July 2, 2001
Diversity at the Laboratory
The current debate in this forum regarding diversity and Hispanics at the Laboratory with a focus on statistic analysis and the skewing of data is missing the point. The point in this discussion is that advocacy groups and Hispanic leaders, on behalf of the Hispanic workforce population at the Laboratory, are attempting to create awareness that Hispanics at the Laboratory continue to seek salary and professional parity. Creating awareness provides results that are meaningful and positive for all employees, regardless of ethnicity and gender.
Craig Stinson is correct in stating "Any time the words ethnicity and workforce are used in the same sentence, tremendous tension and emotion are inevitable." For the ethnic and non-ethnic minority employees at the Laboratory who do not achieve salary and professional parity and receive a multitude of reasons and excuses why this cannot occur (e.g., lack of funds, new hire salaries, etc.), the resulting emotional sense of unfairness and inequity has a negative impact on employee morale. This sense of unfairness only adds fodder to the employee and public perception that the Laboratory is an insensitive employer, and for some of our young students, not an employer of choice.
For the past several decades, the topic of underutilization and lack of parity for Hispanics at the Laboratory has been a point of discussion in the surrounding communities (with high concentrations of Hispanics) . Isn't it time for the Laboratory to shed the verguenza (shame) of being perceived in such a negative light? To paraphrase a civil rights advocate, I have a dream that in my lifetime and during my career at the Laboratory, everyone at the Laboratory, regardless of ethnicity and gender, will achieve parity. I also have a dream that my grandchildren will not pick up a newspaper 20 years from now with the headline stating that Hispanics at the Laboratory are underpaid and underutilized.
--Lorraine Lucero