January 26, 2004
RE: Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math
David L. Evans, my cousin in whom I am well pleased, responds to the New York Times article, Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math
In his email, David prefaced the letter as such:
Descriptive political terms like African-American, black, Hispanic, Latino, white, women, etc., have never been monolithic. There was always overlap and subdivision—even in the one-drop-of-black-blood era. It is, therefore, too simple to say that “Hispanics outnumber blacks…,” when overlapping membership runs into the millions. Moreover, white citizens who were born in South Africa are technically “African-Americans” and blond, blue-eyed Americans whose ancestors came from Spain are technically “Hispanics.” With this in mind I wrote the following letter that appeared in Saturday’s New York Times. — David L. Evans
First a snippet from the New York Times article under scrutiny, Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math:
The Web site for Black Entertainment Television put the question bluntly: “Does it bother you that Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans in the U.S.?”
The response has been torrential. One visitor to the site wrote, “Blacks are beginning to experience another wave of racial bias and favoritism not in our favor.” The writer complained that employers now have a preference for bilingual applicants, and bemoaned “attempts to replace our threatening stance against discrimination with a Hispanic vote.”
But another cautioned: “Sounds like the same old trick to me. `Divide and conquer.’ Are we really going to let some numbers dictate how we treat one another?”
The BET.com message board is only one forum, but it has evoked some of the emotions, worries, hopes and even awkwardness that have been felt nationwide over a singular moment in American demographics. Last summer, the Census Bureau announced that Latinos had surpassed blacks as the country’s largest minority, with blacks making up 13.1 percent of the population in 2002, and Hispanics 13.4 percent.
Finally, David’s response, posted in the New York Times on Saturday, January 24th.
To the Editor:
Re: “Blacks and Latinos Try to Find Balance in Touchy New Math” (front page, Jan. 17):
The numbers don’t permit an exact comparison, but the political relationships of blacks to Latinos and blacks to women is somewhat analogous. The groups are not mutually exclusive, and the millions of black women members have dual identifications imposed on them.
The common experience of widespread discrimination, however, doesn’t guarantee a seamless coalition between either of these overlapping demographic couples. Their histories are different and their political issues are not always the same. Occasional conflict is inevitable.
As an African-American, I suggest that liberal blacks and Latinos do what conservative women and Hispanics have done: recognize that mutual political interests sometimes require selective interaction inside and outside their political groups.
DAVID L. EVANS
Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 17, 2004
David, thank you for sharing.
January 06, 2004
David L. Evans Scholarship at Harvard
From my cousin, David L. Evans, on his being honored by Harvard.
From October 3rd through 5th this campus was host to Harvard Black
Alumni Weekend 2003. More than 600 graduates returned which represented
approximately one-fifth of all black persons who ever matriculated as
undergraduates at Harvard in 133 years! Some of those in attendance were
Frank S. Jones ‘50, Henry Ford Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies at
M.I.T.; Walter C. Carrington ‘52, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and
Senegal; Wilbert C. Jordan ‘66, MD, founder and director of the OASIS
HIV/AIDS Clinic in Los Angeles; John A. McCluskey, Jr. ‘66, Chairman of the
African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Indiana
University; federal judge Deborah Batts ‘69; Kenneth R. Manning ‘70, Thomas
Meloy Professor of the History of Science at M.I.T.; Lee A. Daniels ‘71,
director of publications for the National Urban League; Wayne R. Curtis
‘76, Vice President of Fannie Mae; Laura Taylor Swain ‘79, also a federal
judge, and Suzanne Malveaux ‘88, White House Correspondent for CNN.While this shortened list of participants is impressive, it is
matched or bettered by the list of panelists. For example, one panel
included Thomas S. Williamson ‘68, Partner at Covington & Burling in
Washington, DC and former president of the Harvard Board of Overseers;
Democratic Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott ‘69 of Virginia; Renee M.
Landers ‘77, law professor at Suffolk University and former president of
the Harvard Board of Overseers; Stephanie Bell-Rose ‘79, President of the
Goldman Sachs Foundation and James E. Johnson ‘83, former Under Secretary
of the U.S. Treasury. Another panel on careers in media included A’Lelia
Bundles ‘74, biographer of Madam C. J. Walker, former producer of ABC World
News Tonight with Peter Jennings and former President of the Radcliffe
Alumnae Association; Henry W. McGee ‘74, president of Home Box Office; Mark
T. Whitaker ‘79, managing editor of Newsweek and Sharon E. Epperson ‘90,
columnist for Time Magazine. There was also a panel of graduates who agreed
to discuss their careers in the corporate world. They were Walter H.
