policy paper: poverty and racism catholic charities usa issue brief

7/31/2019 Policy Paper: Poverty and Racism Catholic Charities USA Issue Brief

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A Catholic Charities USA Poverty in America Issue Brief


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Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Threats to the Common Good

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Acknowledgments

As the President of Catholic Charities USA, I would like to acknowl-edge the network of committed contributors that made this documenta reality. We are grateful to the Rev. Bryan N. Massingale, associateprofessor of theology at Marquette University, for the draft core

document which became the canvas of our work. From this solidfoundation and conceptual framework, our editorial board and nationalmembership services staff constructed steps, doors, and windows. Oureditorial board included: Joyce Campbell, Catholic Charities, Dioceseof Trenton, NJ; Rev. Daniel Groody, University of Notre Dame;Ronald Jackson, Archdiocese of Washington, DC; Ron Krietemeyer,Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Ronald Laurent,Catholic Charities USA Board of Trustees; Sister Donna Markham,Adrian Dominican Sisters; Joe Rubio, Catholic Charities, Dioceseof Galveston-Houston, TX; Brian Stevens, Catholic Charities USA;and Carolyn Tisdale, Associated Catholic Charities, Memphis, TN.National Membership Service staff coordinated and directed the work-

flow through our networks, the Annual Gathering of Catholic CharitiesDirectors and our national partner in the work on poverty. e leadersin the national membership offi ce were: Candy Hill, Vice-President ofSocial Policy; Desmond Brown, Senior Director of Government Affairs;the Rev. Clarence Williams, Senior Director of Racial Equality andDiversity Initiatives; Jim Canavan, Director of Creative Services; andSheena Crews, Graphic Designer. is list of acknowledgements is notcomplete without acknowledging the hundreds of others who providedfeedback at every level of the Church and society over a three yearperiod. We owe a debt of gratitude and a world of thanks.

Rev. Larry Snyder, PublisherPresident, Catholic Charities USA

January 15, 2008

Sixty-Six Canal Center Plaza Alexandria, Virginia 22314(703) 549-1390 www.CatholicCharitiesUSA.org

Fr. Larry Snyder, President of Catholic Charities

USA, launches the Campaign to Reduce Poverty

in America. e goal of the Campaign is to

reduce the poverty rate in America by 50 percent

by the year 2020.

ird edition, copyright 2008 by Catholic Charities USA

All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

ON THE COVER: e cover photo captures

the Freedom March across the John A. Roebling

Suspension Bridge on September 15, 2007. It

is the largest Catholic March to promote better

race relations to date, and gathered hundreds of

Catholic Charities leaders from 38 states to

cross the river that separated the slave state of

Kentucky from the free state of Ohio.


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Table of Contents

Foreword .......................................................................................................... iv

Poverty and Racism: Overlapping Treats to the Common Good ....................1

Te Challenge o the Changing Face o America ..............................................3

Racism: A Challenge to Catholic Christian Faith ..............................................5

What is Racism? ................................................................................................8

Te Reality o Economic Privilege:Te Connection Between Racism and Poverty ................................................11

Te Legacy o the Past in the Present:Te Contemporary Reality o Racial Disparity ...............................................13

A Call to Action: Conronting Racism to Eliminate the Treat o Poverty .....15

Conclusion ......................................................................................................20

Appendix: An Explanation o erms ...............................................................21

End Notes ........................................................................................................22


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iv

Foreword

We are pleased to present this document to you. It grew out o our 2006 policy paper:Poverty in America: A Treat to the Common Good. In that document we calledor policy changes to reduce by hal the number o Americans living in poverty by 2020.Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Charities agencies across the country are aware thatwe cannot responsibly address the issue o poverty without addressing the impact o race.In our Vision 2000statement, we recognized the connection and interplay between theseissues when we stated that Catholic Charities USA needs to be a leader in eradicating racismwhich permeates our society and its structures.

Never has the urgency to address the issues o poverty and racism been so visible and paramountthan during and ater Hurricane Katrina. As a nation we were shocked, appalled, and embar-rassed as we watched along with others rom around the world the lie and death consequenceso being poor in America. What Americans and the world witnessed, however, was not a surpriseto Catholic Charities USA and its member agencies. Everyday we observe poverty and racismas we serve a disproportionate number o people o color who are poor. When the tragedy inthe Gul Coast occurred, we were hopeul that nally America would be moved to action todevelop solutions that would result in our nation nally addressing poverty and racism to ensure

that never again in our history would we experience the tragedy and suering that took place inthe Gul Coast.

But as ast as the winds o Katrina blew in and the ood waters rose, the will o the peopleand the political will in Washington, D.C. receded. wo years later, the issue o poverty andracism remains unchanged. Tereore, it now requires our collective attention. Tis docu-ment is being presented to assist us in advancing this long overdue conversation. In order toadequately and seriously address poverty in this country, we must have a candid conversationand subsequent action that changes the impact that race has on poverty. Tis is not an easyconversation, one that many o us might like to avoid. Te document itsel may evoke a rangeo emotions in each o us that may cause us to be very uncomortable. Whether it is anger,

sadness, guilt, or denial, this document will touch us each in a very personal way.

Tis document helps us begin a process or change by rst educating us, then causing usto reect on our own personal experiences, and nally moving us to recommit ourselves toaddressing the issue o racism and poverty in our lietime. For some, the discomort maycause inaction or polarization. We must not let that happen because or all o us this is a callto action. We ask each o you to join us in cutting poverty in hal and in making our countrywhole.


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As the new millennium approaches, there remains another great challenge acingthis community . . . [and] the whole country: to put an end to every orm oracism, a plague which [is] one o the most persistent and destructive evils o thenation.

Pope John Paul II 1

Introduction

Poverty and racism continue to undermine our nations most basic promise o liberty andjustice or all. Even as the 40th anniversary o his assassination approaches, Martin LutherKing, Jr.s aspiration or America, a dream o a land where men [and women] o all races, oall nationalities, and all creeds can live together as brothers [and sisters] remains a dream asyet unullled.2 During his nal pastoral visit to the United States, the late Pope John Paul IIissued a clarion call or Catholics and all people o good will to conront the tragic and endur-

ing social evils o racial injustice and inequality.Every day in this nation, Catholic Charities agencies serve individuals and amilies whostruggle with the combined ills o racism and poverty. Our agencies provide health care andchild welare services, assistance to the elderly, shelter or the homeless, ood or the hungry,and counseling or those in need o comort. We see the aces o the poor across America.Our daily work makes us realize that the issues o race and poverty are deeply connected andoten inseparable.

Tis realization was reinorced in our 2006 policy paper titled, Poverty in America: A Treat tothe Common Good. In that document, we called or public policy proposals, creative initia-tives, and collective changes o heart that would cut poverty in hal by 2020. We undertook

this initiative out o the conviction that poverty is a scandalous aront to the Christianconscience and endangers the social peace and uture prosperity o this nation.

