As it is Black History month, Lab cultural celebrations and activities aside, is "White Privilege" a present day workplace issue at LLNL?
Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
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Please don't feed the troll.
The problem with white privilege is that if you have it you don't know that you have it. When you admit that you have it than it goes away but the problem again is that you don't know if it really went away or not. So yes LLNL has a problem with white privilege. Everything clear now and remember if you argue against it existence is it means you are enforcing it. If you argue that it does exist than you are not taking it seriously.
By the white privilege is simply one of the many privileges that exist and you need to educate yourself on intersectionality, of the intersections of power, race, gender, and orientation. Oddly it is not about class since class can only exist as a function of identity.
Everyday you need to check your privilege and do something about it.
2/09/2019 10:05 AM
Ok, yes LLNL has a problem with white privilege.
And so much more, much more, like special cars, houses, internet access, schools, airplanes, clothes, food, coded languages, carpet, pets, TV-shows, books, music, rivers, tool boxes, Las Vegas, makeup, ships, tunnels, walls, skateboards, byways, turnpikes, off-road trails, hunting, compasses, stars, light, the moon, stock market indices and so on. All invisible but there and not only can you exchange them for money but they earn interest not only over your lifetime but the all the generations going back to the founding of the country.
The other point that Peggy forgot is all of it is unearned, you did nothing to receive this endless bounty that has been passed down upon you. You feel it is yours and should not be shared and you blame others for not having something you simply take for granted.
So if white skin color does not equate to the best performance, as a skin color, in the American society what does this tell us? Furthermore, isn’t the solution right in front of our nose and has been explained clearly for decades if not centuries. This country is a melting pot. If you accept the culture and values of America (hard work, tolerance for others beliefs, etc.) you will succeed in the long run.
Generally, I find the whole conversation about privilege repugnant and lazy.
Of course you do, you have to protect your privilege that is not earned. Therefore you deny it or say it is repugnant and hence you are the reason that white privilege persists. The rest of your post is called rationalization.
You speak of "the Han in China" in manner that somehow should minimize concerns of white privilege at this USA Lab, the location of the topic question (?). Then later you say, "This country is a melting pot. If you accept the culture and values of America (hard work, tolerance for others beliefs, etc.) you will succeed in the long run" (?). Well which cultural template is it that you actually support for our USA Lab, the "Han in China" or USA "melting pot" model?
Your perspective of Asians being "so dominate that they overcome the privilege to outperform whites to bring this conversation toward science and true Lab debate where it belongs? (Average salary, education, etc.)" is flawed, but unfortunately not uncommon. If Asians hit a triple (performance) that does not resolve the root problem of the white privileged failure to acknowledge being born on 3rd base. Nor does it bring the conversation back toward Lab science, mission objectives, or salaries. We first must acknowledge a born on 3rd base culture, where nepotism, cronyism, and white privilege exists. To merely "overcome the privilege", is not a quality benchmark or a viable long term strategy.
Your "hard work" comment, followed up with finding "the whole conversation about privilege repugnant and lazy" inference, does not compliment your arguments. Other than this point, I'm glad you entered the discussion.
Following 5:53 PM's post, can we assume that Asians have better carpet and pets than whites?
Has there ever been an Asian lab director, a female lab director, a black lab director, a hispanic lab director, a Jewish lab director, a transgender lab director? How about a single pararent lab director, a disabled lab director, a gay or lesbian lab director. Think about this and you will just how much privilege exists and the role of intersectionality plays in our lives. If you have any doubt that people are born on chess board with only pawns versus those with mostly queens than all you have to do is look at the comments which reflect the ugly truth.
Ed Teller was Jewish
As to the rest, well I guess you've got the lab pegged.
In my career I do recall working with:
Asians
Females
Blacks
Hispanics
I don't know about Jews - I didn't ask. Does it count that I'm half Jewish?
Transgender - Don't know, I never looked under the hood. Did work with a cross-dresser.
