{"id":2307720,"date":"2024-07-25T07:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T11:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-not-adopting-dei-is-a-national-security-threat\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T07:25:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T11:25:17","slug":"state-department-not-adopting-dei-is-a-national-security-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-not-adopting-dei-is-a-national-security-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"State Department: Not Adopting DEI Is A &#8216;National Security Threat&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-department-not-adopting-dei-is-a-national-security-threat%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2307720&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Et \u200cme be clear: \u2064I believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. The State Department&#8217;s push \u2064for &#8220;equity&#8221; threatens to undermine the very principles of meritocracy and\u200b fair\u2064 competition that have made the United States a beacon of opportunity for people around the world.<\/p>\n<p>As a \u2064former diplomat, I have seen firsthand the importance of a professional and competent \u200cForeign\u200b Service that \u200bis dedicated to advancing American interests and values. The State Department&#8217;s focus on identity politics and diversity quotas\u2062 is a dangerous distraction from its core mission.<\/p>\n<p>I urge Secretary Blinken\u2063 and \u2064the leadership of the State Department to reconsider their emphasis on &#8220;equity&#8221; and return to a commitment \u200dto <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-racial-anxiety-conquered-an-orchestra-and-crushed-a-career\/\" title=\"How Racial Anxiety Conquered an Orchestra and Crushed a Career\">merit-based hiring<\/a> \u200dand promotion. Our\u2063 country deserves nothing less than a diplomatic corps that is truly the best and the brightest, \u2063regardless of race or background.<\/p>\n<p>I may be retired now, but I will always be a proud American who believes in the promise of our democracy.\u2062 Let&#8217;s not sacrifice that promise on the altar of political correctness and \u2064social engineering. Our country deserves better.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Twenty-five years ago, I went to India as a newly minted Foreign Service officer. After three months of Hindi language training, I was interviewing up to 200 visa applicants a day. After that, I served in Africa, Europe, and Asia, going from junior officer to running a post. <strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I love my country and was proud to serve it as a diplomat. America has flaws, to be sure, and its story has some shameful chapters, but I&rsquo;ve seen firsthand that we compare favorably to any other country and system of government on Earth. Nowhere does an individual &mdash; no matter his or her background &mdash; have more opportunity to succeed than in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>That is why I fear the State Department&rsquo;s increasing turn toward ideology and partisanship. The United States needs competent, politically neutral servants prepared to carry out the policies of elected officials. But the State Department&rsquo;s recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/report\/how-the-state-departments-discriminatory-dei-programs-undermine-us-diplomacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">diversion<\/a> from merit to &ldquo;equity&rdquo; undermines principles that took 200 years to establish.<\/p>\n<p>Race essentialists such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TzuOlyyQlug\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ibram X. Kendi<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/07\/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility\/614146\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">believe<\/a> that any disparity in the representation of races in any organization is proof of discrimination. They ignore obvious factors that can explain group differences &mdash; not just ability, but individual effort, family structure and support, and other traits of successful cultures from every continent.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, their conception of &ldquo;equity&rdquo; has captured American education and government, including the State Department. In 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken established an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, led by a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/12\/politics\/blinken-cdo-diversity-state\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chief diversity and inclusion officer<\/a> (CDIO), and devised an &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/2023-State-Equity-Action-Plan.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Equity Action Plan<\/a>&rdquo; to redirect U.S. diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the CDIO has relentlessly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/report\/how-the-state-departments-discriminatory-dei-programs-undermine-us-diplomacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pursued<\/a> preferential hiring to ensure that the Foreign Service &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/12\/politics\/blinken-cdo-diversity-state\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">looks like America<\/a>.&rdquo; But in truth, nothing in America &ldquo;looks like America.&rdquo; Sports, business, entertainment, medicine, the military &mdash; in no sphere of our national life will you find sex and race percentages perfectly in line with the population as a whole. In a free society, people choose, compete, and sort naturally.<\/p>\n<p>There is another kind of imagined society, where all theoretically end in the same place. But every example of that, from Cuba to North Korea, shows the same pattern: People are poorer, less free, and still ruled by a privileged elite. At least in a capitalist, free society, that elite is mostly created by individual talent, hard work, and good decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Like Kendi, State Department proponents of &ldquo;equity&rdquo; claim there are &ldquo;systemic&rdquo; barriers to the hiring and advancement of certain groups. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/report\/how-the-state-departments-discriminatory-dei-programs-undermine-us-diplomacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data<\/a> over the past few years shows that women were promoted more than men, and black officers at a higher rate than white or Asian officers. Nonetheless, the State Department continues to proceed as if such barriers existed. The State Department-USAID Joint Regional Strategy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/JRS_SCA-ASIA_7FEB2022_PUBLIC.