It is our strong belie that any strategy to reduce poverty in America must also conront thedeep connection between racism and poverty. As we stated in 2006, we are convinced thatpoverty and racism are so intertwined that it is impossible to ully separate them. Racism,in both its individual and institutional orms, is a cause o poverty and at the same timean additional barrier or people o color seeking to escape poverty. We are convinced that

Poverty and Racism:Overlapping Treats to the Common Good

A Catholic Charities USA Poverty in America Issue Brie


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without a conscious and proactive struggle againstracism, our eorts to reduce the plague o poverty will bein vain. Any eective campaign to reduce poverty mustalso conront the unresolved racism which still perme-ates our national lie.3 In order to uproot the scandal o

poverty, we must also be agents o racial justice.Tis paper, then, builds upon and expands our2006 document by deepening our understanding ohow racism exacerbates the scourge o poverty. Ourpurpose is threeold:

o educate readers about the reality and history oracial injustice in our nation, the moral reasoningand convictions that ground our concern about thissocial evil, and the public policies we advocate or itsalleviation.

o advance awareness and more adequate publicdiscourse about the enduring reality o racism in thepolitical arena and in the media.

o invite others, both in the Catholic community andin the broader society, to join with us in a concertedeort to be more eective allies in the ongoing struggleagainst every maniestation o racial injustice and bias.

We do not intend to provide an in-depth analysis othe complex reality that is racism in the United States.

We will concentrate our attention on racisms economiceects and how it intersects with the evil o poverty.

aking the discussion o race beyond the black and white

dialogue, the Most Rev. Ricardo Ramirez, Bishop o Las

Cruces, New Mexico, shares the Hispanic/Latino perspec-

tive in his talk, Racism, the Radical Evil: A Scriptural

and Teological Reection.


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Any concern with racial justice today must take into account the changing demograph-ics o American society and the seismic shit in the composition o our population.We are becoming more racially and culturally diverse than ever beore. At least one out othree Americans is now Latino or nonwhite.4 Many o our nations urban centers are nowso-called majority-minority, meaning not only that people o color are the majority o thepopulation, but also that no single racial or ethnic group constitutes a numerical majority.Because o immigration patterns and diering birthrates among the various racial groups,it appears likely that by the middle o this century, whites will no longer be the majorityrace in the United States. Indeed, it is probable that our country will have no single racialmajority group.5

I we are going to create a more just America or the new majority o our citizens, we mustaddress some o the current challenges acing our nation. While the majority o poor peoplein our country currently are white, a disproportionate number o poor people are persons ocolor. Consider the ollowing acts cited in our 2006 statement:

Te highest rates o poverty are among children, especially children o color. Te povertyrate or white children is 10 percent, while it is 28 percent or Latino children, 27 percentor Native-American children, and 33 percent or Arican-American children.6

Arican Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans are about three times aslikely to live in poverty as are whites. While the poverty rate or non-Hispanic whites is 8percent, the rate or Arican Americans is 24.1 percent, or Hispanics, 21.8 percent, andor Native Americans, 23.2 percent.7

Te most extreme poverty in the United States is concentrated in specic geographicalareas such as the urban cores o major cities and Native American reservations. Tese areaso concentrated poverty are the result o decades o policies that conned the impoverished

to these economically isolated areas.

Finally, we also noted the stark racial disparity in the distribution o wealth in the UnitedStates. White amilies not only have on average 10 times the net worth o amilies o color,but also between 1998 and 2001, their wealth grew by 20 percent, while the net worth oArican American households actually declined during that same period.8

Tus the major demographic shits o the present and near uture orce us to conront theunnished business o our nations struggles or racial justice and inclusion. As one authorita-

The Challenge of the

Changing Face of America


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tive study notes, Te color question is pervasive in our lives, and it is an explicit tensionor at least subtext in countless policy debates.9 Te ghosts o our legacy o racial inequalitycontinue to haunt us. Incidents o racial violence and protests against alleged brutalities; theracial inequities in the nations criminal justice system; the racial disparities present in healthcare delivery and access; the continuing controversies over armative action; the ood o

complaints to government agencies over racial discrimination in employment and promo-tion; the popularity o English only initiatives; the presence o gated communities in ourresidential neighborhoods; the acrimonious debates over immigration policy; and the hatecrimes perpetrated against those deemed dierent provide ample evidence that managing ourdemographic transition and orging a new American identity will not be easy. We undertakethis task burdened by a history o racial injustice, social intolerance, and cultural privilege.

Rosio Gonzalez, Executive Director o Catholic Charities Idaho, lits her candle high with hundreds o

national leaders as they renew their baptismal vows and recommit to letting their light shine in a world

caught up in the darkness o social divisions.


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As members o Catholic Charities USA, we approach social issues rom a aith perspec-tive grounded in a concern or human dignity and ull human ourishing. We drawinspiration rom the heritage o our churchs social teaching. As the American Catholicbishops declared in 1958, Te heart o the race question is moral and religious.10 For us,the existence o racial intolerance, discrimination, and privilege is not only a social injustice;we believe that racism is absolutely irreconcilable with Christian aith and belie.

As Catholic Christians, we espouse certain undamental belies about God, the humanamily, and social justice that are directly relevant to the evil o racism.

1) We believe in one Creator God and the common origin o humankind. Because humanbeings have a common Creator, the human race has an essential unity that is prior to anydistinctions o race, nationality, or ethnicity. All humanity is created in the image and likenesso God (c. Genesis 1:26). We urther believe that God has endowed all men and women withan equal and inviolable dignity, value, and worth. In the words o Pope Benedict XVI, BeoreGod, all men and women have the same dignity, whatever their nation, culture, or religion.11Our response to this intrinsic human dignity is to recognize, promote, and deend it rom allorms o attack and to create the social conditions in which all human persons may ourish.

Tis undamental conviction o our aith has received orceul rearticulation rom the pastorso our church. Reiterating the teaching o the Second Vatican Council, the Pope proclaimed,On the basis o our shared human dignity the Catholic Church condemns as oreign tothe mind o Christ any kind o discrimination whatsoever between people, or harassment othem, done by reason o race or color, class or religion.12

Racism ractures the unity o the human amily, violates the human rights o individuals andgroups, mocks the God-given equal dignity o human beings, and thus is absolutely incom-patible with authentic aith in God.

2) We believe that the diversity o the human amily is a divine blessing and mirrors the

inner lie o God. In the story o Pentecost, we read how the various peoples o the earthwere able to hear Gods word proclaimed each in their own language (Acts 2:11). TeHoly Spirits descent upon the church did not cancel or annul dierences o race, language,or culture. Instead the Spirits presence caused these dierences not to be an obstacle tothe unity o the human amily. Te Spirit enriches humanity and the church with a varietyo gits.13 Indeed, because the church is catholic that is, inclusive and universal thediversity o peoples, languages, cultures, and colors among us must not only be tolerated,but also cherished and celebrated.

