himself, with the aid of students at Ohio State Law School, and was victorious in his being released from jail.

Nigga Theory:  Contingency, Irony and Solidarity in the Substantive Criminal Law

You can discuss your thoughts with Professor Armour on twitter under @NiggaTheory or leave a comment below.