Marking the enemy, marking the other : the intersection of national security and diversity.
- Gregory D.
In recent years, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has alternately been criticized for being too cozy with foreign scientists and too quick to scapegoat or profile workers with foreign ancestries. In the wake of the investigation of alleged espionage that focused on Taiwanese-born American nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee, political leaders and the news media questioned the Lab's commitment to security and the wisdom of its close collaborations with foreign scientists. Wen Ho Lee was of course an American citizen and not a foreign scientist, and many of his supporters felt that his Asian ancestry made him too convenient of a target in a case focused on Chinese espionage. Thus, charges of racial profiling and scapegoating were also aimed at the Lab, the Department of Energy, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In the wake of the controversy some Asian American groups have been encouraging a boycott of the national laboratories run by the Department of Energy, and at Los Alamos, the number of Asian Americans applying for jobs, post docs, and student positions is substantially down.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 975845
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-01-6002; TRN: US201018%%931
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Submitted to: Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference, November 2001, Cambridge.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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