Racism: A Challenge to Catholic Christian Faith


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Furthermore, the diversity o the human community, we believe, reects the dierentia-tion present in the interior lie o the riune God. Christians believe in a rinitarian God,a community o persons who exist in a communion o lie and love. In God, the DivinePersons relate to one another in neither domination nor subordination.14 In God, there isdistinction without separation, unity without uniormity, dierence without division. Since

we are created in the image o this God, Gods own lie becomes the model or human sociallie.15 Te variety o languages, cultures, and colors in the human amily, then, is a mirror othe rinitarian God whose essence is a loving embrace o dierence.

3) We believe in the solidarity o the human amily, which leads to the conviction that weare responsible or each others welare.16 Just as the Divine Persons o the Blessed rinity areunited in love, so the human amily is bound together by that social orm o charity that iscalled solidarity.17 Tis solidarity moves us to have a concern or those who are dierent romus and to see them as ull sharers in our humanity indeed, as neighbors and riends. AsPope John Paul II taught, Solidarity helps us to see the other whether a person, people,or nation not just as some kind o instrument . . . but as our neighbor, a helper (c. Gn.2:18-20), to be made a sharer on a par with ourselves in the banquet o lie to which all areequally invited by God.18

4) Finally, we believe that the poor and the marginalized have a privileged claim upon theconsciences o believers and the public concern o the state. Oten called a preerential optionor concern or the poor, Pope John Paul described this as a call to have a special opennesswith the small and the weak, those that suer and weep, those that are humiliated and let onthe margin o society, so as to help them win their dignity as human persons and children oGod.19 As the U.S. bishops observed in their pastoral letter, Economic Justice or All, thoughthe majority o the poor in our nation are white, the rates o poverty are highest among thosewho have borne the brunt o racial prejudice and discrimination.20 Because racism bothexacerbates the poverty o those who are poor and results in economic disadvantage even or

those who are not, a aith-inspired preerential concern or the poor and socially vulnerabledemands a proactive struggle against the social evil o racism.

Te heart o our conviction is well-expressed by the U.S. Bishops when they proclaim, Racism isnot just one sin among many; it is a radical evil which divides the human amily.21

Honesty, however, compels us to acknowledge that the Catholic community in the UnitedStates has not always lived up to the call o our aith. While there have always been believerswho have acted heroically out o our aiths convictions, too oten many others have givencounter-witness and scandal in the struggle or racial justice and equality.22 History showsthat the Catholic Church has not been immune rom the racial virus that aficts Americanculture. As the U.S. Bishops acknowledged in 1992:

As Church, we oten have been unconscious and insensitive to the mistreatmento our Native American brothers and sisters and have at times reected the racismo the dominant culture o which we have been a part.23


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Te churchs tragic complicity in racism is urther evidenced in its justication o slaveryand ownership o slaves; the reusal to admit persons o color to seminaries, convents, andreligious lie; its silence concerning legal segregation; and the hostility, violence, and whiteight which greeted blacks who moved into Catholic urban ethnic neighborhoods (anhistorical precursor o many problems acing our cities today).24

Acknowledging this sad legacy o racial complicity is painul. Yet, we cannot ask the widersociety to do what we are unwilling to do ourselves. Our aith leaders teach, History can behealing i we will ace up to its lessons.25 May this history serve as an impetus or reneweddetermination to remedy perpetrated harms and to not repeat our ailures tasks we under-take with the help o God.

In the atermath o Hurricane Katrina, one victim ponders what the uture will hold.


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Part o what makes racism such a dicult issue to address in our nations public discourseis that most Americans lack an adequate understanding o how persistent and destruc-tive this evil continues to be in contemporary society. Many believe that racism is a mattero the past, conveyed on the grainy images o black and white lms. No one disputes that

acts o blatant insensitivity still stain our social abric. Most grant that occasional acts ocallous bigotry still occur. But Americans tend to believe that these are isolated incidents andtragic exceptions to the climate o racial decency which now prevails among the majority oAmericans in general, and white Americans in particular. At best, this thinking is naive. Atworst, it is a delusion and an evasion o reality.

We do not dispute that much has changed in race relations since the abolition o slaveryand the legal exclusion o persons o color, but we believe that in America we have too otenconused the symptoms or the disease and ocused on appearances rather than substance. Weare convinced that what has happened all too oten has been only a covering over, and not aundamental change in, the racial dynamics o our society.26

Racism has never been solely or principally about insults, slurs, or exclusion, as demeaningand harmul as these are. Tese are but the symptoms o a deeper malady.

We believe that the United States, despite the undeniable changes in racisms maniestations,still remains a racialized society, that is, a society wherein race matters prooundly ordierences in lie experiences, lie opportunities, and social relationships. We are a nationthat allocates dierential economic, political, social, and even psychological rewards togroups along racial lines; lines that are socially constructed.27 At its core, racism is a systemo racially conerred and denied privilege, advantage, benets, and status. Tis inequalityo status and benet endures today. Tus, racism today remains what it has always been: adeense o racial privilege.28

Racism entails more than conscious ill-will, more than deliberate acts o avoidance, exclusion,malice, and violence perpetrated by individuals. We acknowledge that members o any racialgroup can and, in act, do act unjustly toward those they consider racially dierent. Butsuch individual acts cannot alter the act that in the United States, one racial group is sociallyadvantaged, and the others endure social stigma. Racism describes the reality o unearnedadvantage, conerred dominance, and invisible privilege enjoyed by white Americans, to thedetriment, burden, and disadvantage o people o color. Tis network o racially conerredadvantages and benets has been termed white privilege.29

What is Racism?


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White privilege reers to the reality that in U.S. society there are opportunities which areaorded whites that people o color simply do not share.30 Tese advantages range romgreater ease in hailing a taxi and moving into whatever neighborhood they can aord, to easieraccess to positions o social inuence and political power, to the presumption that their racewill not work against them when seeking employment and in other social situations. Being

racially advantaged might be unwanted or undesired by individual white Americans. In act,some white Americans are distressed when they become aware o the reality o white privilege.Regardless o an individuals desires, an invisible package o unearned assets is enjoyed bywhite people because o the racial consciousness which is subtly pervasive in our social cus-toms and institutions.31

White privilege may be a new and even troubling concept or many in our nation andchurch. Most o us are trained to see how racism disadvantages or burdens people o color.We are not so accustomed to see how racism results in unair advantages or benets orthe dominant racial group. White privilege shits the ocus rom how people o color areharmed by racism to how white Americans derive advantages because o it. White privilegeis the ip-side and inescapable corollary o racial injustice. Racial injustice comes about topreserve and protect white privilege.

