Desirée Cormier Smith is the U.S. State Department’s first Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice.(Credit: state.gov)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
Desirée Cormier Smith has been appointed as the U.S. State Department’s first Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, the department announced Friday. Prior to the appointment, Cormier Smith served as a senior advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affair. The Biden State Department said in a statement that Cormier Smith, while serving in her new role as Special Representative, will lead its “efforts to protect and advance the human rights of people belonging to marginalized racial and ethnic communities and combat systemic racism, discrimination, and xenophobia around the world.” The statement added that the Biden administration has “consistently sought to confront systemic racism and injustice around the world, and that Cormier Smith’s new appointment will further this effort.
“The State Department strives to promote and protect the rights of individuals and communities who are oppressed because of their race or ethnicity and create a just world where all people are valued, included, and able to live up to their full potential.”
-U.S. State Department
Cormier Smith has been very outspoken about the lack of diversity in the U.S. foreign service. In a podcast with blackdiplomats.net in October 2020, entitled “Trump’s White Supremacist Foreign Policy”, Cormier Smith argued that white diplomats are often too “protective of the United States”. Cormier Smith also said in the podcast that black diplomats possess superior skills to white diplomats in humility and empathy when dealing with foreign nationals.
“Special Representative Cormier Smith will also ensure that our own policies are protecting and advancing the rights of people belonging to marginalized racial and ethnic communities. Embedding equity across our work is imperative to ensuring better-informed and more effective foreign policies and programs that support all people regardless of their race or ethnicity.” – State Department.
Cormier Smith began her career as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State with assignments in Mexico, South Africa, and Washington, D.C. Previously, she was the Senior Policy Advisor for Africa, Europe, and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundation. Cormier Smith holds a B.A. in Political Science and Psychology from Stanford University and a M.A. in Public Policy from John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Desirée Cormier Smith is the U.S. State Department’s first Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice.
Racism, Xenophobia Are Threats To Democracy: Desirée
“Inequity, Racism, and Xenophobia Are Threats To Democracy and Run Contrary to the Principles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights That All Human Beings Are Born Free and Equal in Dignity and Rights. They Also Rob Societies of Their Strength, Creativity, Stability, and Prosperity. In my new role, I will advance racial and ethnic across our Foreign Affairs work. My priority will be to integrate into our policymaking the voices of marginalized racial and ethnic communities themselves, including indigenous communities, who, for far too long, have been excluded from the decisions that impact them.”
-Desirée Cormier Smith, U.S. State Department Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice
Secretary of State Blinken Appoints First Chief Diversity Officer
Last April 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken named former ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first chief diversity officer to help make the diplomatic corps personnel reflect America.
Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley Delivers Remarks Upon Being Named Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at U.S. Department of State in Washington D.C. April 12, 2021. (Credit: Department of State)
It is kind of difficult to think how the new State Department Special Envoy can tackle global racial injustice, when within the Department’s own ranks, there continues to be a lack of diversity in the foreign service. And Abercrombie-Winstanley most certainly has a mammoth challenge ahead of her to change the face of the U.S. Foreign Service, which many critics characterize as being a deeply entrenched, systemic “pale, male, and Yale” culture. And by his own admission, Blinken said “the State Department simply isn’t as diverse and inclusive as it needs to be.” Having said that, Blinken provided some dire assessment on the Department’s treatment of minorities:
“Last year, the Government Accountability Office found that racial or ethnic minorities in the department’s Civil Service were up to 29 percent less likely to be promoted than their white peers with similar qualifications The report also found that the higher up you went in the department, the lower the proportion was of women and racial or ethnic minorities. In other words: up in rank, down in diversity.” – U.S. Secretary of State Blinken.
U.S. State Department Mostly “Pale, Male, and Yale”
Blinken said that as Secretary of State, his job is to ensure that “our foreign policy delivers for the American people.” According to Blinken, to achieve that, “we have to recruit and retain a workforce that truly reflects the American people. Diversity and inclusion make our diplomatic team stronger, smarter, more creative, more innovative.” Sounds good on paper but what about in reality? “The country can no longer afford a State Department that is pale, male, and Yale,” Karen Bass wrote in a Dec. 5 2020 article in Foreign Policy.
