Jody Armour > Quotes

“Call ME a Nigga: I utter these words as a political battle cry for the Black, damned, and forsaken— that is, for the staggeringly high percentage of poor black boys and men languishing in Gail cells, for those selling drugs, gangbanging, or otherwise scrambling for survival and self-respect. I say it because we have a fundamental divide that needs bridging. This divide is cultural fact as well as a social fact. It is an economic divide crossed by moral judgement. It is the divide between the haves and the have-nots, but it is also, for many, seen as a divide between the morally upstanding and the morally corrupt.”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“White-supremacist-patriarchal-heteronormative-capitalism socializes us to aspire to “good Negro” status. It convince little Black girls from East Oakland to graduate from Howard—summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, to pledge the oldest Black sorority, to earn PhDs, to be in the “right” rooms…” - Melina Abdullah”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“Our broken criminal justice system has rejected individual justice and discretion it requires, and instead insists on robotic and inflexible mandatory sentencing, sentencing guidelines, death sentences, life without possibility of parole, the actual or de facto elimination of sentence modifications, pardons, commutations, expungement, and record sealing.” - Lary Krasner”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“We need to try to see individuals in order to do any kind of justice. The idea of a binary world of monsters and saints whose unchanging goodness or badness is evident from one or a few actions, from their poverty, or from their race, is false" - Larry Krasner”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“Black culture and history as something worthy of study, and to replace the “n-word” with “Brother” and “Sister.” You see, the “n-word” was not some reclamation of Black community; it was part of a process of dehumanization required by chattel slavery. We weren’t human beings; we were n*****. I have not used the word since walking into M. Navies’ class. I was 13 years old.” - Melina Abdullah”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“We must not reach for a status that is only bestowed by a white supremacist system that really despises us. We must resist. To claim not only our alignment with n****s, but our identity as N****s ourselves is the greatest act of defiance; it is our sacred duty as descendants of enslaved people, freedom fighters, street corner hustlers, and our own grandparents. Ultimately N**** theory— and praxis— is what will get us free.” - Melina Abdullah”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law

“So I say call me a Nigga despite not fitting this popular sterotype— despite my lack of a criminal record, my light-skin privilege (I’ve been called a yellow nigga, a sand nigga, and a Spic), my Ivy League diplomas, my respectable salary befitting the occupant of Roy P. Crocker Chair at the University of Southern California Law School, my residence in Black Beverly Hills, my three sons who attended exclusive private high schools and colleges, my respectable rims, my fluency in “talking White,” and my red-headed Irish Catholic mom. Thanks to my lighter shade, academic pedigree, chaired professorship, tax bracket, ZIP code, speech patterns, and mixed ancestory, I am not what cognitive science would call a “prototypical” nigga.”
― Jody Armour, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law