White privilege results when pervasive belies about the inadequacies o people o colorbecome expressed by or entrenched in our societys institutional policies, social customs,cultural media, and political processes. Tus, there arises a mutually reinorcing relationshipbetween personal prejudicial belies and common social practices:

People who assume, consciously or unconsciously, that white people are superiorcreate and sustain institutions that privilege people like themselves and habitu-ally ignore the contributions o other peoples and cultures. Tis white privilegeoten goes undetected because it has become internalized and integrated as part

o ones outlook on the world by custom, habit, and tradition. It can be seen inmost o our institutions: judicial and political systems, social clubs, associations,hospitals, universities, labor unions, small and large business, major corporations,the proessions, sports teams, and the arts.32

Tis insight leads to two urther observations. First, racial privilege operates in ways that areoten outside o conscious awareness. Second, racial privilege is not natural; it is a humancreation.

For the most part, white Americans do not think o themselves as white or as belonging toa white culture. When asked what their racial or cultural identity is, many whites state anethnic background (e.g., a hybrid o German/Irish) but then relate that this ethnic back-

ground is not a signicant part o their personal identity. Most whites describe themselvesas American which is signicant because i American is their specic cultural identity,what does that make Americans o color? Very ew spontaneously describe themselves aswhite.33 As Joe Feagin and Hernan Vera conclude, Apparently, or most whites, beingwhite means rarely having to think about it.34 o put this another way, most whites do notsee themselves as racialized, as having a racial identity or status.


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Tis means that white Americans are oten oblivious to white privilege and how deeplyembedded racial advantage is in our nation unless those who are other challenge theirunderstanding o reality.35

Tus many white Americans and Americans o color as well are unaware o how deeplyaected they are by their racial raming and cultural conditioning. We are conditioned to not

see white privilege; we are socialized to see white advantage and benet as normal and justthe way things are.

Racism, then, is much more complex than the typical understanding acknowledges. It is armore than deliberate acts o exclusion, bias, and bigotry. Racism is a way o understandingand interpreting skin color dierences so that white Americans enjoy a privileged social statuswith access to advantages and benets to the detriment, disadvantage, and burden o personso color. Racism, in all o its orms and permutations, is at its core a deense o racially-basedsocial privilege.

Te Freedom March across the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 15,

2007 is the largest Catholic march to promote better race relations to date.


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he privileged status o whiteness did not just happen. It has been deliberatelyconstructed over a long period o time. White privilege is the result o social policies,institutions, and procedures that deliberately created a system that advanced the welare owhite Americans and impeded the opportunities o persons o color.36

Among the most important eects and maniestations o white privilege are the economicadvantages that have been conerred upon white Americans by public policy and politi-cal power throughout our history. Racism inevitably causes economic disadvantages andburdens or groups o color. Here are several key events and movements that exempliy thelink between race and poverty, events that both burdened people o color seeking to escapepoverty and eased the way or white Americans to advance their economic ortunes.

Te institution o slavery. Slavery means exploited labor; the labor o enslaved Aricans wasessential or creating wealth or others rom which they oten derived no benet. Slaveryresulted in the creation o wealth not only or the white slave-holding elite, but or all whobeneted rom and participated in a slavery-centered economy (e.g., merchants, bankers,shermen, shipbuilders, traders, auctioneers, bounty hunters, and immigrant armers).37

Te Indian Removal Act o 1830. By this act o Congress, Native Americans were orciblyremoved rom their lands and resettled in territory that was o no interest to whites. Teirproperty was then made available or white settlers. Tis stolen land became the basis orwhite economic enrichment which could be passed on as an inheritance to uture genera-tions. Tis economic disenranchisement also led to the impoverishment o uture genera-tions o Native Americans.38

Supreme Court Decision o Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Tis decision enshrined the reali-ties o racial segregation, second-class citizenship, and separate but equal acilities inour national lie. Among the many pernicious eects o this decision was the creation oinerior educational opportunities or Arican Americans. Tey and other communitieso color endured severely restricted access to quality education. Segregated schools were

poorly unded in comparison to their white counterparts. Tis created a decit o educa-tional attainment the eects o which are still with us which translated into economicdisadvantage in the labor market, including participation in higher paying and sociallyprestigious proessions.39

Te exclusion o Asian Indians rom eligibility or U.S. citizenship. In 1923, the U.S.Supreme Court (U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Tind) ruled that while Asian Indians wereindeed Caucasians by race, they could not be considered white. Te result wasthat many Asian Indians were stripped o their naturalized citizenship. Tis meant

The Reality of Economic Privilege:

The Connection Between Racism and Poverty


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that they were unable to legally own property; many had their assets taken rom themand given to whites.40

Te exclusion o domestics and agricultural workers rom the Social Security Act o 1935.At the height o the Depression, this law created a new public policy that established abasic level o economic security or many o the countrys workers. However, by excluding

domestics and agricultural workers, this act eectively denied Social Security pensions andbenets to 75 percent o black workers.41

Te provisions o the Wagner Act (1935), which allowed unions to exclude Arican Americansrom union membership. Tis legislation granted legal protections and recognitions to laborunions not previously enjoyed and gave many working class whites access to higher wages andbenets. However, because the act also allowed unions to exclude blacks rom union member-ship and its benets, it legally protected white laborers rom competition in the job market,creating economic opportunities reserved or whites, and urther maintaining the existence oa lower paid, exploited labor pool.

Te ailure o the Federal Housing Administration (1940s and 1950s) to grant loans to even

minimally integrated neighborhoods. Tis agency provided low-cost government-guaranteedloans to working class amilies, enabling mass home ownership and the accumulation owealth that could be passed on to children. Ninety-eight percent o these loans were givento whites; blacks were granted less than two percent. Te reusal to grant loans to integratedneighborhoods was a practice known as redlining.

Many more historical examples can be cited. Tese suce in demonstrating how whiteprivilege was deliberately created and oten state-sanctioned. It also resulted in unjustimpoverishment or groups o color and unjust enrichment or white Americans. Unjustenrichment and unjust impoverishment are critical concepts or understanding [ournations] past and present economic realities and the link between racism and poverty.42

Te pernicious eects o this deliberate and state-sanctioned unjust impoverishment endureto this day. Tis creates a serious obligation to repair the economic injuries and materialdeprivation that has been inicted upon communities o color. Tereore, we support consciouseorts to correct past injustices with proactive deeds.

Te responsibility to repair the harm or injury done to another is long recognized in Catholicmoral theology. raditional moral teaching speaks o the duty o restitution, based on theprinciple that when injustice is done it must be repaired.43 Te Holy See recently hasapplied this teaching to the specic issue o racial grievances and the question o repara-tions. Tis teaching recognizes that various orms o racial reparation are possible, includingmonetary compensation, ormal apologies and statements o regret, and symbolic gestures

(such as monuments and memorials to the victims o an injustice).44 As an organization,Catholic Charities USA is not yet prepared to endorse either a particular mode o reparationor any concrete proposal that is under current discussion. Instead, we call or a responsiblenational study and resolution o this complex question that respects the principle that socialharm calls or social relie.45


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he dynamics o the past are directly relevant to understanding the disproportionateimpact o poverty upon groups o color today. We live with the legacy o past decisionsand social policies that have created a transgenerational burden o severely circumscribedeconomic opportunity.

