A00003 - The Changing Demographics for Blacks at Amherst College (08/31/2010) [Including a Discussion with Ambassador Ulric Haynes

 

 

From:skipjen2865@aol.com

To:uhaynesjr

Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:45 PM

Ulric,

 

I have been fighting this fight all my life and am not willing to give up now. There is too much at stake.  I encourage you to join in the discussion.  Your comments would carry more weight than mine.  However, please rest assured that this is an issue that I will be discussing for as long as there are people interested in discussing it, ... and perhaps even after they are not.

 

Once again, thanks.  Your words are encouraging and let me know that I am not off kilter with this.

 

Everett

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ulric Haynes Jr. 
To: skipjen2865 <skipjen2865@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 12:40 pm
Subject: Re: [BlackAlumni] Amherst College Black Alumni Association

Dear Everett,

My experience with the current college administration and with Amherst President Tony Marx convinces me that, under its present leadership, Amherst no longer has either an understanding of nor a commitment to racial diversity in higher education. Indeed, they seem to wish that "we" would quietly disappear into the woodwork. As one of the college's oldest living black alumni (Class of 1952), I do not intend to let that happen.

Regards,

Ambassador Ulric Haynes Jr. '52

---

From: "skipjen2865@aol.com" <skipjen2865@aol.com>
To: uhaynes
Sent: Tue, August 31, 2010 3:28:59 PM
Subject: Re: [BlackAlumni] Amherst College Black Alumni Association

Ulric,

 

Thank you for your response and allow me to say that I have long followed your career and consider you to be one of the shining inspirational lights. 

 

As for the book that you reference, I have not read it but I will try to find it at my local bookstore or at UC Berkeley.  However, the plight of African American males is a very sensitive issue for me.  Aside from the fact that I am an African American male and I have many relatives that are African American males, I also have dedicated my entire career to serving a City (Richmond, California) where there are many African American males.  My entire adult life I have seen African American males marginalized and the message is clear that African American males are expendable.  This marginalization in the city that I serve results in a homicide rate amongst young African American males that is obscene.  During the 1970s, Amherst College was an "enlightened" institution that actively recruited in some of the inner cities to find promising African American males and give them an opportunity to "escape".   This recruitment led to some turbulent times on campus and may not have sit well with the powers that be.  Thus, what I observed in 2005 and 2010 may be that the "enlightenment" may have dimmed and given way to the "convenience" of accepting better prepared, better financed, and more easily managed young men from Africa and the Caribbean instead of the more troublesome enrollment of African American males.

 

Again, thanks for your comments.  Please feel free to send more.

 

Warm regards,

 

Everett Jenkins

Class of 1975

-----Original Message-----
From: Ulric Haynes Jr. 
To: skipjen2865 <skipjen2865@AOL.COM>
Sent: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 12:05 pm
Subject: Re: [BlackAlumni] Amherst College Black Alumni Association

Everett,

Did you ever consider the paucity of black males at Amherst might be attributable to the nation-wide pattern of disproportionately high numbers of black male High School dropouts and incarcerations? To find out about this tragic phenomenon, I refer you to "The New Jim Crow" an insightful book by black female lawyer, Michelle Alexander. What is happening to young black men is, indeed, "the new Jim Crow."

Regards,

Ambassador Ulric Haynes Jr. '52

---

From: "skipjen2865@AOL.COM" <skipjen2865@AOL.COM>
To: BLACKALUMNI-L@LISTSERV.AMHERST.EDU
Sent: Tue, August 31, 2010 2:52:55 PM
Subject: Re: [BlackAlumni] Amherst College Black Alumni Association

Elias,

 

Thank you for the update on the creation of the African and Caribbean Students Union.  The college has come a long way from the time during the 1970s when there was usually only one student from Africa or the Caribbean per class.  However, the presence of so many African and Caribbean students does raise an issue which intrigued me when I attended my 30th class reunion in 2005.  At that time, there was a discussion about the ethnic diversity on campus and, as I recall, it was mentioned that there were about 30 students of African descent in a recent class but that out of the 30 students of African descent only 3 were African American males. I do not know if this was an anomaly of that particular class, but coming from the 1970s when there were 20 to 25 African American males in each class to a report in 2005 that the number of African American males had dwindled down to the numbers that had existed before the days of Martin Luther King's assassination was troubling to me.  At my recent 35th reunion in 2010, I spoke with one of the Black faculty members about this issue.  She informed me that the numbers had improved but that it is still a struggle to attract African American males to the campus.  Just out of curiosity, is this an issue that is noticed by the current students?  Is it an issue that is ever discussed?

 

Everett Jenkins

Class of 1975