WASHINGTON — The State Department needs more black diplomats to reflect the ethnic makeup of the U.S., Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
“I want to see a Foreign Service that looks as if black Americans are part of this great country,” Rice told a gathering of leaders of historically black colleges.
“I have lamented that I can go into a meeting at the Department of State — as a matter of fact, I can go into a whole day of meetings at the Department of State — and rarely see somebody who looks like me,” she said.
Rice told the conference, organized by the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, that the department will hire 400 new Foreign Service officers next year.
“And I’m counting on each and every one of you to be a recruiter,” she said.
