Those who want to be employed or promoted at the State Department must complete a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) requirement, according to documentation obtained by The Epoch Times.
“Foreign Service employees are expected to demonstrate impact in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by progressively building upon the skills and qualities outlined below,” states the document, entitled “Decision Criteria for Tenure And Promotion In The Foreign Service 2022–2025.”
The Foreign Service consists of 16,000 career diplomats at embassies and consulates worldwide. Some work in Washington at the department in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
The DEI aspect is one of the five core precepts along with communication, leadership, management, and substantive and technical experience “competencies a Foreign Service employee must develop over the course of their career, from entry through tenure, and up to consideration for promotion into and within the Senior Foreign Service,” states the document.
These standards apply to all members of the Foreign Service and the department’s Selection Board unequivocally considers these factors for members in order to enter or move up in the department.
Conservatives have blasted President Biden’s DEI push.
“The result will be injustice, widespread inefficiency, and underperformance throughout our government.”
The criteria for entry-level employees include taking “advantage of opportunities to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in interactions with colleagues and interlocutors” and demonstrating “inclusivity and respect in relations with colleagues and interlocutors,” according to the document.
It also includes getting “feedback to improve one’s own self-awareness with respect to promoting inclusivity in the workplace” and enabling “productive workplace relationships with all colleagues.”
Additionally, the descriptions include being collaborative “with others and achieves department goals through inclusive teamwork,” exhibiting “cultural sensitivity with colleagues, including Locally Employed Staff and foreign interlocutors,” and identifying and reporting “disrespectful and inappropriate workplace behaviors.”
Such misbehavior is in the Foreign Affairs Manual.
For mid-level employment, the requirements include consistently exemplifying the criteria for entry-level employees and advancing DEI and accessibility “in words and actions,” constantly treating everyone “fairly, justly, and impartially, particularly in supervisory duties” and, where possible, “consults with impacted staff before finalizing decisions.”
In order to be considered for a supervisory role, the candidate must actively strive “to recruit and retain diverse teams and improve methods of attracting diverse candidates for positions,” ensure “candidates of all backgrounds are given equitable consideration for vacant positions,” and support “equity in staff opportunities, roles, and recognition.”
The candidate must allow access to the workplace and technology for disabled employees.
Additionally, the candidate “recognizes that unconscious biases can affect decisions and actions and takes steps to identify and mitigate them in the evaluation of others’ performance,” “promotes fairness, equity, and inclusion in the treatment of others,” and “supports workplace flexibilities and the reasonable accommodation process to strengthen equity and accessibility.”
Finally, the DEI requirements for those “seeking promotion into and within the Senior Foreign Service, as well as consideration for performance pay” include promoting “a culture of inclusion that incorporates the values and efforts of staff” and creating and cultivating “DEI, productive, and collaborative work environments.”
The candidate “fosters a culture that supports the recruitment and retention of a diplomatic workforce that reflects the diversity of our country, including underrepresented communities ... reacts immediately in accordance with department policy in response to allegations of discrimination, harassment, and bullying, and all other inappropriate, non-inclusive, disrespectful, and toxic workplace behaviors;” and “takes action to address such behaviors organization-wide.”
Critics slammed this State Department DEI requirement.
“The State Department’s DEI promotion criteria inherently put racial and gender ideology above experience, skillset, and hard work,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times.
“While we all want a diverse diplomatic community, penalizing people based on their ability to implement DEI measures is wrong, not to mention ambiguous and subjective.”
Mr. McCaul went on to call on the “department to reverse course, eliminate these misguided rules, and work to hire and promote America’s top minds, no matter what they look like.”
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation who worked in the State Department, called it “a pretty partisan thing” and unconstitutional.
“Diversity means quotas and quotas are unconstitutional. Inclusion means language codes, and language codes violate the First Amendment,” he told The Epoch Times.
“Equity says that you have to make decisions based on race you have to treat Americans differently based on their race,” added Mr. Gonzalez. “That is unconstitutional.”
Matthew Brodsky, a senior fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, called this DEI policy “a load of nonsense.”
“The State Department plays a critical role in American diplomacy. Foreign Service Officers should fit into the surroundings and customs of where they are posted,” he told The Epoch Times.
“We should be seeking the best people for these careers, no matter their skin color, gender, or religion,” continued Mr. Brodsky. “The State Department’s DEI policy adds a needlessly large layer of insanity and downplays success and merit in order to boost diversity.”
According to one professional with intimate knowledge of international State Department professional development operations, “the mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the United States abroad.
“Most State Department diplomats have a genuine interest in advancing that mission in the course of their careers.”
The professional went on to tell The Epoch Times, “There is no serious statistical, moral, or ethical basis for including among necessary leadership, management, communication, and technical expertise diplomacy skills these radical neo-Maoist concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion that divide us as a nation.
“That the administration now seeks to impose spurious, unserious, or even harmful metrics involving immutable characteristics of race, sex, or sexual orientation, rather than our shared commitment to advancing the interests of our constitutional republic, is a path towards diplomatic catastrophe.”
For example, said the professional, “the raising of the LGBT flag over the U.S. Embassy in Kabul just weeks before the utterly humiliating collapse of the American diplomatic and military presence from Afghanistan is emblematic of this focus on affluent narcissistic American ideologies at the expense of the harsh realities of international relations, to the great peril of our national security.”
The State Department responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment after publication.
“The State Department hires and promotes members of the Foreign Service strictly on the basis of merit per the Foreign Service Act of 1980 and Department policy,” said a department spokesperson.
The spokesperson said that the DEI aspect was created “in concert with the Secretary’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the American Foreign Service Association enables each employee to demonstrate their contributions to that precept.
“For example, achieving goals through inclusive teamwork, organizing programs and events to discuss actionable ways to advance [Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Accessibility], and working to ensure the workplace is accessible, are all ways in which any employee at any level can demonstrate a commitment to DEIA principles.”
