Race, Crime, And The Pool Of Surplus Criminality, By Kenneth Nunn

In the article “Race, Crime, and the Pool of Surplus Criminality: Or Why the “War on Drugs” Was a “War on Blacks,” by Kenneth Nunn has several valid arguments for why the criminal justice system in an institution in American society that guards and hides racism. Nunn argues that the “War on Drugs: was not really created for the control of illegal substances, but instead, to put in control measures against African Americans and other Americans of color. Dunn also argues that it is a great way to express white supremacy than to use the criminal justice system to protect that aspect of racism and discrimination that is created. Nunn brings forth a wide variety of evidence that supports his argument on the war on drugs targets the African American communities. Once piece of evidence that supports his argument, is focused on the time period it was

He begins by suggesting that African Americans only count for twelve percent of the United States population. Even with that, African Americans represent forty-six percent of those incarcerated in state and federal penitentiaries. Nunn also uses the fact that mass incarceration affecting African Americans by stating that African American males were 7.7 times more likely to be incarcerated than white males to support his claim. For some African American age groups the racial disparity was extremely prominent. When the war on drugs began, Nunn states that the prison has grown to three times the amount compared to the prior amount before the war began. He also explains that from 1979, the beginning of the drug war, to 1989, the percentage of African American arrests for drug offences has doubled from twenty-two percent to forty-two percent. Nunn then emphasizes on the difference by stating that in some areas, African American man account for over eighty percent of the total drug