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.
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’ve seen firsthand that we compare favorably to any other country and system of government on Earth. Nowhere does an individual — no matter his or her background — have more opportunity to succeed than in the United States.
That is why I fear the State Department’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’s recent diversion from merit to “equity” undermines principles that took 200 years to establish.
Race essentialists such as Ibram X. Kendi believe that any disparity in the representation of races in any organization is proof of discrimination. They ignore obvious factors that can explain group differences — not just ability, but individual effort, family structure and support, and other traits of successful cultures from every continent.
Nonetheless, their conception of “equity” 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
