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Catholic Social Teaching on Race

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In-depth theological reflection and social analysis of the reality of race, racism, and xenophobia were not developed in magisterial Catholic social teaching until the late 20th century. This annotated bibliography of official Roman Catholic and U.S. episcopal teaching regarding racism highlights key points of the most significant documents from the past 70 years. This teaching contributes critical theological, biblical, and moral insight for personal, institutional, and societal conversion, including that of the church, in the struggle for racial justice and equality.

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A Select Bibliography of Papal, Conciliar, Vatican, and U.S. Episcopal Statements and Pastoral Letters

By Dr. Alex Mikulich, JSRI Research Associate

Got Privilege? The Ironies of White Privilege and the Gospel Call to Conversion

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One irony of American history is the tendency of good white Americans to presume racial innocence. White ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words, it is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.

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by Alex Mikulich, Ph.D., JSRI Fellow

One irony of American history is the tendency of good white Americans to presume racial innocence. White ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words, it is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America.

Guilt, accusation, or moralistic finger-pointing at the “cabal of bigots”¹ who keep people of color down, misses the problem. Rather, the complexity of white privilege concerns how good people—including myself—perpetuate and benefit from racial hierarchy.

A Must Read

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The demand that social science and public policy address both inner-city behavior and social structures is a key insight of William JuliusWilson’s scholarship. Too often, social scientific and policy debates create a dichotomy between culture—the beliefs, modes of decision-making, and meaning-making that pervade the inner city—and social structure— the ways larger institutions of the economy, polity, and education shape the life chances of groups and individuals. Wilson avoids this false dichotomy.

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More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City by William Julius Wilson

Reviewed by Dr. Alex Mikulich, Research Fellow

Where Y'at Fair Housing?

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As we say in New Orleans, to learn how a person is doing, it is an appropriate time to ask: Where Y’at, Fair Housing? Significant gains for homeownership have been won for people of color in the last 50 years. Due largely to the success of the Civil Rights Fair Housing legislation, African-American homeownership increased from one in three in 1950, to nearly one in two by 2000.

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By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D., JSRI Research Fellow

As we say in New Orleans, to learn how a person is doing, it is an appropriate time to ask: Where Y’at, Fair Housing? Significant gains for homeownership have been won for people of color in the last 50 years. Due largely to the success of the Civil Rights Fair Housing legislation, African-American homeownership increased from one in three in 1950, to nearly one in two by 2000.

Poverty and the Gulf South States

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One predominant characteristic of our region, despite decades of “New South” propaganda, is the reality and legacy of our poverty—of our elders, our families, our children, our education, our health status, our infant mortality, our life expectancy, and our future. Two of the five states of the Gulf anchor the bottom of the list of economic well-being—Mississippi is the poorest (50th) and Louisiana is just above it (49th). The others solidly populate the lowest segments, none rising above the median. Texas is 43rd; Alabama is 42nd; and Florida is 29th on the list of states by percentage of its people living in poverty. We get so used to being at the bottom of these kinds of lists that we seem to just ignore repeated reports, perhaps hoping that they will go away on their own.

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By the Rev. Fred Kammer, S.J., JSRI Director

Standing in Solidarity

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Currently there are 1.5 million foreign-born youth living in the U.S. without legal documentation. These youth have grown up in neighborhoods across the U.S. and attended U.S. elementary and secondary schools. Many of them even graduate from high school with honors. Due to their legal status as undocumented immigrants, however, they do not have easy access to higher education.

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By Anna Alicia Chavez

Currently there are 1.5 million foreign-born youth living in the U.S. without legal documentation. These youth have grown up in neighborhoods across the U.S. and attended U.S. elementary and secondary schools. Many of them even graduate from high school with honors. Due to their legal status as undocumented immigrants, however, they do not have easy access to higher education.

Latino Immigration in New Orleans

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The widespread devastation and dislocation produced in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is a reality sui generis, producing a population shift that has few parallels in U.S. history. In what follows, I will summarize some the key findings of the emerging literature on Latinos in New Orleans.

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By Dr. Manuel A. Vásquez

The following is an excerpt from the November 3, 2009, address on Latino Immigration in the South of Dr. Vásquez to the People on the Move Conference sponsored by JSRI on the Loyola University campus.

The widespread devastation and dislocation produced in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is a reality sui generis, producing a population shift that has few parallels in U.S. history. In what follows, I will summarize some the key findings of the emerging literature on Latinos in New Orleans.

The Measure of Poverty

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In their 1986 book-length pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, the U.S. Bishops reminded us of the importance of confronting poverty in these words:
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Dealing with poverty is not a luxury to which our nation can attend when it finds the time and resources. Rather, it is a moral imperative of the highest priority.1
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By the Rev. Fred Kammer, S.J.

In their 1986 book-length pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, the U.S. Bishops reminded us of the importance of confronting poverty in these words:

Dealing with poverty is not a luxury to which our nation can attend when it finds the time and resources. Rather, it is a moral imperative of the highest priority.¹

For the Sake of the U.S. Children of Immigration

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Among the many childhood memories I have is one of the day my mother was detained at the entry port of the U.S.-Mexico border. It was a late Saturday evening and we were headed back home after a splendid day spent with our family in Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, Texas. As we approached the inspection station, my mother became very nervous realizing that she had forgotten her green card at home. I remember all five of us children looking out the rear window of our van as my dad drove off, leaving my mother in the hands of the border patrol while we went home to get her green card. How scared we all were, asking my father a hundred questions and never quite understanding why we would have to leave my mother with those authorities whom we believed to be police. We cried all the way home believing my mother was in grave trouble with the law and imagining that she would surely be put in jail for who knows what.

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By Anna Alicia Chavez, JSRI Migration Specialist

People on the Move: A Compelling Experience

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From October 28 through November 17, JSRI staff hosted a compelling series of events for students, faculty, staff, and the wider community as part of our annual conference titled “People on the Move and the Common Good—Migration, Poverty, and Racism, Converging Concerns for Our Future.” Seven separate events moved participants from the experience of the “internally displaced people” of Katrina’s New Orleans in the first week to the migrating peoples of the South in the second to the plight of immigrant peoples of the United States in the third to the internationally displaced in the last week.
More than 400 people participated in one or another of the conference events made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. (Other students, faculty, or community activists heard speakers in classes or meetings arranged to complement the main events.)

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From October 28 through November 17, JSRI staff hosted a compelling series of events for students, faculty, staff, and the wider community as part of our annual conference titled “People on the Move and the Common Good—Migration, Poverty, and Racism, Converging Concerns for Our Future.” Seven separate events moved participants from the experience of the “internally displaced people” of Katrina’s New Orleans in the first week to the migrating peoples of the South in the second to the plight of immigrant peoples of the United States in the third to the internationally displaced in the last we