Wealth Disparity. Te past gives us the context or understanding the severe wealth disparitybetween racial groups, which we noted at the beginning o this paper. For most Americans,their greatest asset is their home. Home ownership provides one o the chie means o wealthgeneration; it provides the means or accessing opportunities such as collateral or buying abusiness or obtaining loans or higher education, it is one o the principal sources o nancialstability in case o an economic emergency; and it is a means by which wealth is accumulatedand passed on to ones heirs.

Tus the historic exclusion o Arican Americans and other groups rom the benets o homeownership creates an economic decit and reduced access to social mobility that persists eventoday. Whites as a social group have the present advantage o decades o accumulated wealth

and the opportunities it provides.

Residential Segregation and the Concentration o Poverty. Te importance o housing ornancial stability makes all the more troubling the current residential segregation o ourcountry. Perhaps the most stubborn and persistent maniestation o racism is the highlysegregated housing patterns ound in the United States. An authoritative recent study orace relations in our nation observes, Housing is probably one o those areas in whichthe persistence o White prejudice and discrimination is still most alive.46 Stable raciallyintegrated neighborhoods are rare in our country. Many o our metropolitan areas are evenconsidered hypersegregated. Te term, spatial racism, has been coined to describe thissevere residential segregation.47

Te result is that whites and people o color are geographically separated, and increasinglyisolated, rom one another: Spatial racism creates a visible chasm between the rich and thepoor, and between whites and people o color.48 Because cities are increasingly viewed asblack or brown enclaves, discussions o urban lie have taken on racial overtones.

Given the importance o residence or determining ones access to quality education, healthcare, employment opportunities, and inormal social networking, it comes as little surprisethat residential segregation greatly contributes to the disparities between blacks and whites

The Legacy of the Past in the Present:

The Contemporary Reality of Racial Disparity


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in educational achievement, quality o health care, and acquisition o wealth.49 Te moresegregated or isolated a neighborhood, the less likely it is that the residents will have easyaccess to inormation concerning schools, apprenticeship programs, the labor market,nancial markets, and so on.50

Employment Discrimination. News accounts o alleged racial discrimination in the nations

workplaces are still quite common. Despite measurable progress during the last 20 years,people o color still must negotiate subtle obstacles and overcome covert barriers in theirpursuit o employment and/or promotion. Studies document that although racial minoritiesnow experience greater ease in being hired or entry-level positions than in the past, theyare oten stymied when it comes to being promoted to positions o signicant inuence andresponsibility.51According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, even ater three decadeso armative action, a severe racial disparity continues to exist in the top ranks o corporateleadership. For example, white males a minority o the nations workorce hold more than90 percent o corporate senior management positions.52 Tis commission urther notes thatthe ears and prejudices o white middle managers are most responsible or this continuedracial disparity.53

Controversies over Immigration. For over 100 years, our agencies have worked with immi-grants who come to our nation in search o economic opportunity. Our daily work gives usrst hand experience o how racism and poverty impact many members o the new immi-grant groups among us. Children in immigrant amilies suer higher poverty rates, enduremore housing and ood problems, and receive public benets at lower rates than children innative amilies.54 We are also concerned that anxieties about border security ocus primarilyon the border shared with Mexico, and not the one with Canada. Tis leads us to suspectthat such discussions have a racial subtext, ueled by an anxiety over the number o darker-skinned immigrants in our country.

Te Scandal o Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was not just an act o nature. It was also asocial phenomenon that exposed the harsh reality o race-based poverty that exists in theUnited States. Even ater two years, the images o misery displayed on our televisions the abandoned who were overwhelmingly black and destitute continue to haunt us.Katrina revealed, as no other event in recent history, the tragic conuence o racism andpoverty that exists in our nations cities a poverty and racism exacerbated by decades osocial callousness and public neglect.55

Te evidence o the past and present conrms our undamental insight: the eliminationo poverty and economic deprivation is impossible without a proactive struggle againstracial injustice and white privilege. Tese social evils, while distinct, are inseparablyintertwined.


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Racism is not natural. White privilege does not just happen. It is important to stressthe human agency behind white privilege or two reasons. First, human agency makeswhite privilege an ethical reality or which there is moral responsibility and accountability.Second, because human agents created and maintain racial injustice, human agency can alsochallenge, modiy, and dismantle it. Tis is the basis or our call to action.

We rearm the policy proposals we advocated in our prior 2006 statement or the elimina-tion o poverty. Tese centered on creating more livable wage jobs, raising the wages oexisting low-paid jobs, and investing our common wealth in social welare policies orlow-income amilies and individuals. Here we ocus on those additional measures needed toaddress the poverty which is racially caused or aggravated.

Public Policy Proposals

A Renewed Commitment to Racial Equality as a National Goal and PriorityMartin Luther King, Jr., lamented that during his lie most white Americans were notsincerely committed to genuine equality but to mere improvement. He observed a unda-

mental ambivalence whereby the white majority wants to condemn blatant acts o injustice,and yet preserve their position o social dominance. He concluded that the majority o thedominant culture is suspended between two opposing attitudes: Tey are uneasy withinjustice, but unwilling yet to pay a signicant price to eradicate it.56 Kings insights resonatewith our own conviction that what is hailed as racial progress is too oten a covering overand not a undamental change in race relations.

Our reection leads us to conclude that our national commitment to racial equality has beenhal-hearted, at best. Tus, we call or a new commitment to the project o genuine racialequality. We believe that the proposals we advocate below will contribute to this goal. Yet,until the reality o white privilege is orthrightly acknowledged and addressed, genuine racial

equality will be unattainable. Tereore, we call upon scholars, activists, theologians, andpastors to help all Americans to deepen our understanding o white privilege and the ethicalchallenges it poses or a nation struggling to commit itsel to genuine racial equality.

Improved Fair Housing LawsAs noted above, segregated housing remains one o the most stubborn and persistent mani-estations o racism. Racially segregated neighborhoods too oten suer social abandonment,creating inerior housing stock that severely curtails economic advancement. Yet the cause oair housing seems to have drited o o the national radar and is no longer a pressing prior-

A Call to Action: Confronting Racism

to Eliminate the Threat of Poverty


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ity. We strongly advocate the stricter enorcement o air housing laws and or more adequateunding o those agencies charged with administering, monitoring, and enorcing existing lawsagainst racial discrimination in obtaining the residence o ones choice. We advocate greateraccountability and transparency in the mortgage industry and more eective oversight olending agencies to ensure equal access to the unding necessary to obtain housing nancing.

Increased Federal Funding or Aordable HousingGiven the historic exclusion o communities o color rom the opportunities to accumulatenancial assets, many nd themselves at a disadvantage when seeking competitive rates ornancing a home. We thereore advocate or increased ederal support in building moreaordable housing and expanding other opportunities or people o color to purchase theirown homes. At the least, the government should provide opportunities or communities ocolor to enjoy the same benets provided to white Americans during the 1940s and 1950s.Basic airness demands that just as these groups were actively excluded rom ederal mortgageguarantees in the past, they now deserve to be intentionally included today.

