Thread: Rex Tillerson Promises to Consider Minorities for All Ambassador Posts (Racial Quotas

Rex Tillerson promises to consider minorities for all ambassador posts

by Joel Gehrke | Aug 18, 2017, 11:57 AM


Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday announced a new policy aimed at ensuring that minority candidates receive consideration for senior diplomatic posts.


"We have a great diversity gap in the State Department," Tillerson told State Department fellows and interns Friday morning. "To better understand our talent pool, I have directed the relevant committees to adopt a new procedure. Every time we have an opening for an ambassador position, at least one of the candidates must be a minority candidate. Now they may not be ready, but we will know where the talent pool



That decision might silence some congressional critics, who faulted Tillerson for initially applying the department's hiring freeze to graduates of fellowship programs for minority candidates who would typically receive diplomatic assignments. But he wove it into a repudiation of the white nationalist ideology on display in Charlottesville, Va.


"We do not honor nor do we promote or accept hate speech, in any form, and those who embrace it poison our public discourse and they damage the very country that they claim to love," Tillerson said. "So we condemn racism and bigotry in all its forms. Racism is evil."


Tillerson noted that "only about 12 percent" of senior State Department staff are "non-white," a statistic he plans to change by identifying the most talented minority contenders and prioritizing them for the kind of guidance that would be provided to similarly-situated white candidates.


"A big part of developing our minority leadership is identifying qualified individuals five and ten years before they are ready to become senior leaders and managing and developing their career, as we do others, so that they are undergoing preparations for those senior roles over time," Tillerson said. "We need a more deliberate process to cultivate the abundance of minority talent we already have in the State Department."


The new interview procedure isn't unprecedented, and is analogous to the NFL's Rooney Rule, which requires teams to consider at least one minority candidate for head coaching and other senior positions. But it's a particularly notable break with the "alt-right" leaders who gathered in Charlottesville, after years of arguing that white people are being put at a disadvantage relative to lesser-qualified minorities.


"What Lincoln knew and that we are sadly reminded of today is that painful racial tensions are part of our experience as a nation," Tillerson said. "We too today should seek to bind up the wounds."


It was also a far cry from President Trump's remarks, as he had condemned the violence on "both sides" at the Charlottesville rally and declared his opposition to removing Confederate statues. "George Washington was a slave owner," Trump said.

"So, will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down statues to George Washington?"


Tillerson took a more conciliatory tone, but he offered his own subtle defense of Washington even while attacking racism. "

[Racism] is antithetical to the American idea," Tillerson said. "George Washington said in an address to the synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, that his vision for the country was a government which, and I quote, "to bigotry [gives] no sanction, to persecution, no assistance."




http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/re...rticle/2631953

That's good! Just make sure they're all US citizens for all jobs in State Department. Very important. Loyalty is everything in that agency, all agencies of course, but especially State, DOD and DHS.

Tillerson Denounces Racism, Pledges More Diverse Diplomats

By Nick Wadhams
August 18, 2017 at 12:22:09 PM EDT

• He makes no mention of Trump’s comments on Charlottesville
• Bigotry is ‘antithetical to the American idea,’ he says

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced a push to bring more minorities into the State Department, denouncing racism and hate speech as “antithetical to the American idea” while stopping short of singling out President Donald Trump’s comments on Charlottesville.


Telling student interns and fellows at the State Department that race relations are “a topic that’s on everyone’s mind,” Tillerson said Friday that he’s directing hiring committees to ensure that candidates for every U.S. ambassadorship include at least one minority.


It’s an approach similar to the National Football League’s Rooney Rule for hiring head coaches. About 70 percent of U.S. ambassadorships are filled by career foreign-service officers, with the rest going to political appointees named by the president.


In an implicit criticism of his predecessors, Tillerson said the State Department hasn’t done enough to include minorities and women, saying only 12 percent of senior foreign-service officers are minorities and only a third are women. He said the department has a “great diversity gap” and will do more to recruit at historically black and Hispanic schools.


