The following programs are sponsored by the Academic & Student Services Office with special thanks to the Black Law Students Association for their collaboration.
Community Conversation with Professor Raff Donelson
On Wednesday, February 2 at 11:30 a.m. in room 112 Professor Raff Donelson will serve as our first Community Conversation speaker this semester, a kickoff for Black History Month. Please RSVP as we are providing lunch for attendees.
The Community Conversation series provides us with an opportunity to hear about a faculty member’s trajectory in life and work, the adversities overcome along the way, and their diverse experiences and perspectives. Through their journey we gain insights about them as well as wisdom for our own futures.
In Professor Donelson’s own words: “I grew up in a beautiful, dilapidated steel town just outside of Pittsburgh. Through hard work and a lot of luck, I found myself at some of America’s best institutions of higher learning – Williams College, the University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. Because opportunities don’t often come around for folks with my background, I leveraged every opportunity I could to travel, to explore ideas, and to achieve my professional goals. I entered law school with the hope of becoming a law professor. Four years later, I was. My journey is an unlikely one with detours in Paris, interruptions by bad relationships, and far too many stints at call centers.” RSVP now!
Becoming Black Lawyers Virtual Film Screening
On Sunday, February 6 the Dickinson Law community will have virtual access to Becoming Black Lawyers, a short documentary film featuring the stories of 5 Black lawyers who share their lived experiences in predominantly White law schools. They provide thoughtful and engaging insight and perspectives into the significance of Blackness in law school and what it means to become a Black lawyer. A link with the username and password will be distributed in advance of the viewing day.
Wellness Wednesday Featuring Mel’s Rock N’ BBQ
On Wednesday, February 16 from Noon to 3 p.m. our community will welcome Mel’s Rock N’ BBQ to campus. This local, Black owned food truck proudly serves good old-fashioned barbecue with all the classics. The truck will be parked in the back parking lot. Be sure to show your Penn State ID when you order.
“The Racial Pay Gap” Lecture
On Wednesday, February 23 at 3:30 p.m. Professor Stephanie Bornstein from the University of Florida Levin College of Law will deliver the lecture “The Racial Pay Gap” via Zoom. The full abstract for the lecture is available by clicking “Read More” below. RSVP for the lecture in advance for the Zoom link. Attendees will be able to ask questions and engage in conversation with Professor Bornstein at the end of the program. This lecture is also the start of an intersectional speaker series over the semester focused on gender and racial equity.
Black Girl Chronicles Learning Series in Carlisle
On Thursday, February 24 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hope Station Carlisle will host the Black Girl Chronicles Learning Series at the YWCA of Carlisle (301 G. Street). This conference will be centered on topics and issues facing Black women. There will be workshops led by Black female leaders as well as a keynote speaker, a round table session and an opportunity to shop local Black owned businesses. A continental breakfast will be served as well as lunch. Doors will open at 9:30 for the vendor expo. The Academic & Student Services Office will pay for the registration fee of any student who expresses an interest in attending by Friday, February 11. Complete the interest form here.
“The Racial Pay Gap” by Stephanie Bornstein
Abstract:
This Article examines recent data on, and legal strategies for overcoming, the racial pay gap. For decades, a small body of scholarship has addressed the gender pay gap, which compares the median earnings of women and men working full-time, year-round. More recently, scholars have focused attention on the racial wealth gap, which measures racial disparities in family economic security and wealth accumulation over time. Yet a crucial component of both the gender pay gap and the racial wealth gap remains unaddressed: the pay gap between the earnings of white workers and workers of color. Today, all women average about 82 cents to each dollar men earn, but Black and Latinx men average only 74 cents on the dollar to white men. Black and Latinx women, impacted by both racial and gender pay gaps, average a mere 63 and 55 cents respectively per white men’s dollar. More troubling still, while the gender pay gap has narrowed, albeit slowly, over time, the racial pay gap has grown. Black and Latinx men now earn less relative to white men than they did in the late 1970s.
The lack of legal scholarship on the racial pay gap likely reflects the belief that to remedy the problem would take major social change to dismantle the structures that result in Black and Latinx workers disproportionately holding lower paid jobs. To fully close the racial pay gap would, no doubt, require redressing systemic racial disparities in housing, education, child and health care, and criminal justice. Yet more can be done to narrow the racial pay gap now, even without widescale societal change. The racial pay gap has worsened despite racial minorities’ significant gains in educational attainment. Economists now attribute up to two-thirds of racial pay and racialized gender pay gaps to “unobservable” or “unexplained” factors, including discrimination. A handful of states have added the protected class of race in recent amendments to strengthen their state law versions of the federal Equal Pay Act. This Article details the current scope of the racial pay gap that may be reachable through antidiscrimination law and new legal strategies for doing so.
Beyond strengthening pay discrimination claims, however, there are other structural pieces of the racial pay gap that, given political will, could be addressed. Incremental successes in efforts to close the gender pay gap prove instructive, both as a matter of law and as a matter of framing the popular discourse. Recent public reckoning from the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have sparked renewed interest in closing the gender pay gap. The growth of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd has drawn attention to the racial wealth gap as part of the legacy of white supremacy. But interest in the equally important—and not insurmountable—issue of closing the racial pay gap has yet to catch on. This Article begins the process of reframing, to highlight how tackling the racial pay gap is an essential but overlooked piece of the zeitgeist, key to resolving the gender pay gap for women of color, the racial wealth gap, and income inequality overall.