Week 11

The wage disparity between black and white workers with the same educational backgrounds continues to grow in the United States.

Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, in her book, The Warmth of Other Suns, explains the roots of the disparity: 

In (the 1930s) … Mississippi, white teachers and principals were making $630 a year, while the colored ones were paid a third of that - $125 a year, hardly more than field hands….
The disparity in in pay, reported without apology in the local papers for all the see, would have far-reaching effects. It would mean that even the most promising of colored people, having received next to nothing from their slave foreparents, had to labor with the knowledge that they were now being underpaid by more than half, that they were so behind it would be all but impossible to accumulate the assets their white counterparts could, and that they would, by definition, have less to leave succeeding generations that similar white families. Multiplied over the generations, it would mean a wealth deficit between the races that would require a miracle windfall or near asceticism on the part of colored families if they were to have any chance of catching up or amassing anything of value.  Otherwise, the chasm would continue, as it did for blacks as a group even into the succeeding century. The layers of accumulated assets built up by the better-paid dominant caste, generation after generation, would factor into a wealth disparity of white Americans having an average net worth ten times that of black Americans by the turn of the twenty-first century, dampening the economic prospects of the children and grandchildren of both Jim Crow and the Great Migration before they were even born. (85)

In this article, the findings of the Economic Policy Institute are published.  More information can be found in this report.

Questions for reflection:

• What can you do, as a citizen, to address this disparity?
• Motivation to look for work is influenced by the availability of just wages and work for those without college degrees.  What remedies do you suggest to make well-paying jobs (enough to support a family) more accessible?
• Have you experienced wage disparity yourself?  How did you address it?

Mother Lange was born around 1789 in what is today Haiti to a well-off family. She, along with hundreds of others, fled that country in the late 18th century when a revolution occurred. She came to Baltimore, where a great number of Catholic, French-speaking refugees had settled. Although Elizabeth was a refugee, she was well-educated and wealthy due to money left to her by her father.
Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, there was no public education for Blacks in Baltimore since Maryland was a slave state and the education of slaves was outlawed. Mother Lange too charge of educating Black children in her own home in Baltimore at her own expense with another female refugee.
Archbishop James Whitfield challenged Elizabeth to establish a religious order of women for the education of Black children. In 1828, with the help of Sulpician Father James Joubert, S.S., Mother Lange and two other Black women started the first Black Catholic school in the Catholic Church in America. A year later, on July 2, 1829, three Black women, and Mother Lange pronounced vows to become the first religious order of women of African descent. She took the name Mary at her profession of vows. Mother Lange served as the first mother superior of the order from 1829 to 1832, then again from 1835 to 1841. Despite discouragement, racism and a lack of funds, Mother Lange continued to educate children and meet the total needs of the Black Catholic community.
She died on February 3, 1882 and is buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery on Old Frederick Road. Today the Oblate Sisters of Providence number 125 sisters, 20 associates and 16 Guild members. Their motto: Providence will Provide!  Learn more about her here.

Some believe Monday, October 12, traditionally called Columbus Day, should become Indigenous People's Day.    The Mission, a film set in the 18th century South America, gives a glimpse into European conquerors' practices.  The film tells the fictional story of Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) enters the Guarani lands in South America to convert the natives to Christianity. He soon builds a mission, where he is joined by Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert De Niro), a reformed slave trader seeking redemption. When a treaty transfers the land from Spain to Portugal, the Portuguese government wants to capture the natives for slave labor. Mendoza and Gabriel resolve to defend the Mission but disagree on how to accomplish the task.  The film is representative of the time's struggles.