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claims<\/a> that &ldquo;systemic inequality is a &lsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-dept-spox-largest-threat-to-u-s-national-security-are-u-s-cops\/\" title=\"State Dept Spox: \u2018Largest Threat to U.S. National Security are U.S. Cops\u2019\">national security threat<\/a>,&rsquo;&rdquo; without any evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Claims by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/05\/06\/politics\/blinken-diversity-state-challenge\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">journalists<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/06\/23\/opinion\/state-department-racism-diversity.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">former Foreign Service officers<\/a> that the State Department has a hostile climate for some so-called minorities are also not borne out by facts. Last year, there were only two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/FY-2022-No-FEAR-Act-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">findings<\/a> of discrimination among approximately 25,000 U.S. staff in the civil and foreign services &mdash; that&rsquo;s one case per every 12,500 employees. Yet the department&rsquo;s Bureau of Global Talent Management (HR) spends nearly $80 million a year on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/equality-not-elitism\/2962319\/taxpayers-shouldnt-be-funding-the-state-departments-dei-pseudoscience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">endless array<\/a> of equity-obsessed training programs, with no evidence that they improve the workforce, much less American diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>In just the last several months, for example, GTM <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/commentary\/taxpayers-shouldnt-be-funding-the-state-departments-dei-pseudoscience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">offered<\/a> staff a half day of work time to take a course on &ldquo;Intersectional Gender Analysis Training,&rdquo; which &ldquo;explores how gender and systems of power shape an individual&rsquo;s lived experience&rdquo;; paid one consultant <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2014\/05\/20\/b-school-professors-earn-that-much-in-speaking-fees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">what was likely a very large fee<\/a> to lecture staff on the dubious concept of &ldquo;implicit&rdquo; bias; and sponsored another course on &ldquo;equity in journalism&rdquo; &mdash; by a supposed <a href=\"https:\/\/borealisphilanthropy.org\/2021\/11\/04\/meet-alicia-bell-the-new-director-of-the-racial-equity-in-journalism-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expert<\/a> whose background, she says, is &ldquo;not in journalism&rdquo; but &ldquo;community building and education and organizing.&rdquo; The State Department also supported a staff-organized event limited &ldquo;only for women of color.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the department deemphasized the objective Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) to make hiring &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/state-department-announces-changes-to-the-foreign-service-entry-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more equitable<\/a>.&rdquo; Now a Qualification Evaluations Panel combines the test score with essays and other subjective judgments to determine who moves forward in the hiring process. This mirrors the approach of universities, law, and medical schools, which use nebulous &ldquo;holistic&rdquo; assessments of candidates to admit them despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/following-backlash-over-racist-comments-san-francisco-school-board-commissioner-votes-to-admonish-herself\/\" title=\"Following Backlash Over \u201cRacist\u201d Comments, San Francisco School Board Commissioner Votes to \u201cAdmonish\u201d Herself\">low test scores<\/a>. This may ensure &ldquo;equitable&rdquo; outcomes, but it also generates a weaker intake of officers, which will reduce the effectiveness of American diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>All societies need elites. Whether for pilots, brain surgeons, or special forces, at some point an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/crenshaw-america-first-means-choosing-country-over-popularity-in-the-foreign-policy-culture-war\/\" title=\"CRENSHAW: \u2018America First\u2019 Means Choosing Country Over Popularity In The Foreign Policy Culture War\">objective standard<\/a> must be met if we are to maintain excellence. For the State Department, the solution is to restore the FSOT as a requirement and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcdonalds-cuts-hundreds-of-corporate-jobs-in-restructuring\/\" title=\"McDonalds Cuts Hundreds of Corporate Jobs in Restructuring\">make personnel decisions<\/a> that are blind to immutable characteristics. Every Foreign Service officer I&rsquo;ve ever met supports efforts to attract talent from across the nation regardless of the &ldquo;type&rdquo; of American who provides that talent.<\/p>\n<p>Repairing our educational system and strengthening families to increase opportunities for all is in the national interest. But making decisions about hiring, promotion, or who gets what assignment based on race and sex instead of merit and experience is a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>Like many other Foreign Service officers, I&rsquo;ve visited and lived in societies riven by racial or tribal struggles for power and wealth. That zero-sum game never ends well and should not be the system we emulate. Instead, we should celebrate the American values of equal opportunity, competition, and merit, which made our country and its institutions the envy of the planet.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Et \u200cme be clear: \u2064I believe in equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. The State Department&#8217;s push \u2064for &#8220;equity&#8221; threatens to undermine the very principles of meritocracy and\u200b fair\u2064 competition that have made the United States a beacon of opportunity for people around the world. As a \u2064former diplomat, I have seen firsthand the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1156,"featured_media":2307721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Copy-of-Untitled-47.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[16574,6759,11021,23344,32895],"class_list":["post-2307720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dei","tag-diversity","tag-equality","tag-national-security","tag-state-department"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Copy-of-Untitled-47.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2307720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2307720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2307720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2307720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}