The Foreign Service Journal, October 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2020 29 Most troubling is the lack of urgency that top officials have displayed in statements they make out of public earshot regarding deficiencies in retention and promotion of women and minorities. FY 2009 MD-715 report that Hispanic underrepresentation is an EEO barrier, nothing had changed. In the aftermath of the tragic murder of George Floyd, with renewed vigor for addressing systemic discrimination inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice, we now have a unique opportunity to reform “the system” and get rid of the “old boy network” that has prevented the State Department from truly representing the “face of America” overseas, one that reflects the richness of cultures and diversity of this country. Already some new initiatives are surfacing, such as the barrier analysis working group now reporting to the Director General, bureau-based diver- sity and inclusion working groups, and several Y-tour appoint- ments for senior diversity and inclusion advisers. To see these efforts through to real change will take initiative and leadership from the very top, the kind that former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance showed in 1977 in plucking an African American FSO from an undesirable assignment for appoint- ment to a prominent policy position. Secretary Vance took that extraordinary step because of his personal commitment to diversity and because State’s Bureau of Human Resources failed to present him with a diverse senior officer list from which to pick his most trusted advisers. That African American officer, Terence Todman, went on to several ambassadorships and assis- tant secretary positions, eventually reaching the rank of Career Ambassador. n