Stronger Laws to Punish Predatory Lenders

Numerous studies detail how central city neighborhoods suer rom a dearth o nancial andbanking services compared to suburban communities. Tis void has been lled by institu-tions oering nancial services to the poor, charging exorbitant interest rates or pay dayloans and short-term rentals o consumer goods. Tis results in a spiral o debt that createsurther economic disadvantage or low-income people. We thereore call or stronger lawsto punish predatory lenders, cap the interest that can be charged or short-term loans, andrequire greater transparency o the conditions o such loans in a language that is accessible orthose who might have limited education or English prociency.

Progressive Afrmative Action Policies in Education and EmploymentTe active exclusion o groups o color rom educational and employment opportunities in

the past creates an obligation to alleviate the resulting inequities o the present. Moreover, wehave noted that ample evidence exists that racial discrimination in education and employ-ment has not disappeared. Despite the views o many in our nation, we believe that the needor armative action in employment and education is still urgent.

Tere is no single type o armative action program. Armative action is an umbrellaterm given to a variety o practices that seek to address and rectiy the pervasive discrimina-tion and social stigma suered by people o color and women. Such practices include aggres-sive recruitment and targeted advertising campaigns; remedial education and job trainingprograms; vigilant enorcement o nondiscrimination laws; and exible hiring goals, recruit-ment targets, and promotion timetables.

Armative action thus has at least a twoold purpose: 1) to compensate or the enduringeects o our history o publicly sponsored racial exclusion and segregation; and 2) to mini-mize the occurrence o present and uture discrimination, toward the goal o creating a justand inclusive society.57 For these reasons, we support it as a means toward alleviating racially-based economic disadvantage.


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Quality Educational Opportunity or the PoorAs we have noted, economic advancement is linked to educational opportunity. Yet, toooten the quality o ones education is dependent upon where one has the ortune (or misor-tune) o living. Te poor state o public education in many o our nations cities is a complexphenomenon with multiple contributing causes. Regardless, it is a scandal that children o

color endure school environments and a lack o resources that would never be tolerated orwhite children.58 We call or more adequate measures that will equalize the unding o publiceducation across metropolitan areas, so as to enhance quality public instruction or all thosewho will be entrusted with our nations uture.

Digital Inclusion and Access to echnologyTe act o the digital divide, that is, the gap in inormation technology access betweenracial groups and economic classes, is the subject o recent public discussion. What oten goesunnoted, however, are the economic consequences o this digital exclusion in an inormationeconomy. Research suggests that people with access to the Internet have better access tolie opportunities such as living wage jobs.59 We thereore advocate increased measures thatprovide low-cost or ree Internet access to impoverished communities o color.

Comprehensive Immigration ReormCatholic Charities USA continues to advocate or just and comprehensive polices thataddress the needs o newcomers. We call on Congress to enact comprehensive immigra-tion policies that not only promote the security o our nation, but also put undocumentedworkers and their amilies on a path to lawul permanent residence and citizenship, creategreater legal avenues or necessary workers to enter the United States, promote the successo newcomers, and improve the economic prospects, health care access, and sae workingconditions or all U.S. residents.

Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reorm

Along with the increasing rate o poverty, the number o incarcerated Americans has risensignicantly in recent decades. According to the U.S. Department o Justice, between1995and 2006, the number o incarcerated Americans in ederal, state, and local acilities roserom 1.5 million to 2.2 million.60 Just as a disproportionate number o persons o color live inpoverty, there also is a severe racial disparity in the ranks o the incarcerated. Federal and statecriminal justice reorms are urgently needed to address biases in sentencing practices. Further,each year more than 650,000 men and women re-enter communities across America rom ournations prisons. oo ew o them are prepared or their new environments or receive adequatesupportive services upon their release. Tis is a recipe or ailure. We, thereore, advocatecomprehensive support or newly released individuals so that they can make a better transitionback into their communities and become economically productive citizens.

Investments in the Nations Social Saety NetPeople o color disproportionately rely on the social saety net o our county. Programs suchas ood stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare are essential to the survival o many low-incomeamilies. Catholic Charities USA continues to call upon the ederal and state governments tostrengthen and protect these vital programs. We urther call or programmatic reorms to addressbarriers that keep eligible amilies rom accessing these programs.


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The Commitment of Catholic Charities USA

Te above recommendations require a signicant change in the public consensus over thecauses o poverty and the understanding o racism. We commit ourselves to being agentsto promote these needed new ways o thinking, understanding, and acting. Specically, wecommit ourselves to:

Presenting the connection between poverty and racial injustice in our publications orpublic statements dealing with poverty;

Incorporating a conscious and intentional advocacy or racial justice as a constitutive aspecto our sel-understanding and mission;

Deepening our understanding o the reality o white privilege and how it aects ouragencies, policies, and relationships with employees and clients o color;

Engaging in a serious examination o our own recruitment, employment, promotion, andvending practices to ensure that we are exemplary models o the anti-racism stance weadvocate or others;

Developing a plan o action or the changes needed to correct the deciencies our internalexamination o current practices reveals; and

Cultivating a stance o proactive solidarity and strong partnerships with communitieso color, both nationally and locally, as a step toward overcoming our blindness to racialprivilege and becoming better advocates or racial justice in both our church and society.

The Call to Individuals of Good Will

Few issues engage us so emotionally and viscerally as the issue o racism. A serious encounter

and reection on this reality engenders reactions o ear, deensiveness, guilt, denial, anger,sadness, discouragement, weariness, and even despair. We can also eel overwhelmed by themagnitude o the challenge, embarrassed by our ignorance and lack o understanding, and/orimpatient with the slow and limited progress made thus ar. Perhaps we even recoil at the pros-pect o having to reevaluate and change our undamental understanding o what racism is andhow we have been the perhaps unwitting beneciaries o the injustices inicted upon others.

Such emotions are real. Yet the challenge is to use them as catalysts or arriving at deeper andtruer understandings o who we are and the society we live in. None o us is responsible orthe misinormation we have been given about our history. Yet we are accountable or how weuse this inormation once we become more and more aware o our true situation.

For white Americans especially, the challenge o accepting the reality o white privilege canbe daunting. Some may honestly wonder, Why should I give up a social status that benetsme? We answer: Because the privileges o some are obtained at the expense o others.Because our nation cannot endure in peace and prosperity as long as so many are excludedrom its wealth and advantages. Because the American Dream is an aspiration or all, not thepossession o only a ew. Because the Prophets and the Gospels remind us that we are givento each others care, and the measure o our response to the least among us is the measure oour response to God.


