What is the gender pay gap and is it real?
News Intro Text
[Economic Policy Institute, October 20, 2016]
News Item Content
<p>Report • By Elise Gould, Jessica Schieder, and Kathleen Geier • October 20, 2016</p>
<div>
Working women are paid less than working men. A large body of research accounts for, diagnoses, and investigates this “gender pay gap.” But this literature often becomes unwieldy for lay readers, and because pay gaps are political topics, ideological agendas often seep quickly into discussions.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
This primer examines the evidence surrounding the gender pay gap, both in the literature and through our own data analyses. We will begin by explaining the different ways the gap is measured, and then go deeper into the data using hourly wages for our analyses,1 culling from extensive national and regional surveys of wages, educational attainment, and occupational employment.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Summary</div>
<div>
Why different measures don’t mean the data are unreliable</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A number of figures are commonly used to describe the gender wage gap. One often-cited statistic comes from the Census Bureau, which looks at annual pay of full-time workers. By that measure, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid. Another measure looks at hourly pay and does not exclude part-time workers. It finds that, relative to men, typical women are paid 83 cents on the dollar.2 Other, less-cited measures show different gaps because they examine the gap at different parts of the wage distribution, or for different demographic subgroups, or are adjusted for factors such as education level and occupation.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The presence of alternative ways to measure the gap can create a misconception that data on the gender wage gap are unreliable. However, the data on the gender wage gap are remarkably clear and (unfortunately) consistent about the scale of the gap. In simple terms, no matter how you measure it, there is a gap. And, different gaps answer different questions. By discussing the data and the rationale behind these seemingly contradictory measures of the wage gap, we hope to improve the discourse around the gender wage gap.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Why adjusted measures can’t gauge the full effects of discrimination</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The most common analytical mistake people make when discussing the gender wage gap is to assume that as long as it is measured “correctly,” it will tell us precisely how much gender-based discrimination affects what women are paid.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Specifically, some people note that the commonly cited measures of the gender wage gap do not control for workers’ demographic characteristics (such measures are often labeled unadjusted). They speculate that the “unadjusted” gender wage gap could simply be reflecting other influences, such as levels of education, labor market experiences, and occupations. And because gender wage gaps that are “adjusted” for workers’ characteristics (through multivariate regression) are often smaller than unadjusted measures, people commonly infer that gender discrimination is a smaller problem in the American economy than thought.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
However, the adjusted gender wage gap really only narrows the analysis to the potential role of gender discrimination along one dimension: to differential pay for equivalent work. But this simple adjustment misses all of the potential differences in opportunities for men and women that affect and constrain the choices they make before they ever bargain with an employer over a wage. While multivariate regression can be used to distill the role of discrimination in the narrowest sense, it cannot capture how discrimination affects differences in opportunity.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In short, one should have a very precise question that he or she hopes to answer using the data on the wage differences between men and women workers. We hope to provide this careful thinking in the questions we address in this primer.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/">FULL REPORT AND MORE>>></a></div>
<div>
Working women are paid less than working men. A large body of research accounts for, diagnoses, and investigates this “gender pay gap.” But this literature often becomes unwieldy for lay readers, and because pay gaps are political topics, ideological agendas often seep quickly into discussions.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
This primer examines the evidence surrounding the gender pay gap, both in the literature and through our own data analyses. We will begin by explaining the different ways the gap is measured, and then go deeper into the data using hourly wages for our analyses,1 culling from extensive national and regional surveys of wages, educational attainment, and occupational employment.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Summary</div>
<div>
Why different measures don’t mean the data are unreliable</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A number of figures are commonly used to describe the gender wage gap. One often-cited statistic comes from the Census Bureau, which looks at annual pay of full-time workers. By that measure, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar men are paid. Another measure looks at hourly pay and does not exclude part-time workers. It finds that, relative to men, typical women are paid 83 cents on the dollar.2 Other, less-cited measures show different gaps because they examine the gap at different parts of the wage distribution, or for different demographic subgroups, or are adjusted for factors such as education level and occupation.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The presence of alternative ways to measure the gap can create a misconception that data on the gender wage gap are unreliable. However, the data on the gender wage gap are remarkably clear and (unfortunately) consistent about the scale of the gap. In simple terms, no matter how you measure it, there is a gap. And, different gaps answer different questions. By discussing the data and the rationale behind these seemingly contradictory measures of the wage gap, we hope to improve the discourse around the gender wage gap.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Why adjusted measures can’t gauge the full effects of discrimination</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The most common analytical mistake people make when discussing the gender wage gap is to assume that as long as it is measured “correctly,” it will tell us precisely how much gender-based discrimination affects what women are paid.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Specifically, some people note that the commonly cited measures of the gender wage gap do not control for workers’ demographic characteristics (such measures are often labeled unadjusted). They speculate that the “unadjusted” gender wage gap could simply be reflecting other influences, such as levels of education, labor market experiences, and occupations. And because gender wage gaps that are “adjusted” for workers’ characteristics (through multivariate regression) are often smaller than unadjusted measures, people commonly infer that gender discrimination is a smaller problem in the American economy than thought.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
