Racial Dilemmas In the United States

United States of American is known as a salad bowl or a melting pot due to the large integration of many different cultures and it is home to a large diverse population. However, achieving this title was not easy; it took time and patience for the people of the United States to climb over the obstacles of overcoming racial discrimination and violence. Despite the centuries that had come and go, the United States still face issues regarding racial dilemma.

An example of such racial dilemma is the story of a computer scientist named Dr. Wen Ho Lee who worked at Los Alamos Nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, during the year 1999. Although the example is not recent to this day, it is still relevant due to the fact that the date in which this incident occurred is post 1965 in which most civil rights laws were starting to take affect and most radials towards certain racial groups were being taken out of the system. Nevertheless, Dr. Lee's story starts off when he was arrested and charged with a total of fifty nine charges of mishandling information, during the nation's hysteria of nuclear secrets being leaked out to china.

However, being arrested by the authorities was not the worse part for Dr. Lee, nope, while in prison the criminal justice system denied him bail, was forced to wear leg shackles and chains, and was kept in solitary confinement; a reminder that Dr. lee is being charged with mishandling information and espionage. furthermore, this was all happening to Dr. Lee, while the justice department was struggling to build a case against him. Somewhat seems familiar with the incident regard Japanese-Amercians after the Pearl Harbor bombings back in 1941 where the authorities were quick to judge, isolate, and punish citizens that looked the enemy.

Fortunately, it did not take more time than the Japanese-Americans did until the government realized they were not a threat, as for Dr. Lee in September 2000, the government dropped all but of the fifty nine charges against him. This was all after everyone found out that an FBI agent provided false testimony against Dr. Lee in the investigation. However, Dr Lee pleaded guilty for mishandling information and did his time. afterwards the Judge in his case formally apologized and so did the New York Times for lack of research and facts during their coverage on his case.

That is the end of Dr. Lee's story, it just goes to show that the United States of America still suffers from racial dilemmas, despite the centuries of change it has gone through. However, even with the racial dilemmas, the United States is still growing and striving to be an equal and fair nation, it might not be there yet but it is getting there, maybe sooner than we think.