Page 163 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

CHAPTER SEVEN

Racial/Ethnic

Microaggressions

and Racism

Then, in his calm, baritone voice, Judge Parker spoke to me slowly and delib-
erately . . .

“ I believe you were terribly wronged by being held in custody pretrial in the
Santa Fe County Detention Center under demeaning, unnecessarily punitive
conditions. I am truly sorry that I was led by our executive branch of govern-
ment to order your detention last December.
“ Dr. Lee, I tell you with great sadness that I feel I was led astray last December
by the executive branch of our government through its Department of Justice, by
its Federal Bureau of Investigation, and by its United States attorney for the district
of New Mexico, who held the office at that time . . .

“ I sincerely apologize to you, Dr. Lee, for the unfair manner you were held in
custody by the executive branch. ”
The judge then adjourned the court: I was moments away from being freed.
I leaned over to [my lawyer] Mark Holscher and asked him, “ Is it common for a
judge to talk like this? ”
Mark replied, “ No, Wen Ho. This is very, very rare. ” (W. H. Lee, 2001, pp. 6 – 7)

In his book, My Country versus Me (2001), Wen Ho Lee, a patriotic American
scientist who had devoted decades of his life to science and helping improve
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