However, the adjusted gender wage gap really only narrows the analysis to the potential role of gender discrimination along one dimension: to differential pay for equivalent work. But this simple adjustment misses all of the potential differences in opportunities for men and women that affect and constrain the choices they make before they ever bargain with an employer over a wage. While multivariate regression can be used to distill the role of discrimination in the narrowest sense, it cannot capture how discrimination affects differences in opportunity.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In short, one should have a very precise question that he or she hopes to answer using the data on the wage differences between men and women workers. We hope to provide this careful thinking in the questions we address in this primer.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/">FULL REPORT AND MORE>>></a></div>
Date
Election 2016 and the Common Good
News Intro Text
An Ignatian Way of Proceeding
News Item Content
<p>by Edward B. “Ted” Arroyo, S.J., Ph.D., JSRI Associate</p>
<p>As we approach November’s election, we at JSRI encourage discerning assessment of the difficult political choices at hand. </p>
<p>At the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius Loyola advises that in facing an “election” about one’s state in life, we “let the Creator act immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord” because in decisions like these “it is more fitting and much better, when seeking the Divine Will, that the Creator and Lord should communicate with the devout soul, inflaming it with love and praise, and disposing it for the way in which it will be better able to serve in the future.” (Spiritual Exercises #15). Such criteria for discernment may also well apply to the political elections we now face.</p>
<p>Recently when Pope Francis was asked about these upcoming U.S. elections he responded within this Jesuit tradition of “election” when he replied “I never say a word about electoral campaigns….The people are sovereign. I will only say: Study the proposals well, pray and choose in conscience.” </p>
<p>In this context, our Jesuit provincial superior, Fr. Ron Mercier, S.J., in a recent letter provides multiple resources for wise election discernment, inviting Jesuits and our colleagues “to create that space of civil discourse which allows for true democratic dialogue and lets the foundational principles of our faith inform the ways we ponder and speak to one another about the grave challenges we face.”</p>
<p>Fr. Mercier first suggests we consider how “All of us are affected by the racial, political and religious divisions in our society, and these can even affect our communities. Each of us needs to ask where we are tempted to judge others or to close ourselves to hearing one another. How does God call us to conversion of heart, thought, and speech during this time? Charged moments like this can help us hear God’s voice.”</p>
<p>Secondly he suggests "we model civil discourse, open to understanding even when we do not agree... The important task is to nurture understanding. The website launched by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, offers helpful insights along these lines." </p>
<p>Finally, Fr. Mercier suggests that "we promote the teaching of the church as a resource for our political and social reflections" in this campaign season and provides links to multiple resources to help us in discerning this election. Especially in our regular column summarizing perspectives from Catholic Social Thought. JSRI’s website also provides multiple resources on a variety of issues which are part of the current election debates.</p>
<p>The pilgrim Saint Ignatius models and invites us to a process of ongoing discernment in these and many other important elections of our lives, examining the relevant issues, asking for God’s grace, and deciding AMDG (for the greater glory of God.) </p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/z2npl/53a6480e812257faf3fe6b01e706983d">MORE>></a></p>
<p>As we approach November’s election, we at JSRI encourage discerning assessment of the difficult political choices at hand. </p>
<p>At the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius Loyola advises that in facing an “election” about one’s state in life, we “let the Creator act immediately with the creature, and the creature with its Creator and Lord” because in decisions like these “it is more fitting and much better, when seeking the Divine Will, that the Creator and Lord should communicate with the devout soul, inflaming it with love and praise, and disposing it for the way in which it will be better able to serve in the future.” (Spiritual Exercises #15). Such criteria for discernment may also well apply to the political elections we now face.</p>
<p>Recently when Pope Francis was asked about these upcoming U.S. elections he responded within this Jesuit tradition of “election” when he replied “I never say a word about electoral campaigns….The people are sovereign. I will only say: Study the proposals well, pray and choose in conscience.” </p>
<p>In this context, our Jesuit provincial superior, Fr. Ron Mercier, S.J., in a recent letter provides multiple resources for wise election discernment, inviting Jesuits and our colleagues “to create that space of civil discourse which allows for true democratic dialogue and lets the foundational principles of our faith inform the ways we ponder and speak to one another about the grave challenges we face.”</p>
<p>Fr. Mercier first suggests we consider how “All of us are affected by the racial, political and religious divisions in our society, and these can even affect our communities. Each of us needs to ask where we are tempted to judge others or to close ourselves to hearing one another. How does God call us to conversion of heart, thought, and speech during this time? Charged moments like this can help us hear God’s voice.”</p>
<p>Secondly he suggests "we model civil discourse, open to understanding even when we do not agree... The important task is to nurture understanding. The website launched by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, offers helpful insights along these lines." </p>
<p>Finally, Fr. Mercier suggests that "we promote the teaching of the church as a resource for our political and social reflections" in this campaign season and provides links to multiple resources to help us in discerning this election. Especially in our regular column summarizing perspectives from Catholic Social Thought. JSRI’s website also provides multiple resources on a variety of issues which are part of the current election debates.</p>
<p>The pilgrim Saint Ignatius models and invites us to a process of ongoing discernment in these and many other important elections of our lives, examining the relevant issues, asking for God’s grace, and deciding AMDG (for the greater glory of God.) </p>
<p><a href="https://t.e2ma.net/webview/z2npl/53a6480e812257faf3fe6b01e706983d">MORE>></a></p>
Date
Summer JustSouth Quarterly
News Intro Text
Articles covering politics, banning the box, and ending life sentences for juvenile offenders.