Single parent
Disabled - Yes, both physical and one person with Down syndrome
Gay / Lesbian - Yes to both
Now none of them became director of the lab. Come to think of it, neither did I.
Steven Chu was an Asian Secretary of Energy. Does that count for anything? It should, the Secretary of Energy is a higher position than any lab director. Plus, he was the Director of LBL.
Hazel O'Leary was a female Secretary of Energy AND black. Does that count for anything?
Federico Peña was a Hispanic Secretary of Energy. Does that count for anything on your quota scorecard?
Is this just about LLNL or do other labs count against your quota scorecard?
Thomas Zacharia is the current director of ORNL. He's an Indian-American. Praveen Chaudhari was an Indian-American Director of Brookhaven. Do Indian-Americans count? Vahid Majidi is the current director of Savannah River. He's Iranian-American. Do Iranian-Americans count? You left many ethnicities out of your scorecard list. Does that make you racist for being non-inclusive?
Walter Massey was a black director of Argonne. Lura Powell was a female Lab Director at PNNL. Alvin Weinberg was a Jewish Director of ORNL. Quite a famous guy too. These are just the ones I know of.
There very well could be gay directors that I don't know about. You see, it's none of my business and it's none of your business either.
People who keep such scorecards are despicable.
LBNL had an Asian-American lab director. Sandia had a female lab director. LLNL had a Hispanic lab director. LLNL had a immigrant refugee Jewish lab director who was also disabled. LANL now has an immigrant lab director. Not sure about the other isms you are trying to scratch, but you've already made yourself look foolish.
Some weren't blessed with white privilege, it turns out they are simply exceptional, end of story. The other unexceptional employees, have unsupportable demands of entitlement. This clarifies everything. Come on, you can do better than such a weak generalization.
https://youtu.be/vX_Vzl-r8NY
We can bring this conversation to relevance for the labs, for example LANL. It is clear that many people are in denial about privilege as
evidenced by the comments on this thread. I would assume that many people are may simply not be aware of their privilege. At LANL there is and was a well known cowboy culture, yet most people where in denial or simply did not see it. Just as there is conscious and unconscious bias there is also conscious and unconscious denial. I will take the nicer interpretation that may of the posters here are simply not conscious of their privilege and similarly the LANL cowboys may be actually believed that they where not cowboys. I think scientists are particularly prone to bias since they have knowledge of math and statistics which can be used to justify anything. The problem is they believe in these things on an almost religious level. Cultures can change it is just takes some time. The fact that people are so up in arms with this topic means that some progress is being made.
2/11/2019 4:25 AM
If you can count the number of minority and women Lab directors (including Deputies) on your fingers that were in place at the Labs over 75-years, doesn't substantiate your argument.
The tough thing about scientists is that they CAN understand statistics...
2/09/2019 7:04 AM
"blah,blah" - Peggy McIntosh
2/09/2019 11:18 AM
"And so much more, much more, like special cars, .. blah, blah"
2/09/2019 5:53 PM
You'll have a hard time selling this correct-speak BS in white Appalachia!
What you are describing is not really white privilege but an NNSA pathology. It basically means that there is no way to understand quality or be evaluated on work actually done. In an environment like that other criteria must emerge on how people are judged, this is than by self-promotion of being a suck up buddy boy. In that light other people have mastered theses skills and get promoted and you need to also do this or leave. This is just a natural consequence of a system that no longer has a purpose or a purpose that is bizarre. The purpose of the NNSA labs is not to have screwups, thats it.
One note is that self-promotion and being a suck up also happens outside of the lab however in those environments where other criteria need to be taken into account you have to be much more extreme for these approaches to be effective. At LLNL it is not so hard, all you have to do is talk to other people and say some white lies like how great they are and ask them to give you their deep wisdom, maybe give them some cheap chocolate or send a group wide emails saying how it is the persons birthday or that you just wanted to say how great they are. Thats all you need to do, maybe 20 mins of effort a week and your in. Anyone white, black, latino, gay, trans, cis and so on can use this trick and it works every time. Don't think too deeply about this, don't take it too seriously and everything will be fine. Also if you don't want to be promoted and you have little skills a similar tactic will ensure you are stable.
