Race and class in the US: 'Downloading while Asian'
SAN FRANCISCO — Racial profiling — the practice of casting suspicion on individuals on the basis of their skin colour — is not new to blacks in the US. African-American parents teach their boys early on about body language when responding to cops; it could mean life or death.
But many young Asian Americans don't believe that racial profiling also affects them. They're taught, as children of Asian immigrants and US citizens of Asian ancestry who work and study hard, that they will be treated as first-class citizens, just like Caucasians.
Well, the case of Los Alamos nuclear lab scientist Dr Wen Ho Lee has changed that false perception. Lee, a Taiwan-born US citizen, was arrested in December, charged with 59 counts of violating national security procedures by downloading classified information onto portable tapes.
Lee, an anti-communist, was initially charged with giving nuclear secrets to China. He denied it, but this didn't stop Democrats and Republicans alike in Washington and the media from proclaiming him guilty. Their witch-hunt followed the release of a federal report claiming that the Chinese government had stolen nuclear secrets.
There was no proof that Lee spied for China so he was not officially charged with that crime. Nevertheless, the anti-China campaign escalated, supported by opponents of normalisation of trade with China and China's membership of the World Trade Organisation.
Lee was a convenient scapegoat for the anti-China lobby and the right wing. In March 1999 he was sacked, having been crucified by the media, and in December he was arrested on the lesser charge of downloading files that were not even officially designated as classified until after his arrest!
Lee has been treated worse than most mass murderers. He was denied bail, despite the pre-trial officer recommending it. He's been placed in solitary confinement without access to television.
His arms and legs are shackled when he's taken from his cell and during his one-hour weekly visit with his family, an FBI agent is present and Lee is not allowed to speak Chinese. Lee isn't charged with being a spy, but he's being treated as one.
Lee's treatment has been a wake-up call for many Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans who thought they were being accepted by their white friends in the world of high tech. Lee's daughter, Alberta, is part of the newly politicised Asian community. She is leading the campaign to exonerate her father.
Until her father's case, Alberta Lee thought Asians who complained about discrimination were "whining". "Now it's hitting me. Minorities still have to prove their loyalty. They're second-class citizens."
The Asian scapegoating in the Lee case has been brought home more sharply by two incidents since Lee's arrest.
In the first, former CIA director John Deutch was revealed to have downloaded highly classified government files onto his personal computer without authorisation. After an internal investigation, nothing happened. After a news leak that exposed the government's hypocrisy, Deutch lost his access to government computers for his private work, but there were no criminal charges laid.
Then, in June, after a forest fire threatened the Los Alamos laboratories, it was discovered that two hard drives with highly classified information on the nuclear weapons program were missing. Three weeks later, the hard drives turned up behind the copying machine (which had been searched several times by the FBI). Afterwards, energy secretary Bill Richardson said with a straight face, "I believe there's been no espionage".
Three scientists failed lie detector tests, but no one has been arrested. Richardson said the problem was one of "the human element", that scientists always resist high security.
Lee's problem is that he's Chinese. China is under fire from the far right and Lee is an easy target.
In the past, this racist, anti-communist campaign would have succeeded without much of a fight. However, the new generation of Asian Americans have seen others stand up and they know that unless they fight back there will be no progress against anti-Asian racism.
On June 8, a new Coalition Against Racial Scapegoating organised rallies around the US in support of Lee. The national day of outrage was marked in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and other cities.
The coalition includes Asian groups and non-Asian groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and National Lawyers Guild. The San Francisco Labor Council has called for Lee's release on bail.
"If you look at what was before the coalition, it was kindling, the fire that lights the fire", said Cecilia Chang, a friend of the Lees. "Now the real fire, the campfire, is blowing up."
Victor Huang, a lawyer at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, added: "This is not just about Wen Ho Lee. It's about uniting our community and sitting at the table with other civil rights groups."
Many Asian-American scientists are now boycotting laboratories under contract with the government. "As long as my father's being treated as guilty and has to prove his innocence", said Alberta Lee, "we should all continue to voice our outrage".
International solidarity is important too. For information about what you can do, visit <http://www.wenholee.org>.
BY MALIK MIAH