News Item Content
<p style="margin-top: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Verdana; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/JustSouth%20Quarterly%20Summer%202016.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 0, 0); background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Summer 2016 </a></p>
<ul>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Faithful%20Citizens.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Faithful Citizens: Calling Catholics to Political Responsibility-- Kammer</a></li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/CST%20and%20Politics.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Catholic Social Thought and Politics</a>-- Kammer </li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Banning%20all%20of%20the%20Boxes.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Banning All of the Boxes</a>-- Donovan </li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Hope%20for%20Mercy.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Hope for Mercy: Ending Life Sentances for Juvenile Offenders</a> -- Weishar </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Faithful%20Citizens.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Faithful Citizens: Calling Catholics to Political Responsibility-- Kammer</a></li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/CST%20and%20Politics.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Catholic Social Thought and Politics</a>-- Kammer </li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Banning%20all%20of%20the%20Boxes.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Banning All of the Boxes</a>-- Donovan </li>
<li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Hope%20for%20Mercy.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 32px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: url("/assets/shared/images/css/icons/pdf.gif") right center no-repeat transparent;">Hope for Mercy: Ending Life Sentances for Juvenile Offenders</a> -- Weishar </li>
</ul>
Date
FAITHFUL CITIZENS
News Intro Text
Calling Catholics to Political Responsibility
News Item Content
<p>BY FRED KAMMER, S.J.</p>
<p>Every four years since 1976, in preparation for U.S. elections, the U.S. bishops have issued a statement on Catholic political responsibility. Since 2007, this document has been entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States. In the first part, the bishops discuss their right to speak out politically:</p>
<p><em>Some question whether it is appropriate for the Church to play a role in political life. However, the obligation to teach the moral truths that should shape our lives, including our public lives, is central to the mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ. Moreover, the United States Constitution protects the right of individual believers and religious bodies to participate and speak out without government interference, favoritism, or discrimination. </em></p>
<p>The bishops emphasize how participation of people of religious conviction enriches the nation’s tradition of pluralism.1 </p>
<p>For the bishops, the Catholic community brings two major contributions: (1) a consistent moral framework for assessing political issues drawn from reason illuminated by Scripture and Church teaching; and (2) broad experience in serving those in need including “educating the young, serving families in crisis, caring for the sick, sheltering the homeless, helping women who face difficult pregnancies, feeding the hungry, welcoming immigrants and refugees, reaching out in global solidarity, and pursuing peace.”2</p>
<p>In addition to these two primary contributions, I would add two other Catholic contributions: (1) a passion for social justice; and (2) realism about power and evil. Seeming contradictory, these two additions actually stand in healthy tension with one another. Our faith-filled passion keeps us committed to working for justice when others have given up on political advocacy, chosen the all too common course of being swayed by the polls, or been silent in the face of popular opinion. </p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Faithful Citizens.pdf">MORE>></a></p>
<p>Every four years since 1976, in preparation for U.S. elections, the U.S. bishops have issued a statement on Catholic political responsibility. Since 2007, this document has been entitled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States. In the first part, the bishops discuss their right to speak out politically:</p>
<p><em>Some question whether it is appropriate for the Church to play a role in political life. However, the obligation to teach the moral truths that should shape our lives, including our public lives, is central to the mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ. Moreover, the United States Constitution protects the right of individual believers and religious bodies to participate and speak out without government interference, favoritism, or discrimination. </em></p>
<p>The bishops emphasize how participation of people of religious conviction enriches the nation’s tradition of pluralism.1 </p>
<p>For the bishops, the Catholic community brings two major contributions: (1) a consistent moral framework for assessing political issues drawn from reason illuminated by Scripture and Church teaching; and (2) broad experience in serving those in need including “educating the young, serving families in crisis, caring for the sick, sheltering the homeless, helping women who face difficult pregnancies, feeding the hungry, welcoming immigrants and refugees, reaching out in global solidarity, and pursuing peace.”2</p>
<p>In addition to these two primary contributions, I would add two other Catholic contributions: (1) a passion for social justice; and (2) realism about power and evil. Seeming contradictory, these two additions actually stand in healthy tension with one another. Our faith-filled passion keeps us committed to working for justice when others have given up on political advocacy, chosen the all too common course of being swayed by the polls, or been silent in the face of popular opinion. </p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Faithful Citizens.pdf">MORE>></a></p>
Date
EITC, CTC Together Lifted 9.8 Million out of Poverty in 2015
News Intro Text
[Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , October 19, 2016]
News Item Content
<p>By Emily Horton, <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/">Center on Budget and Policy Priorities</a></p>
<p>The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) together lifted 9.8 million Americans out of poverty last year and made 22.0 million others less poor, CBPP analysis of new Census data shows. The data allow us to measure of the impact of the entire credits — including both the refundable and non-refundable pieces of the CTC, in addition to the EITC.</p>
<p>Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit Have Powerful Antipoverty Impact</p>
