Albuquerque Journal North

Gov.'s Diversity Class Riles Lab Workers
By David Roybal For the Journal

It was a hot potato that bounded menacingly on U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's lap eight years ago. The heat emanated from the always-sensitive issue of diversity, much as it is today in Albuquerque at one of the national laboratories that Richardson once oversaw as a federal official.
   
Richardson in April 2000 ordered all employees of the energy department— more than 100,000— to attend a daylong diversity training program amid high-profile concerns about discrimination at the federal agency. Applauded by many, the order also stirred grumbling— and perhaps far more— during an era that some at Sandia National Laboratories, no doubt, recall today while dusting off controversy surrounding a planned "diversity workshop" later this week.
   
Controversy at Sandia stems from the invitation to the 19th Annual Diversity Leadership Forum that was e-mailed to lab workers. The invitation read in part: "Recent studies suggest whites' lack of awareness about other cultures has to do with whites' commitment to maintaining higher social status, or 'white privilege.' In other words, they may learn through multicultural education but are likely to persist in racist behaviors unless persuaded to abolish the privileges they receive as members of the white race."
   
Sandia is a co-sponsor of the forum but wasn't responsible for writing the invitation. Still, it took some heat. Numerous lab employees expressed offense.
   
For using their time and lab equipment to distribute "what amounts to a rant," Sandia officials should apologize to those who pay their salaries, opined the Albuquerque Journal.
   
The talk on "white privilege" is to be given by University of New Mexico faculty member Ricky Lee Allen. Based on text of the forum's invitation, Allen's talk is well suited for presentation— and debate— on college campuses. But that shouldn't give a pass to everybody else. Indelicate wording of the invitation aside, the issues should be discussed more frequently at any number of job sites, including newspaper offices where daily reporting, photography and opinion writing can be enriched by a more-thorough understanding of the diverse and complex society served.
   
Richardson's directive for a mandatory nationwide day of diversity training at DOE eight years ago grew from complaints rooted in the controversial prosecution of former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee and suspected Chinese espionage at national labs elsewhere.
   
DOE employees of Asian descent complained of mounting isolation and discrimination. Minorities of other backgrounds in the agency asserted that they, too, were targets of increasing suspicions that affected their daily routines and long-term prospects. Richardson's hard-line approach to Lee, who was never proven to have passed national secrets, fueled problems even though Richardson had consistently pressed hard for diversity as DOE secretary. Richardson had appointed a Task Force Against Racial Profiling to present recommendations leading up the mandatory forum, where he announced the appointment of Dr. Jeremy Wu to oversee diversity issues.
   
I wrote opening remarks for Richardson to deliver at the 2000 daylong training. Here are some of them: "We're here because far too many of our employees think of our agency as something less than fertile ground for equal opportunity. ... While I recognize that some such perceptions are ill-considered or even unfounded, I've come to learn that others cannot be casually dismissed.
   
"This is not a time for skepticism, or entrenchment, or defensive positions. ... It's a time for all of us to come together as an organization, to recommit ourselves to the promises of our country and the missions of our department. Diversity, tolerance and inclusion are among the founding principles of this land. If we embrace them in word, as many of us often do, then we must pursue them in deed."
   
Conditions then called for more-delicate wording than what might be found in a college professor's presentation but much of the message was the same. Delicate phrasing or not, there was considerable resentment in 2000 in Los Alamos, for sure, among those who considered themselves above mandatory diversity training.
   
Around the time of that meeting eight years ago hard drives disappeared from a vault in a super-secret division at LANL. "Later the hard drives mysteriously reappeared behind a copy machine," reported the Project on Government Oversight.
   
The incident sunk Richardson's national standing and his favored status to become Al Gore's running mate on the Democrats' 2000 presidential ticket. Some are convinced it was plotted in response to Richardson's directive for mandatory diversity training.
   
David Roybal was a speech writer for Bill Richardson during his stint as U.S. energy secretary. Roybal now runs a public relations office. He can be reached at 505-351-4053.