is the face of what you see. Behind that is what is called a ventilated cavity (about 1" at most) then your house wrap. House wrap will stay with the house while brick layers will put a building paper between the bottom layers of brick to allow water up against that brick. Over time, there will be cracks in the mortar so by putting in a sill type solution between the layers will stop that from happening.

Should be applied so that it is in line with the brick face and not an overhang. You can trim back that building paper.