Again this is because the labs are no longer about actually doing something, they are about not doing things. In the old days when you needed stuff to actually work you had to find real talent and put up with whatever personality you got to get the job done. Now that the job is about doing nothing so you can pick whoever you want to promote and tolerate and as I said a different set of skills come into play.
It terms of lab mission after the early 90's, some of what you are saying was true under UC/LLNL management too. The difference now is LLNS is a for-profit NNSA award fee "report card" based contractor. Anyone that openly claims there is a "white privilege", "buddy boy", cronyism, nepotism, employment environment here, don't just fall outside these groupings as unfavorable. Potentially, they present annual profit headwinds to be quietly dealt with. Because lab employees fear speaking up about "white privilege", "buddy boys" cronyism, or nepotism at LLNL, these employment practices are now in overdrive.
I completly agree, I would only add that these are now simply a subset of issues that can hold you back. In fact anything that rocks the boat in any way will hold you back, not just complaining about discrimination. In this way discrimination is not a special issue at LANL or LLNL, it is just another thing you need to be silent about. Complain about safety, your in trouble, complain about abuse, your in trouble, complain about bad management your in trouble, complain about infrastructure your in trouble, complain about security your in trouble. You see my point, LLNL, LANL is not den of privileged racists, they are simply organizations that have no purpose so never complain about anything or anybody because you have no value to the institute, in fact no one has any value to the institute. If no one showed up to work the labs would make 60% or more of the fee, think about that and you can see the issue. The only driver at the labs are problems. Bringing in millions from outside means nothing, having a great breakthrough means nothing. Heck even achieving "important milestones" is not worth that much since you don't get anymore money for doing them and you would lose a very small amount of the fee for missing some. On the other hand if someone hurts themselves by trying to surf on their laptop down the stairs than than the lab could lose up 50% of the fee.
So the key is not only to not cause problems but try to make it a bit more pleasant. If management is bad than just say nice things to your manager, if you are abused say thank you, if you roof is leaking put a flower pot under the leak and send an email about how great that is, tout about how great security and so on. Do these things and it will work out just fine. This is not hard work and you don't need to put a lot of effort in this. This is village politics and it is a small village in the pre neolithic age so you don't need to do all that much. Heck if you brought in a shiny object and gave it to your manager and said how he/she deserves because they are so special than you will have the highest marks for the year. Have some great breakthrough but never indulge you manager you will get an average score.
Don't know about LLNL but this is very true at LANL. All you mention is at display and on a daily basis at LANL. One always wander how long all that is going to last?
Isn't a higher ethics agency that can look at it? or the Department of Labor?
Someone in the Gov't should take a look at it.
The "higher ethics agency" is YOU. Find an employer whose ethics you like better and go work for them. Simple. Why work for an employer whom you don't trust or like?? That says more about you than them.
The minute you become anxious
that your race and culture are threatened, you are already a racist.In the US, no race has the monopoly on anything. Your ancestors arrived here the same way as anyone else's ancestors, as immigrants.
There is a whiff of nationalism here.
that your race and culture are threatened, you are already a racist."
Seriously?? Funny, I thought that all minority cultures in the US felt that way. Was I wrong? I guess they are all racist.
There is nothing wrong with loving and respecting your country (my definition of nationalism, I don't know what yours is). Also, there is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve what you perceive as valuable and worthy in your culture. Surely every minority culture in the US feels that way. Why is it wrong for a majority culture to also feel that way? No one is talking about denigrating or disparaging or destroying other cultures.
Your calling me a racist violates your own rules, sir. I demand an apology. And actually, I am 1/8 native American.
I made this statement :
The minute you become anxious
that your race and culture are threatened, you are already a racist.
This is a general statement, not directed at you.
It is like saying to a lawyer that lawyers are money hungry.
I am not accusing him of anything. If he is offended, that is his choice.
I did not call you racist. Therefore, no violation of blog rules and no apology is necessary.