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Others may become increasingly ill at ease and morally discomorted, especially as theirprivileged status becomes more and more undesired. Here, the call is to become awareo those many, largely-unknown white Americans who have been genuine allies withcommunities o color in the struggle or racial justice. Like the Quakers, the conductorso the Underground Railroad, and Saint Katherine Drexel (oundress o the Sisters o the

Blessed Sacrament and erce advocate or Arican and Native American peoples), therehave been and still are people o good will who have used their conerred position oracial privilege to challenge racial injustice and even subvert the system o privilege. Tereality o ones white privilege does not make him or her an evil individual; what a persondoes with that privilege is the acid-test o his or her personal morality.

A gathering o hundreds o Catholic Charities leaders rom 38 states cross the river that separated the slave state

o Kentucky rom the ree state o Ohio to symbolize their commitment to be abridgeto a brighter uture.


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0

Conclusion

What motivates our concern about racism is our aith conviction that this is a radicalevil which is not only absolutely incompatible with Christian aith and belie, butalso a dire threat to our nations uture. A new way o understanding what it means to beAmerican, and who is included in that sel-understanding, is urgently needed or both theintegrity o our aith and our survival as a nation. Given the momentous shit occurring inour racial demographics, tolerating racial injustice and economic deprivation are realities wecan no longer aord to indulge.

We oer to both our church and society the ollowing armations and convictions:

Poverty and racial injustice are deeply intertwined and demand a simultaneous engage-ment i eective progress is to be made against either.

Poverty and racial injustice are moral scandals that betray our national ideals o libertyand justice or all.

Poverty and racial injustice are the results o human agency. Tey need not exist. Tismeans that social reality can be other than the way it is. Social lie is created by humanbeings, by human choices and decisions. Tis means that human beings can change things.And therein lies the hope. 61

We conclude with the nal words o the U.S. Bishops pastoral letter on racism:

Tere must be no turning back along the road o justice, no sighing or bygonetimes o privilege, no nostalgia or simple solutions rom another age. For we arechildren o the age to come, when the rst shall be last and the last rst, whenblessed are they who serve Christ the Lord in all His brothers and sisters, especiallythose who are poor and suer injustice.


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Appendix: An Explanation of Terms62

One o the challenges present in discussions about race and racism is that theterminology used to reer to the various racial and ethnic groups is uid, evolving,contested, and rarely emotionally neutral. Among such terms are white, people o color,nonwhite, and racial/ethnic minority. For the sake o clarity and understanding, weprovide the ollowing explanations or how these terms are used in this document.

Te term white reers to the dominant cultural group in our country. Originally, this groupwas primarily o Western European descent. It is important to note that white is a uid

category which has come to include over the years ethnic groups rom other parts o theworld. For example, the U.S. Oce o Management and Budget (1999) dened white asa person having origins in any o the original peoples o Europe, the Middle East, or NorthArica. Te U.S. Census Bureau urther explains that white encompasses those who wroteon their census orms entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, near Easterner, Arab,or Polish. White, then, or the purposes o this paper, does not reer to a race, but ratherto a social group which has access to political, social, economic, or cultural advantages thatpeople o color do not share.

Te terms people o color and nonwhites are collective terms that reer to all other racialand ethnic groups in U.S. society. While these terms make reerence to skin color, they much

more reer to social groups which, or the most part, nd themselves without the ease o accessto political, social, economic, or cultural advantages enjoyed by those designated as whites.

It should be urther noted that race is a troublesome term, as is the idea that human beingsconstitute or can be divided into discrete and racially distinct social groups. Te U.S. CensusBureaus understanding is important or our discussion in this document. It notes: Tecategories represent asocial-political constructdesigned or collecting data on race and ethnic-ity population groups in this country, and are not anthropologically or scientically based.63In other words, race is a term o limited scienticuseulness, at best. Yet the enduringsocialsignicanceo physical and cultural dierences among human groups gives rise to the moralconcerns at the heart o this document.

Diculties also surround the use o the terms minority and minority group when reerringto people o color collectively, or to Arican Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, or AsianAmericans specically. Among the issues raised with this usage is the act that the term is notconsistently employed to mean a numerical minority; rather, it oten carries connotations opower, prestige, value, and/or inclusion or the lack thereo.64 However, no commonly acceptedsubstitute or these terms has yet emerged, and their use is still widespread in social scienceliterature. Tis document tries to account or this diculty by using the modiers racial orethnic beore the word minority, while acknowledging the limitations o this approach.


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End Notes

1 Pope John Paul II, Homily in the rans World Dome, Origins28 (February 11, 1999) 601.

2 Martin Luther King, Jr.,A estament o Hope, edited by Melvin Washington (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986) 208.

3 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, Brothers and Sisters to Us: Pastoral Letter on the Sin o Racism (Washington, DC: United StatesCatholic Conerence, 1979), 2.

4 See Appendix One or an explanation o some o the terms used to reer to the various racial and ethnic groups in U.S. society.

5 National Research Council,America Becoming: Racial rends and Teir Consequences, Volume 1, Neil J. Smelser, William Julius Wilson,and Faith Mitchell, editors (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001) 1.

6 U.S. Census data, 2005.

7 U.S. Census data, 2005.

8 Edward N. Wol, Changes in Household Wealth in the 1980s and 1990s in the U.S. (A Report o the Levy Economics Institute andNew York University, 2004).

9 National Research Council,America Becoming, viii.

10 Catholic Bishops o the United States, Discrimination and the Christian Conscience, (1958). Te complete text o this documentcan be ound in John LaFarge, Te Catholic Viewpoint o Race Relations(New York: Hanover House, 1960) 186-192.

11 Pope Benedict XVI, Visit to the Synagogue o Cologne, (August 2005). Available at www.vatican.va/holy_ather/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/august/documents.

12 Pope Benedict XVI, Visit to the Synagogue o Cologne, (August 2005). Here the Holy Father is citing the document o the Second

Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate, #5.13 Te Sacramentary, (New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1985), Preace or Christian Unity, #76.

14 Te Sacramentary, Preace o the Holy rinity, #43.

15 Pontical Council or Justice and Peace, Compendium o the Social Doctrine o the Church (Washington DC: United States CatholicConerence, 2004) #34.

16 Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, #38. Here the pope teaches, [Solidarity] is not a eeling o vague compassion or shallowdistress at the misortune o so many people. . . . It is arm and persevering determination to commit onesel to the common good .. . because we are allreally responsible or all (emphases in the original). Unless otherwise noted, complete texts o ocial Catholicdocuments can be ound in David OBrien and Tomas A. Shannon, editors, Catholic Social Tought(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,1992). In the notes, these will be reerenced by title and section number.

17 Te principle o solidarity, also articulated in terms o riendship or social charity, is a direct demand o human and Christianbrotherhood (Te Catechism o the Catholic Church, #1939).

18 Pope John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, #39.

19 Pope John Paul II, Address to Bishops o Brazil, Origins10 (July 31, 1980) 135; cited in National Conerence o Catholic Bishops,Economic Justice or All, #87.

20 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice or All, #181.