<p>Policymakers can further these credits’ effectiveness at reducing poverty and improving opportunity by expanding the meager EITC for workers not raising children in the home and expanding the CTC for families with very poor young children. </p>
<p>The credits lifted 5.1 million children out of poverty last year and made 8.0 million others less poor (see chart). </p>
<p>These figures use Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure, which unlike the official poverty measure counts taxes and non-cash benefits as well as cash income. </p>
<p>Moreover, these impressive figures likely understate the credits’ anti-poverty impact. One reason is that the EITC not only boosts incomes directly but also encourages work, raising people’s earnings. This additional anti-poverty effect, which the SPM doesn’t count, is significant: it nearly doubled the number of people the EITC lifted out of poverty in families with a single mother aged 24-48 without a college degree in the 1990s, researchers find. (The CTC hasn’t been studied to the same extent, but it shares key design features with the EITC so it likely has similar pro-work effects.)</p>
<p>Also, a growing body of research links income from these tax credits to better infant health, improved school performance, higher college enrollment, and increased work and earnings in adulthood for children whose families receive the tax credits. As a result, the tax credits may reduce poverty not only in the near term, but also in the next generation.</p>
<p>The Census estimates don’t include the state-level EITCs that 26 states and the District of Columbia have created to build on the success of the federal credit. These state credits further reduce poverty and inequality.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cbpp.org/blog/eitc-ctc-together-lifted-98-million-out-of-poverty-in-2015">MORE>></a></p>
<p>The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC) together lifted 9.8 million Americans out of poverty last year and made 22.0 million others less poor, CBPP analysis of new Census data shows. The data allow us to measure of the impact of the entire credits — including both the refundable and non-refundable pieces of the CTC, in addition to the EITC.</p>
<p>Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit Have Powerful Antipoverty Impact</p>
<p>Policymakers can further these credits’ effectiveness at reducing poverty and improving opportunity by expanding the meager EITC for workers not raising children in the home and expanding the CTC for families with very poor young children. </p>
<p>The credits lifted 5.1 million children out of poverty last year and made 8.0 million others less poor (see chart). </p>
<p>These figures use Census’ Supplemental Poverty Measure, which unlike the official poverty measure counts taxes and non-cash benefits as well as cash income. </p>
<p>Moreover, these impressive figures likely understate the credits’ anti-poverty impact. One reason is that the EITC not only boosts incomes directly but also encourages work, raising people’s earnings. This additional anti-poverty effect, which the SPM doesn’t count, is significant: it nearly doubled the number of people the EITC lifted out of poverty in families with a single mother aged 24-48 without a college degree in the 1990s, researchers find. (The CTC hasn’t been studied to the same extent, but it shares key design features with the EITC so it likely has similar pro-work effects.)</p>
<p>Also, a growing body of research links income from these tax credits to better infant health, improved school performance, higher college enrollment, and increased work and earnings in adulthood for children whose families receive the tax credits. As a result, the tax credits may reduce poverty not only in the near term, but also in the next generation.</p>
<p>The Census estimates don’t include the state-level EITCs that 26 states and the District of Columbia have created to build on the success of the federal credit. These state credits further reduce poverty and inequality.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cbpp.org/blog/eitc-ctc-together-lifted-98-million-out-of-poverty-in-2015">MORE>></a></p>
Date
The Great Melting Pot
News Intro Text
[Rev. Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D. for The Huffington Post, October 4, 2016]
News Item Content
<p>By: Rev. Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Ph.D. for The Huffington Post</p>
<p>Like any great nation, America has a number of myths about itself. There are myths about the possibility of achievement where “anyone can grow up to be president.” And there are myths about opportunity that were epitomized in author and newspaper editor Horace Greeley’s famous line: “Go West, young man, go West,” stated in 1871, as America expanded westward holding tight to a belief of Manifest Destiny. Another great American myth portrays America as “the great melting pot,” a gumbo of sorts, in which people come from all over the world, from different nations, ethnicities, and cultures, to become one.</p>
<p>Any enduring myth is anchored in an element of truth. But there is usually more to the story. The current debates about immigration in the United States are not new to American life. Historically, the United States has often found itself conflicted on the issue of immigration. On the one hand, part of American’s self-understanding lies in being a nation of immigrants. But, at the same time, we often have been deeply hostile and fearful of immigrants to this country. And the underlying causes of those fears and hostilities are not new and generally are born of ignorance.</p>
<p>The 19th century and early 20th century were times of an influx of immigrants both from Asia (mostly Chinese) and from southern Europe (Italians and Greeks). Many of these new immigrants looked different from the Anglo-Saxon immigrants who had come before. And they worshipped differently than most Americans. In the 19th century, more than 4 million Irish - among them, my ancestors — immigrated to America to pursue the “American Dream.” Yet they were greeted with hostility and suspicion.</p>
<p>The Irish were widely seen as alcoholics, and they were, by and large, Catholic, which caused fears about allegiance to a foreign pope. This prejudice remained vibrant through the 1960 presidential election! The new immigrants’ culture of drinking and their use of pubs and bars as gathering places collided with some Yankees’ Puritan strain. They arrived at a time of economic unrest. Artisans were losing their jobs to mass production while immigrants were willing to work hard, for little money, in factories.</p>
<p>Scholars often use the term “nativism” as a general term for “opposition to immigration.” Nativism is often based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. However, it has been observed that nativists usually do not consider themselves nativists. Rather they see themselves as “patriots” or “law-abiding citizens.”</p>
