News Organizations Respond to Gun Violence

One Latina Who Is Happy About Asian Immigrant Surge

"Have you heard the news? Asians will displace Hispanics as the largest foreign-born group in the U.S. by 2055,"Esther J. Cepeda wrote Friday for the Washington Post Writers Group, speaking only of the immigrant population.

"I, for one, am thrilled — the pressure will be off.

"As someone who happily lived in a time back when the 'Hispanic community' was not a commodity described almost strictly in terms of its number of immigrants or consumer purchasing power, I will be delighted to see the Latino moment in the sun pass into history.

"I can't wait to say goodbye to the-fate-of-the-nation-rests-on-you hyperbole from policymakers. And good riddance to the we're-going-to-take-over-America demographic glee by Latino activists reacting to years of oppressive media coverage that almost exclusively depicts Hispanics as low-income, foreign and poorly educated.

"Demographers have been talking about rising Asian immigration for several years. But the Pew Research Center's new report, which coincides with the 50-year anniversary of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, got a lot of play last week resulting in breathless headlines reminiscent of those about Hispanics.

"Asians are, according to different media outlets, 'set to surpass Latinos' or are 'on pace to overtake Hispanics,' as if there were some sort of competition underway. Other publications were sunnier, saying Asian immigrants would 'propel' or 'prop up' the country's population. Some took a darker tenor, noting that Asians are driving a 'surge in U.S. immigrant population.' . . ."

Cepeda also wrote, "In this I do not envy the Asian-American population. Once they become even more of a media sensation they'll have to endure any number of silly, poorly worded, stereotype-laden articles that will present facts about them as though they are all brand-new visitors from a far-away land. . . ."

Robert Curvin Dies, Advocated for Poor at N.Y. Times

"Robert Curvin, a fiercely loyal advocate for Newark who never gave up on his troubled city and devoted a scholarly career to alleviating urban poverty, died on Tuesday at his home in the Vailsburg section of the city,"Sam Roberts reported Wednesday for the New York Times. "He was 81.

"The cause was multiple myeloma, his wife, Patricia, said.

"Dr. Curvin was a co-founder of the Newark chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, successfully lobbied to integrate construction jobs in the early 1960s, earned a doctorate from Princeton, helped make Kenneth A. Gibson the first black mayor of a major Northeast city when he won election in Newark in 1970, and was a Ford Foundation official.

"He also served on the editorial board of The New York Times for nearly six years and was a dean at the New School in Manhattan. . . ."

Roberts also wrote, "Dr. Curvin was named to The Times's editorial board in 1977 by Max Frankel, then the editorial page editor. In an email, Mr. Frankel, who went on to become executive editor, recalled Dr. Curvin as 'a most valuable, sensitive and deliberative voice, giving us great insight into the needs and tensions of poor Americans and also sophisticated understanding of white as well as black politics in New Jersey.'

"In 1979, while writing editorials for the paper, Dr. Curvin, with Bruce Porter, published 'Blackout Looting: New York City, July 13, 1977,' a meticulous study that attributed street violence that summer to high unemployment, high prices for household staples and a 'spiritual kind of hunger.'

"'The welfare check or the unemployment allotment is important for survival,' they wrote, 'but just surviving is not enough in a society that is constantly beating into the minds of all its citizens that all kinds of goods and luxuries are necessary for a decent life.'

"Dr. Curvin later served as director of the Ford Foundation's Urban Poverty Program; president of the Greentree Foundation, which hosts international conferences; dean of the Milano School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School; chairman of the Fund for the City of New York; and senior policy fellow at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers. . . ."