Remarks to White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
September 18, 2000

Henry Tang
Chairman, Committee of 100
Member, 1995 Federal Glass Ceiling Commission

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to your distinguished commission. on several matters affecting the Asian American community. I am grateful to be here, especially just a few days after the nation witnessed what happens when Asian Americans do not penetrate the glass ceiling into positions of authority in our federal government. I speak, of course, of the Wen Ho Lee case. And I will address that subject in just a moment.

As the sole Asian American in the 20 person Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, I fought hard for inclusion of the Asian chapter into the final commission report, a copy of which has been supplied to you. The overall observation concludes that Asian Americans are grossly under-represented in many of the top managerial layers of many American institutions. For example, among Fortune 500 companies’ boards of directors totaling over 6,000 people, fewer than 25 Asian Americans (not including founders and their family members) represented in 1995. Today, there are still fewer than 40, far less than 1%.

This phenomenon not only applies to corporations. The same dearth of management and leadership participation is also found among hospital boards, despite the large number of Asian American health professionals working there. Similar conditions are also to be found among university trustees notwithstanding the abundance of academic contributions by Asian Americans. And the same applies to many of the nation’s other institutions such as the military, scientific laboratories, and media.

Glass ceiling concerns would not only be for career advancement purposes but larger numbers of Asian Americans in management and leadership positions would help others comprehend cultural and behavioral factors unique to Asian Americans.

A glaring example of this took place in the country’s recent embarrassment in the Wen Ho Lee espionage charge debacle.

It would appear that the series of conjectural and speculative coincidences became prime suspicious behavior. The National Laboratories, despite decades of heavy Asian American employment, had almost non-existent Asian American management at the director or deputy director levels.

This lacking of Asian American participation at the top levels causes misunderstandings that could lead to catastrophic consequences as we have just witnessed in this Wen Ho Lee case. It is not only a case of missed or denied career promotion but the societal consequences of the abuse foisted upon the Asian and Chinese American that will linger for years to come.

In addition to the abuse to Chinese American integrity, the lacking of any Asian American leadership led to several pivotal and questionable activities critical to the case:

• Atmosphere of ethnic profiling insensitivities - Many national laboratory employees have spoken about an environment of pervasive discrimination causing even veteran Asian American employees to feel only tolerated and not accepted as loyal co-workers.

• Changing of the polygraph scores - According to polygraph experts, Wen Ho Lee scored in the highest possible levels but federal authorities lowered the scores which shortly after resulted in Wen Ho Lee’s firing from Los Alamos. These altered test results were used by authorities to threaten Dr. Lee with a death penalty and unfair comparisons to the Rosenberg case. Dr. Lee’s firing resulted in his becoming a highly tainted persona non grata thereby negating any ability to defend himself.

• Recanted testimony at the bail hearing - A Federal agent testifying at the bail hearing felt emboldened and took liberties by distorting critical facts concerning Dr. Lee’s downloading activities. This led to his incarceration under the most onerous conditions.

• Federal judge apologizes to Dr. Lee - Besides apologizing, the judge has also focused on the prosecution’s sudden willingness for a plea after his ordering the disclosure of documents that resulted in Dr. Lee to be the accused. Others have spoken out that there has also been institutionalized ethnic profiling at the FBI and Department of Energy levels. Judge Parker’s statement points the nation in a direction which must be heeded for the sake of using its lessons to ensure that history does not repeat itself. His call for the release of documents pertinent to the case is precisely the next step to be taken. More than likely, a national investigative commission needs to be formed, with Asian Americans among the staff and commission members, to discover what really happened. This is mandatory to heal the wounds and eradicate this national shame.

While this is a very dramatic example of what can happen in an atmosphere of institutionalized ethnic profiling. Insensitivities and unenlightened workplace stereotyping have a history of creating resentment, suspicion and intolerance among co-workers. As a former Federal Glass Ceiling commissioner, I am convinced that as long as diversity is not reflected at top management levels in all facets of the workplace, there will be continued abuses such as we have just witnessed in the Wen Ho Lee case.

For too long, many Asian Americans have felt artificially secure in the mistaken notion that their education and their modicum of modest financial security would protect them from bigotry and prejudice.

For too long, Asian Americans have swallowed these indignities and practiced the adage that one must “go along to get along”.

The time has come for aggressive tactics to be taken both at the employer and employee levels to insure representation at the highest management and supervisory levels of the American workplace so that situations like Dr. Lee’s case never happen again. America the country, and America the entire notion, not just Asian America, cannot afford to have this happen again.