<p>Contemporary Americans are often surprised when they learn that before World War I there were no green cards, no visas, and no quotas for immigrants. Immigrants just arrived. The American government did use, to some extent, health criteria for admitting people. Mae Ngai, a legal and political historian at Columbia University who studies American immigration, said that “... if you could walk without a limp, and you had $30 in your pocket, you walked right in.” And so they came — with no paperwork issues or quotas or restrictions or immigration courts. Political backlash followed, in the form of secret societies that coalesced into the Know Nothing movement. The Know Nothings grew so popular that, in 1854, they overwhelmingly took over the Massachusetts Legislature — where they pushed for Prohibition laws, aimed squarely at Irish and German cultures. The Know Nothings also supported an effort to extend the naturalization period to 21 years. At the time, the debate centered not on sending immigrants back but on denying them the right to vote.</p>
<p>As we head toward the presidential elections in November, immigration remains a central, and often divisive, issue. Presidential debates and campaign speeches stir up controversies that are repeated and expounded upon at modern-day kitchen tables - social media.</p>
<p>Our past can help us to be better today. President Harry Truman challenged Americans not to live within but to live outside of our fears. He reminded Americans that: “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” Our past reminds us that, in spite of our fears, past and present, our differences are part of what makes the United States a richer, stronger nation made up of many cultures. Our past reminds us that we are a nation of immigrants and that many of those immigrants came to the U.S. without green cards or visas. And, in spite of hostility, stereotypes, and prejudice, immigrants became part of the rich, diverse fabric that makes America today. We must look past our own fear, to seek mutual understanding and acceptance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-kevin-wm-wildes-sj-phd/the-great-melting-pot_b_12340856.html">MORE>></a></p>
<p>Like any great nation, America has a number of myths about itself. There are myths about the possibility of achievement where “anyone can grow up to be president.” And there are myths about opportunity that were epitomized in author and newspaper editor Horace Greeley’s famous line: “Go West, young man, go West,” stated in 1871, as America expanded westward holding tight to a belief of Manifest Destiny. Another great American myth portrays America as “the great melting pot,” a gumbo of sorts, in which people come from all over the world, from different nations, ethnicities, and cultures, to become one.</p>
<p>Any enduring myth is anchored in an element of truth. But there is usually more to the story. The current debates about immigration in the United States are not new to American life. Historically, the United States has often found itself conflicted on the issue of immigration. On the one hand, part of American’s self-understanding lies in being a nation of immigrants. But, at the same time, we often have been deeply hostile and fearful of immigrants to this country. And the underlying causes of those fears and hostilities are not new and generally are born of ignorance.</p>
<p>The 19th century and early 20th century were times of an influx of immigrants both from Asia (mostly Chinese) and from southern Europe (Italians and Greeks). Many of these new immigrants looked different from the Anglo-Saxon immigrants who had come before. And they worshipped differently than most Americans. In the 19th century, more than 4 million Irish - among them, my ancestors — immigrated to America to pursue the “American Dream.” Yet they were greeted with hostility and suspicion.</p>
<p>The Irish were widely seen as alcoholics, and they were, by and large, Catholic, which caused fears about allegiance to a foreign pope. This prejudice remained vibrant through the 1960 presidential election! The new immigrants’ culture of drinking and their use of pubs and bars as gathering places collided with some Yankees’ Puritan strain. They arrived at a time of economic unrest. Artisans were losing their jobs to mass production while immigrants were willing to work hard, for little money, in factories.</p>
<p>Scholars often use the term “nativism” as a general term for “opposition to immigration.” Nativism is often based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values. However, it has been observed that nativists usually do not consider themselves nativists. Rather they see themselves as “patriots” or “law-abiding citizens.”</p>
<p>Contemporary Americans are often surprised when they learn that before World War I there were no green cards, no visas, and no quotas for immigrants. Immigrants just arrived. The American government did use, to some extent, health criteria for admitting people. Mae Ngai, a legal and political historian at Columbia University who studies American immigration, said that “... if you could walk without a limp, and you had $30 in your pocket, you walked right in.” And so they came — with no paperwork issues or quotas or restrictions or immigration courts. Political backlash followed, in the form of secret societies that coalesced into the Know Nothing movement. The Know Nothings grew so popular that, in 1854, they overwhelmingly took over the Massachusetts Legislature — where they pushed for Prohibition laws, aimed squarely at Irish and German cultures. The Know Nothings also supported an effort to extend the naturalization period to 21 years. At the time, the debate centered not on sending immigrants back but on denying them the right to vote.</p>
<p>As we head toward the presidential elections in November, immigration remains a central, and often divisive, issue. Presidential debates and campaign speeches stir up controversies that are repeated and expounded upon at modern-day kitchen tables - social media.</p>
<p>Our past can help us to be better today. President Harry Truman challenged Americans not to live within but to live outside of our fears. He reminded Americans that: “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” Our past reminds us that, in spite of our fears, past and present, our differences are part of what makes the United States a richer, stronger nation made up of many cultures. Our past reminds us that we are a nation of immigrants and that many of those immigrants came to the U.S. without green cards or visas. And, in spite of hostility, stereotypes, and prejudice, immigrants became part of the rich, diverse fabric that makes America today. We must look past our own fear, to seek mutual understanding and acceptance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-kevin-wm-wildes-sj-phd/the-great-melting-pot_b_12340856.html">MORE>></a></p>
Date
Dialogue to Overcome Fear
News Intro Text
Have you heard a friend or family member make an anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim statement recently?
