Tommie Shelby’s Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform is a powerful indictment of how the basic structure of American institutions fail the seriously disadvantaged. Though motivated by what we collectively owe “ghetto” citizens, when exploring criminal law, Shelby instinctively turns his attention to what duties, if any, the disadvantaged have to obey the criminal law. This paper argues that our persistent focus on the obligations of the disadvantaged is a mistake. Instead, we should examine the duties of the advantaged to resist and repudiate the criminal law. First, because the systemic injustices of the criminal law secure unjust advantages for too many “ordinary” citizens, it renders their successes unjust spoils. Second, the criminal law chews through lives and communities in the ghetto in the name of the advantaged. Third, White citizens have a unique duty to reject the racist elements of the criminal justice system and repudiate its claims that the lives of racial minorities are worth less than their own. The paper then explores various ways that advantaged citizens can repudiate the criminal law in the service of greater equality.

汤米谢尔比的黑暗贫民窟：不公正、异议和改革是对美国制度的基本结构如何使处于严重不利地位的人失败的有力控诉。尽管出于我们共同欠“贫民窟”公民的责任，但在探索刑法时，谢尔比本能地将注意力转向弱势群体必须遵守刑法的义务（如果有的话）。本文认为，我们持续关注弱势群体的义务是错误的。相反，我们应该审查有利者抵制和否定刑法的义务。首先，由于刑法的系统性不公正为太多“普通”公民带来了不公正的利益，从而使他们的成功成为不公正的战利品。其次，刑法以弱势群体的名义对贫民区的生活和社区进行严惩。第三，白人公民有独特的责任拒绝刑事司法系统中的种族主义元素，并否认其声称少数族裔的生命比他们自己的生命价值低的说法。然后，本文探讨了有优势的公民为了更大的平等而否定刑法的各种方式。