“We have to own this process,” Tillerson said. “That doesn’t mean coming through town and dropping some pamphlets off at the recruiting office.”


Staff Dismay

While Tillerson didn’t mention Trump, his remarks put distance between him and the president’s insistence that there was “blame on both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last Saturday. A rally dominated by white supremacists and neo-Nazis culminated with a man driving a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, with one person killed and others injured.


Trump’s comments provoked widespread dismay among State Department staff and prompted some, unwilling to represent the Trump administration overseas, to start looking for jobs elsewhere, according to several department employees who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.


“We do not honor nor do we promote or accept hate speech in any form, and those who embrace it poison our public discourse and they damage the very country that they claim to love,” Tillerson said Friday. “So we condemn racism, bigotry in all its forms. Racism is evil, it is antithetical to American values, it’s antithetical to the American idea.”

Recalling his years in business, the former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive officer said he appreciated the value of having minorities in leadership positions because they bring different cultural perspectives and “will see things in the world that I cannot see.”


Tillerson closed his remarks with a plea for his young listeners to cherish their personal integrity rather than compromising it.
“You may have a short-term gain out of that but once you relinquish any element of your personal integrity, it is very very difficult to regain it,” he said.



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...erse-diplomats

Tillerson pledges to boost diversity at State

BY Morgan Chalfant - 08/18/17

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the lack of diversity at the State Department is a “leadership” issue as he outlined the department’s efforts to recruit more African-American, Hispanic and female personnel.


“It’s not just to achieve a mix of population that looks like the rest of our country,” Tillerson said during an address to students of the department’s internship and leadership programs in Washington, D.C. “It enriches our work; it enriches our work product.”


Tillerson’s remarks come at a time of tension in Washington as President Trump weathers scrutiny for his response to the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which led to three deaths.



Tillerson mentioned that the department needs to work to recruit more LGBT, African-American, Hispanic, and female individuals to fill civil and foreign service roles. “We know we are a stronger organization when we embrace, incorporate diverse points of view into our work product,” Tillerson said.


The nation’s top diplomat explained that the department will “re-examine and expand” its recruitment efforts, including by reaching out to historically black colleges and universities and Latino-serving institutions as well as by expanding its footprint at minority-focused job fairs.


“We will work to close the gender gap as well,” Tillerson said.
“Qualified Americans of all backgrounds should know a career at the State Department is possible,” he said.


Speaking to the new class of recruits, Tillerson noted that “the seeds of greater diversity that we’re planting today will need to be nurtured for years to come.”


Among those in the audience were members of the department’s student, legal and Charles B. Rangel International Affairs intern programs, as well as recipients of the department’s scholarships.


Tillerson, who has kept in place a hiring freeze at the department, said that it would not affect the agency’s internship and leadership programs. He also said that the temporary stop on hires, which has led to some criticism from former officials, is partially aimed at allowing State to review its operations and “position ourselves to improve our diversity.”



http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...rsity-at-state

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday announced a new policy aimed at ensuring that minority candidates receive consideration for senior diplomatic posts.

Why is that something that even needs to be said publicly. It's almost like Tillerson is admitting the Trump administration is racist. These clowns need to get their act together. If you want to have a policy that a minority must be in the running for a position, that's fine, however, this is not the time to make such a policy public considering the heat Trump is currently getting.

It reflects on past administrations not this one. Tillerson's been under a hiring freeze same as all departments since Trump was inaugurated, so the "mix" isn't related to this Presidency, it's related to past administrations.

Hire individuals for posts based on their EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS!

Not their skin color or gender!!!

Originally Posted by Beezer

Hire individuals for posts based on their EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS!

Not their skin color or gender!!!

YES!! But you also want to be sure that everyone who is a citizen is given fair shot at the jobs and appointments and I think that's all Tillerson is saying. Apparently over and through the years there has been a heavy reliance on white males at the US State Department, more women and black Americans need more opportunities there because this is a huge department that spans locations all over the globe. There are rules to follow and apparently the State Department is behind on compliance by past administrations, I have no problem at all with correcting any of that, the same as all agencies of the federal government are required to do.