News Item Content
<p>Have you heard a friend or family member make an anti-immigrant or anti-Muslim statement recently? In recent months our society has been filled with sentiments, even by people we know and love, that degrade the dignity and contributions of immigrants and Muslims in U.S. society.</p>
<p>ISN has partnered with Faith in Public Life to offer a series of online training sessions for students at Catholic colleges and universities that equip participants to have courageous conversations with people in their personal networks, particularly intergenerational conversations that engage older family members, mentors, teachers, etc. The training will help you consider the psychology of fear that leads people to express hate or distrust of others because of their differences. It will also offer skills and insights on how to engage in meaningful and productive conversations about these issues with those in your personal network.</p>
<p>Training sessions will take place via video conferencing software that is easy to set-up on a computer or Apple/Android device. Sessions will last approximately 60 minutes. Participants will receive a digital copy of a 1-page summary highlighting the key points after the presentation. We will also reach out to participants a few weeks after their training to learn how they were able to utilize the skills in day-to-day conversations.</p>
<p>The sessions are intended for students — but college faculty and staff are welcome as well.</p>
<p>Are you willing to be courageous?</p>
<p><a href="http://ignatiansolidarity.net/dialogue-to-overcome-fear-a-digital-training-on-how-to-have-courageous-conversations/">REGISTER>></a></p>
<p>ISN has partnered with Faith in Public Life to offer a series of online training sessions for students at Catholic colleges and universities that equip participants to have courageous conversations with people in their personal networks, particularly intergenerational conversations that engage older family members, mentors, teachers, etc. The training will help you consider the psychology of fear that leads people to express hate or distrust of others because of their differences. It will also offer skills and insights on how to engage in meaningful and productive conversations about these issues with those in your personal network.</p>
<p>Training sessions will take place via video conferencing software that is easy to set-up on a computer or Apple/Android device. Sessions will last approximately 60 minutes. Participants will receive a digital copy of a 1-page summary highlighting the key points after the presentation. We will also reach out to participants a few weeks after their training to learn how they were able to utilize the skills in day-to-day conversations.</p>
<p>The sessions are intended for students — but college faculty and staff are welcome as well.</p>
<p>Are you willing to be courageous?</p>
<p><a href="http://ignatiansolidarity.net/dialogue-to-overcome-fear-a-digital-training-on-how-to-have-courageous-conversations/">REGISTER>></a></p>
Date
Partisan divide shapes Mississippi budget discussions
News Intro Text
[Mississippi Business Journal, October 13, 2016]
News Item Content
<p>Posted by: Associated Press, Mississippi Business Journal </p>
<p>Mississippi lawmakers are on separate tracks as they discuss state taxes and spending, with divisions defined largely by political party.</p>
<p>During different meetings Wednesday at the Capitol, a group consisting mostly of Republicans looked for ways to trim the budget, while Democrats heard from a researcher who recommended Medicaid expansion and more education spending to close the gap between rich and poor. Republican legislative leaders have repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion, and they hired a private consulting firm this week to rewrite Mississippi’s education funding formula to try to cut administrative costs.</p>
<p>Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, both Republicans, are chairmen of the group examining state agencies’ spending. The group heard Wednesday from speakers with the Reason Foundation, a Libertarian group that advocates cutting public spending by letting private companies handle services that are not core government functions, such as running parking garages on university campuses.</p>
<p>The budget group also discussed how much is being spent on contracts and asked agency directors whether they would eliminate specific programs.</p>
<p>Dr. Mary Currier, the state health officer, said one relatively small line-item that could be cut from the Department of Health Budget is a program to put anti-tobacco posters into frames for schools. Legislators asked her several questions about tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which are funded by winnings from a state lawsuit against tobacco companies in the 1990s. The state still receives annual payments.</p>
<p>Currier said anti-tobacco programs are required by state law and have been effective in cutting public health costs by reducing smoking.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to get adults to quit. It’s much easier to get kids not to start,” Currier said.</p>
<p>Department of Mental Health Director Diana Mikula told the bipartisan group that the department has 1,453 fewer employees now than it did in 2008, partly because of state budget cuts. The department has increased its use of part-time contract employees who work an average of about 20 hours a week, she said.</p>
<p>The House and Senate Democratic caucuses on Wednesday heard from Jeanie Donovan of the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University in New Orleans. She is a co-author of “State of Working Mississippi 2016,” a report released last month. It uses inflation-adjusted figures that show the wealthiest 10 percent of Mississippi earners saw their wages increase from 2007 to 2015, while most other groups saw wages decrease. It also shows that black residents, on average, earn less than whites — a trend that has persisted for decades.</p>
<p>Rep. David Baria of Bay St. Louis, leader of the House Democrats, criticized Republicans’ attempts to decrease corporate tax rates. He said that could put more tax burden on people with low or moderate incomes.</p>
<p>“The disparity between the wealthy and the poor in Mississippi has grown … and if you were to go the route that it seems our Republican majority wants to go, then that disparity is just going to grow wider in the near future,” Baria said. “And we think that’s a problem.”</p>
<p><a href="http://msbusiness.com/2016/10/partisan-divide-shapes-mississippi-budget-discussions/">MORE>></a></p>
<p>Mississippi lawmakers are on separate tracks as they discuss state taxes and spending, with divisions defined largely by political party.</p>
<p>During different meetings Wednesday at the Capitol, a group consisting mostly of Republicans looked for ways to trim the budget, while Democrats heard from a researcher who recommended Medicaid expansion and more education spending to close the gap between rich and poor. Republican legislative leaders have repeatedly rejected Medicaid expansion, and they hired a private consulting firm this week to rewrite Mississippi’s education funding formula to try to cut administrative costs.</p>
<p>Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, both Republicans, are chairmen of the group examining state agencies’ spending. The group heard Wednesday from speakers with the Reason Foundation, a Libertarian group that advocates cutting public spending by letting private companies handle services that are not core government functions, such as running parking garages on university campuses.</p>
