America’s diplomatic corps is the latest victim of diversity uber alles. Choosing diplomats for the 21st century is now about the same process as choosing which gummy bear to eat next. But fear not, because the State Department assures us that America will have “an inclusive workforce that… represents America’s rich diversity.”
At issue is the rigorous entrance exam, which once established a color-blind baseline of knowledge among all applicants and was originally instituted to create a merit-based entrance system. Until now, becoming an American diplomat started with passing this written test of geography, history, basic economics and political science, the idea being it was probably good for our diplomats to know something about all that.
The problem was that, racially, things never quite added up. No matter what changes were made to the test, or even if it was administered after an applicant had served two internships with State (below), blacks and people of color could not pass in the right magic numbers to satisfy the diversity police. The answer? State has now simply done away with the requirement to pass the test in favor of a “whole person” evaluation, similar to how many universities and the dead SAT gateway currently work.
But since the 1924 system never quite broke the hold of the Ivy League, a new law in 1946 closed down the Board of the Foreign Service and created the position of director general to oversee a fairer system for recruitment and promotion.
Yeah, you guessed it: that did not broaden diversity much either, so the present system of testing was rolled into place to fix everything via the Foreign Service Act of 1980. A tough written exam was to be followed by a tougher oral exam, all done blind — no one would know the background of the candidates or their race until the final steps.
It did not work, at least in the sense that people of color still seemed to lag statistically. More interim steps were added, to include a series of personal essays (the “QEP”) to allow candidates to gain “life points” in addition to their performance on the tests. The written test was still retained as a threshold. One had to pass it eventually to move on to compete further for a coveted foreign service job.
More help was on the way. Study guides were created and flash cards sold online. Test prep courses were started. Outside psychologists were brought in, and test administration was turned over to a private company, all in the name of eliminating biases. None of it worked. Blacks sued the State Department. Women sued the State Department. Hispanics argued they were not treated fairly. State created a chief diversity and inclusion position. Still, in 2013, the Senior Foreign Service, the top jobs at State, was 85 percent white. In 2021, it was 86 percent white. The broader diplomatic corps remained 80 percent white. State stayed stubbornly un-diverse.
When nothing else succeeded, State created two fellowships that have been used as vehicles to recruit people of “diverse backgrounds” who worked out to be overwhelming black. In place are the Thomas Pickering Fellowship (run by HBCU Howard University) and the Charles B. Rangel Fellowship. Both claim entrants take the same entrance exams as anyone else, but omit that they do so after two summer internships with the State Department, plus assigned mentors.
Fellows are also identified as such to those administering the oral exam required of all prospective diplomats. Having administered the oral exam myself, I knew I would have to justify to my boss’s boss any move to fail a Fellow before being overruled by her anyway. The programs increased the number of non-white diplomats, as they were intended to do, as a separate but equal pathway.
The problems came down the road, when black diplomats encountered the same promotion and evaluation system that their white, green and blue colleagues did. Diversity in the senior ranks of the State Department actually regressed over time. In 2008, black diplomats made up about 8.6 percent of the top ranks of the diplomatic corps. By 2020, only 2.8 percent of the same top ranks were black.
The answer? It must be more racism (characterized diplomatically as “institutional barriers”). Suggestions focused on offering blacks more fellowships to create a bigger pool, and creating special opportunities for blacks to snag better assignments (described as “promote diverse officers’ career development”). That, of course, simply repeats the original sin of pushing less prepared people upward to their point of failure.
FYI: the State Department classifies most of its gender and race promotion results and does not generally release them to the public. However, data leaked to the New York Times shows that only 80 black diplomats and specialists were promoted in the 2019 fiscal year: a tiny 1 percent.
So under Joe Biden, the next step seemed obvious: do away with the 98-year-old threshold written examination altogether. Under new rules, everyone who takes the test goes on to the next stage, no matter if they do well or poorly (formerly known as “failing”). State has taken its hiring process full-circle, when again behind closed doors someone decides who moves forward based on race.
State will thus absolutely ensure the right blend of flavors gets through. So not the best of the best, but the best in each racial bucket, will pass. While a university has four years to try and educate or drop an unqualified candidate wrongly admitted, State will live with the mistakes these unqualified applicants make globally. As will America. Good luck everybody!
By Peter Van Buren
Peter Van Buren is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People, Hooper’s War: A Novel of WWII Japan and Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the 99 Percent.
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