21 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, Brothers and Sisters to Us, p.10

22 Pope John Paul II, ertio millennio adveniente, (Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conerence, 1999) #33.

23 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, 1992: A ime or Remembering, Reconciling, and Recommitting Ourselves as a People(Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conerence, 1992), 2.


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24 Te record o Catholic complicity in U.S. racism can be ound in the ollowing studies: Cyprian Davis, Te History o Black Catholicsin the United States(New York: Crossroad Press, 1990); Stephen J. Ochs, Desegregating the Altar: Te Josephites and the Struggle orBlack Priests 1871-1960(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990); and John . McGreevy, Parish Boundaries: Te CatholicEncounter with the wentieth Century Urban North (Chicago: University o Chicago Press, 1996).

25 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, 1992, 2.

26 National Conerence o Catholic Bishops, Brothers and Sisters to Us, 1.

27 Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem o Race in America(New York:Oxord Press, 2000) 7.

28 David . Wellman, Portraits o White Racism, (New York: Cambridge U. Press, 1993) 4.

29 Te seminal essay on the reality o white privilege is by Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account oComing to See the Correspondences through Work in Womens Studies. Tis article can be ound in many anthologies, includingone edited by Richard Delgado and Jean Steancic, Critical White Studies: Looking behind the Mirror(Philadelphia: emple University,1997) 291-299.

30 Bishop Dale J. Melczek, Created in Gods Image: A Pastoral Letter on the Sin o Racism and a Call to Conversion (Gary, IN: DiocesanChancery, 2003) 22. Available at www.dcgary.org/bishop/CreatedInGodsImage.pd.

31 McIntosh, White Privilege, 291.

32 Francis Cardinal George, Dwell in My Love: A Pastoral Letter on Racism (Chicago: Catholic New World Press 2001) 12-13.

33 How Whites See Temselves, in Richard Delgado and Jean Steancic (eds.), Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror(Philadelphia: emple University Press, 1997) 1. Tey note, Most whites have not thought much about their race. Few, upon beingasked to identiy themselves by attributes, would name whiteness among their primary characteristics. See also the work o Joe R.Feagin and Hernan Vera who similarly observe: Relatively ew whites think reectively about their whiteness except when it is orcedon them by encounters with or challenges rom black Americans See White Racism: Te Basics(New York: Routledge, 1995) 139.

34 Feagin and Vera, White Racism, 139.

35 Hear the ollowing perceptive observation oered by a white woman: White is transparent. Tats the point o being the dominantrace. Sure the whiteness is there, but you never think o it. I youre white you never have to think about it. . . . And i white olksremind each other about being white, too oten the reminder is about threats by outsiders nonwhites who steal white entitlementslike good jobs, a ne education, nice neighborhoods, and the good lie (Bonnie Kae Grover, Growing Up Whitein America? inDelgado and Steancic, 34).

36 For studies which survey the evolution and creation o white privilege and economic advantage, see Ira Katznelson, When ArmativeAction Was White: An Untold History o Racial Inequality in 20th Century America(New York: W.W. Norton, 2005); Joe R. Feagin,Racist America: Roots, Realities, and Future Reparations(New York: Routledge, 2000); and David R. Roediger, Working toward Whiteness:How Americas Immigrants Became White: the Strange Journey rom Ellis Island to the Suburbs(New York: Basic Books, 2005).

37 Joe R. Feagin, Systemic Racism: A Teory o Oppression (New York: Routledge, 2006) 13.

38 See U.S. Department o State, Indian reaties and the Removal Act o 1830, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/dwe/16338.htm(accessed August 19, 2007); and PBS, Indian Removal 1814-1858, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html (accessedAugust 19, 2007).

39 See John Hope Franklin and Alred A. Moss, From Slavery to Freedom: A History o Arican Americans, 9th Edition (New York: Knop,2000).

40 Not All Caucasians are White: Te Supreme Court Rejects Citizenship or Asian Indians, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5076 (accessedAugust 19, 2007). See also Ronald akaki,Strangers rom a Diferent Shore: A History o Asian Americans (1989).

41 Te discussion o this and the ollowing two items is indebted to Ira Katznelsons study, When Armative Action Was White(see note36).

42 Feagin, Systemic Racism, 18.

43 Among others, see Henry Davis, S.J.,Moral and Pastoral Teology, Seventh Edition, vol. 2 (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1958) 316.

44 Pontical Council or Justice and Peace, Contribution to World Conerence against Racism, #12. Available at www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontical_councils/austpeace/documents.

45 NCCB, Economic Justice or All, #73.

46 National Research Council,America Becoming, Volume 1, 17.

47 George, Dwell in my Love, 12-13.

48 George, Dwell in My Love, 12.

49 For in-depth analyses o this reality, see Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton,American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making othe Underclass(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993); and Stephen Grant Meyer,As Long as Tey Dont Move Next Door:Segregation and Racial Conict in American Neighborhoods(New York: Rowman and Littleeld, 2000).


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50 National Research Council,American Becoming, Volume 1, 11.

51 National Research Council,A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society(Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1989) 49.

52 C. Women and Minorities Still Face Glass Ceiling, New York imes(March 16, 1995) C22.

53 White Males and the Manager Class, New York imes(March 17, 1995) A7.

54 Catholic Charities USA,Justice or Newcomers: A Catholic Call or Solidarity and Reorm (2005 Policy Paper).

55 For one o many studies examining the moral implications o the Katrina event, see Bryan N. Massingale, About Katrina: CatastropheExposes U.S. Race Reality, National Catholic Reporter(March 2, 2007) 10-14.

56 Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go rom Here: Chaos or Community?(Boston: Beacon Press, 1967) 11.

57 Tis discussion o armative action is indebted to the insights developed by Bryan N. Massingale, Equality Control: A CatholicPerspective on Armative Action, U.S. Catholic(September 2003) 29-31.

58 Among others, see the seminal works o Jonathan Kozol, especially his Te Shame o the Nation: Te Restoration o Apartheid Schooling inAmerica(New York: Crown Press, 2005).

59 Institute on Race and Poverty at the University o Minnesota, Digital Justice: Progress towards Digital Inclusion in Minnesota.Available at http://www.irpumn.org/website/projects/index.php?strWebAction=project_detail&intProjectID=12.

60 Prison and Jail Inmates- mid Year 2006, NCJ 217675, U.S. Department o Justice, Bureau o Justice Statistics, June 2007, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pd/pjim06.pd

61 Massingale, About Katrina, 13.

62 Te discussion in this appendix is indebted to the reections ound in Melczek, Created in Gods Image, 39. In signicant ways,however, the explanations presented here expand that discussion.

63 Race (U.S. Census), Websters Online Dictionary, www.webster-dictionary.org/denition/race%20(U.S.%20census). Accessed October28, 2004; emphasis added.

64 Tese concerns are eloquently expressed by Bishop Edward K. Braxton, Tere Are No Minority Americans,America182 (June 3-10,2000) 6-8.

policy paper: poverty and racism catholic charities usa issue brief

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