Morris ‘73, partner with Ernst & Young LLP; George H. Yeadon ‘75, a senior
manager in Corporate Treasury at XEROX; Eric M. Turner ‘78, former Vice
President of the State Street Corporation and Carla A. Harris ‘84, Head of
Morgan Stanley’s Equity Private Placement Group. Still another panel
moderated by James S. Hoyte ‘65, Associate Vice-President of Harvard,
included Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Dr. S. Allen Counter,
neurobiologist and Director of the Harvard Foundation, and Lani Guinier
‘71, professor at Harvard Law School.At the formal dinner Saturday night Pamela Thomas-Graham ‘85,
president and CEO of CNBC, was the keynote speaker and Raymond J. McGuire
‘79, managing director of mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley was
master of ceremony. The Reverend Dr. Dwight N. Hopkins ‘76, Associate
Professor of Religion at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago
gave the invocation and Alphonse “Buddy” Fletcher, Jr. ‘87, CEO of Fletcher
Asset Management, offered brief remarks at the dinner. Other panelists
included Harvard’s Professor of Law, David B. Wilkins ‘77; Professor of
Anthropology and African American Studies, J. Lorand “Randy” Matory ‘82;
Rev. Eugene Rivers ‘84 of the Ten Point Coalition in Boston and Judith
Jackson Fossett ‘87, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity
at the University of Southern California.The last action taken at the dinner was the announcement of the
David L. Evans Scholarship at Harvard. If you click on the following link, it will take you to some photographs of the Weekend.http://clubs.harvard.edu/university/BSA/pictures.htm
In the next to last row (third picture from the left) you will see
yours truly smiling in response to such a gracious deed.
Congratulations, David.
October 21, 2003
Introducting Madison Elise Valley, our new baby
Madison was born on October 20, 2003 @ 7:43 AM CST to Anthony and Montina Valley.
Statistics:
Female
8 pounds 8.7 ounces
20 inches long
Click on a picture to see the larger image.
Madison in surgery room with her nurse, Kim
Madison in baby warmer
After wetting on daddy, Madison in baby warmer in a diaper
September 25, 2003
September 04, 2003
Happy Birthday, Montina Valley!
Just wanted you to know that after all these years, I still love you!
I choose you...
May this new year in your life bring you much grace, peace, and success.
You have been all the wife that I need, all that I ever hoped. I cannot imagine what the rest of our life together will be like. You have already exceeded my expectations as a wife, mother, and friend.
If I had to do it all over again and could choose any one in the world, I want you to know that I would still choose you!
You complete me!
Love you forever,
Anthony Keith Valley
(Let me know when you read this...)
For the next few weeks (until my birthday on the 25th) we are the "same age" as you put it: 32
August 24, 2003
Best air facilities win honor
FAA: Merrill Field control tower and Kotzebue flight station were mistake-free.
One of my older brothers is mentioned in this article and to me, that's pretty cool. It's rough weather in Alaska, and going mistake free for the year 2002 is a great accomplishment.
The Merrill Field control tower in Anchorage and the Kotzebue Flight Service Station received top honors Friday for being mistake-free in 2002.It was the first time that the control tower and the air station received "Facility of the Year" national awards.
...
The Kotzebue station, which is 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle and oversees an area about the size of Colorado, is doing an outstanding job in extremely difficult conditions, he said.
"Kotzebue, what can you say? What a challenge," he said.
The flight service station is a hub for between 25 and 30 villages in Northwestern Alaska. In 2002, it provided 131,447 flight services, an average of 360 per day. Those services included pilot briefings, flight planning and weather reporting.
The Kotzebue facility, unlike Merrill Field's control tower, built in 1999, is more than a half-century old. It is about 30 feet from the Bering Sea, said Earl Valley, assistant manager for air traffic in Fairbanks.
"It is a 1940s building with black specks in the water, a sewer line that freezes in the winter, and they sit around in their Arctic gear and still talk to the airplanes," he said.
Conditions in Kotzebue are so harsh that staff members work 10-hour days on an eight-days on, six-days off schedule so they can live in Fairbanks.
....
"They work in some very rough conditions," Valley said.
Alaska is the only state that continues to staff most of its air stations. Stations elsewhere have been computerized and automated.
Linda Couture, Merrill's air traffic manager from January to November 2002, said Merrill is very busy and has a challenging runway configuration, consisting of two east-west runways and two north-south runways. In addition, Merrill has a gravel runway for planes with skis and tundra tires.
More than 900 planes are based at Merrill Field, which also has five flight schools.
Between April and August, the tower averages 20,184 takeoffs and landings a month. During peak summer days, the tower typically handles about 1,300 takeoffs and landings. Controllers, unlike at the larger Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, do not rely on radar to track planes on the ground. They use their eyes.
"This is a look-out-the-window-and-see-what's-coming type of airport," Couture said.
[Full Story @ Ancorage Daily News]
Source: Ancorage Daily News
July 25, 2003
Happy 4th Birthday, Kennedy Victoria Valley!
Just a note from daddy wishing you a Happy Fourth Birthday!
This morning we are having a birthday breakfast at the International House of Pancakes and tonight we are have a Fairytale Tea Party for you and your girlfriends!
Mommy and Daddy love you!
(note to self.... make sure that Kennedy reads this blog entry...)
July 17, 2003
Family sues over funeral hell prediction
Source: Reuters
One has to be very careful with the words that he uses while preaching at a funeral.
SANTA FE, N.M (Reuters) - A New Mexico family is suing their local Catholic church over a funeral Mass in which the priest allegedly said their relative was only a middling Catholic and going straight to hell. Lawyers for the family of Ben Martinez said on Tuesday they had filed a lawsuit in June against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe and one of its priests.Court papers filed last month say that Reverend Scott Mansfield said at Martinez's funeral last year that the deceased was "living in sin", "lukewarm in his faith" and that "the Lord vomited people like Ben out of his mouth to hell".