<p>The budget group also discussed how much is being spent on contracts and asked agency directors whether they would eliminate specific programs.</p>
<p>Dr. Mary Currier, the state health officer, said one relatively small line-item that could be cut from the Department of Health Budget is a program to put anti-tobacco posters into frames for schools. Legislators asked her several questions about tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which are funded by winnings from a state lawsuit against tobacco companies in the 1990s. The state still receives annual payments.</p>
<p>Currier said anti-tobacco programs are required by state law and have been effective in cutting public health costs by reducing smoking.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to get adults to quit. It’s much easier to get kids not to start,” Currier said.</p>
<p>Department of Mental Health Director Diana Mikula told the bipartisan group that the department has 1,453 fewer employees now than it did in 2008, partly because of state budget cuts. The department has increased its use of part-time contract employees who work an average of about 20 hours a week, she said.</p>
<p>The House and Senate Democratic caucuses on Wednesday heard from Jeanie Donovan of the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University in New Orleans. She is a co-author of “State of Working Mississippi 2016,” a report released last month. It uses inflation-adjusted figures that show the wealthiest 10 percent of Mississippi earners saw their wages increase from 2007 to 2015, while most other groups saw wages decrease. It also shows that black residents, on average, earn less than whites — a trend that has persisted for decades.</p>
<p>Rep. David Baria of Bay St. Louis, leader of the House Democrats, criticized Republicans’ attempts to decrease corporate tax rates. He said that could put more tax burden on people with low or moderate incomes.</p>
<p>“The disparity between the wealthy and the poor in Mississippi has grown … and if you were to go the route that it seems our Republican majority wants to go, then that disparity is just going to grow wider in the near future,” Baria said. “And we think that’s a problem.”</p>
<p><a href="http://msbusiness.com/2016/10/partisan-divide-shapes-mississippi-budget-discussions/">MORE>></a></p>
Date
Here’s why Mississippi will likely stay at bottom of education rankings
News Intro Text
[The Sun Herald, October 2, 2016]
News Item Content
<p>BY JUSTIN VICORY</p>
<p>jvicory@sunherald.com</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It’s bleak future for Mississippi schools, a recent report says, unless something changes.</p>
<p>Segregated school systems and chronic underfunding have tied the state to the bottom of educational rankings for decades.</p>
<p>The Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University New Orleans, a social welfare advocacy group, recently presented a report called the “State of Working Mississippi 2016” at a Biloxi seminar. The institute used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Education, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Economic Policy Institute to illustrate how the state still lacks resources and funding in education.</p>
<p>Not everyone in Mississippi has access to quality education, which means they have fewer job opportunities, said Jeanie Donovan, economic policy specialist with the institute. Where they do have access, underfunding continues to prevent school districts from raising standards.</p>
<p>“Mississippi often ranks at the bottom when compared to other states. Low rankings aren’t just numbers,” Donovan said. “They represent a daily struggle. There’s a lack of educational opportunity for a significant number of households.”</p>
<p>Not unexpectedly, the report addressed the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been underfunded according to its own formula every year but two since its creation in 1997.</p>
<p>According to the formula, Coast schools will have been underfunded by more than $250 million over the last eight years. Statewide, the number balloons to $1.2 billion in the same time frame.</p>
<p>“I think what we’ve seen is everything starts with education,” said Jeremy Eisler, a senior education staff attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice. “And yet in a state where we’ve established a mandatory education funding formula, we’re $1.2 billion behind. This year, the Legislature again has refused to fully fund it. Without adequate education and health, no one in this state has what it needs.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sunherald.com/latest-news/article105191871.html">MORE>></a></p>
<div>
</div>
<p>jvicory@sunherald.com</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It’s bleak future for Mississippi schools, a recent report says, unless something changes.</p>
<p>Segregated school systems and chronic underfunding have tied the state to the bottom of educational rankings for decades.</p>
<p>The Jesuit Social Research Institute of Loyola University New Orleans, a social welfare advocacy group, recently presented a report called the “State of Working Mississippi 2016” at a Biloxi seminar. The institute used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Education, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Economic Policy Institute to illustrate how the state still lacks resources and funding in education.</p>
<p>Not everyone in Mississippi has access to quality education, which means they have fewer job opportunities, said Jeanie Donovan, economic policy specialist with the institute. Where they do have access, underfunding continues to prevent school districts from raising standards.</p>
<p>“Mississippi often ranks at the bottom when compared to other states. Low rankings aren’t just numbers,” Donovan said. “They represent a daily struggle. There’s a lack of educational opportunity for a significant number of households.”</p>
<p>Not unexpectedly, the report addressed the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, which has been underfunded according to its own formula every year but two since its creation in 1997.</p>
<p>According to the formula, Coast schools will have been underfunded by more than $250 million over the last eight years. Statewide, the number balloons to $1.2 billion in the same time frame.</p>
<p>“I think what we’ve seen is everything starts with education,” said Jeremy Eisler, a senior education staff attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice. “And yet in a state where we’ve established a mandatory education funding formula, we’re $1.2 billion behind. This year, the Legislature again has refused to fully fund it. Without adequate education and health, no one in this state has what it needs.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sunherald.com/latest-news/article105191871.html">MORE>></a></p>
<div>
</div>
Date
Louisiana's black communities are culturally rich, nothing like hell
News Intro Text
[Dr. Nik Mitchell for The Times Picayune]
News Item Content
<p>During the first presidential debate of the 2016 election, Republican nominee Donald Trump asserted that black people live in hell, which struck me as an odd statement. I am a native of Louisiana, and my family's roots run deep here. Louisiana skews how I read the Republican nominee's comments because the black community has a far more complicated reality here than in other parts of the country. As a black man here, I don't have to look far for the black community or culture. Louisiana is the most Africanized of all the states in the Union; meaning, that the language, music, food and philosophies that pervade here are all infused with blackness and direct derivatives of black culture. Black culture in Louisiana is unapologetically black.</p>
<p>Trump enunciated a view of black culture and communities that is common and has served as the historical frame by which large segments of white America conceptualize us: we are either savages or an endangered species. If seen as savages, black people are the criminal element in American society. We steal more, rape more, and kill more than other groups. Our communities are impoverished war zones because self-destruction is pathological in black culture. If seen as an endangered species, black people are in danger of going extinct because of liberal policies that ruined black communities with welfare and destroyed the black family. Both of these views center around the black-on-black homicide rate, which is the leading cause of death for black men between 15 and 35 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as evidence that black people are savages or endangered, depending on your point of view. Both of these views are expressions of the same ideology: "The White Man's Burden."</p>
<p>"The White Man's Burden" is an old imperialistic world view that charged white people with the civilizing of the savage and endangered nonwhite peoples of the world. Another word for this is "paternalism" and it has long been an undercurrent in how America has framed black people. The savage-endangered binary is rooted in a view that black communities are dysfunctional. The Republican nominee's major policy measure for dealing with black crisis is to spread New York City's infamous stop-and-frisk policies nationwide, despite them having been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. District Court. To be clear, this is tantamount to saying "the only way to save black people is to treat them all like criminals." With the recent killings of black people by various police departments under dubious circumstances, this is a puzzling policy suggestion until you remember that Trump's view of black people is inherently paternalistic. </p>
<p>Black communities are not dysfunctional. They are oppressed. Those are two radically different concepts. Dysfunction assumes that these communities are inherently flawed and need outside intervention in order to embrace the modern world and its mores. But black communities and by extension black culture is not dysfunctional. Black America, in the more than 400 years it has existed in North America, has created art, music, philosophy, science and political thought that easily compares with any civilization anywhere in the world. The prevailing notion and vocabulary of social justice in the United States and abroad is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement. Our cultural products are embraced and emulated in every corner of the world. Black America's problem is not dysfunction; the problem is that we have been targeted by policies designed to subjugate us for most of our history in the United States. We did not impose this poverty, mass incarceration and collapsing infrastructure on ourselves. Still, our communities are not hell — despite the United States taking every measure it could to ensure that they would be. </p>
<p>Black people have handled their oppression with a grace that is uncommon in human history. In spite of more than 400 years of active oppression in the territory that would later become the United States, black people have never embraced violent opposition. Our crime rates are no more disparate than any other groups. We do not need to be saved from ourselves. We need to be emancipated from systems that punish us for being what we are.</p>
<p>Nicholas Mitchell is a research fellow specializing in racism at the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2016/10/black_communities_arent_hell_t.html">ORIGINAL ARTICLE>></a></p>
<p>Trump enunciated a view of black culture and communities that is common and has served as the historical frame by which large segments of white America conceptualize us: we are either savages or an endangered species. If seen as savages, black people are the criminal element in American society. We steal more, rape more, and kill more than other groups. Our communities are impoverished war zones because self-destruction is pathological in black culture. If seen as an endangered species, black people are in danger of going extinct because of liberal policies that ruined black communities with welfare and destroyed the black family. Both of these views center around the black-on-black homicide rate, which is the leading cause of death for black men between 15 and 35 according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as evidence that black people are savages or endangered, depending on your point of view. Both of these views are expressions of the same ideology: "The White Man's Burden."</p>
<p>"The White Man's Burden" is an old imperialistic world view that charged white people with the civilizing of the savage and endangered nonwhite peoples of the world. Another word for this is "paternalism" and it has long been an undercurrent in how America has framed black people. The savage-endangered binary is rooted in a view that black communities are dysfunctional. The Republican nominee's major policy measure for dealing with black crisis is to spread New York City's infamous stop-and-frisk policies nationwide, despite them having been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. District Court. To be clear, this is tantamount to saying "the only way to save black people is to treat them all like criminals." With the recent killings of black people by various police departments under dubious circumstances, this is a puzzling policy suggestion until you remember that Trump's view of black people is inherently paternalistic. </p>
<p>Black communities are not dysfunctional. They are oppressed. Those are two radically different concepts. Dysfunction assumes that these communities are inherently flawed and need outside intervention in order to embrace the modern world and its mores. But black communities and by extension black culture is not dysfunctional. Black America, in the more than 400 years it has existed in North America, has created art, music, philosophy, science and political thought that easily compares with any civilization anywhere in the world. The prevailing notion and vocabulary of social justice in the United States and abroad is rooted in the Civil Rights Movement. Our cultural products are embraced and emulated in every corner of the world. Black America's problem is not dysfunction; the problem is that we have been targeted by policies designed to subjugate us for most of our history in the United States. We did not impose this poverty, mass incarceration and collapsing infrastructure on ourselves. Still, our communities are not hell — despite the United States taking every measure it could to ensure that they would be. </p>
<p>Black people have handled their oppression with a grace that is uncommon in human history. In spite of more than 400 years of active oppression in the territory that would later become the United States, black people have never embraced violent opposition. Our crime rates are no more disparate than any other groups. We do not need to be saved from ourselves. We need to be emancipated from systems that punish us for being what we are.</p>
<p>Nicholas Mitchell is a research fellow specializing in racism at the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2016/10/black_communities_arent_hell_t.html">ORIGINAL ARTICLE>></a></p>
Date