Ambassador Abercrombie-Weinstein speaks in the Franklin Room of the U.S. State Department building after Secretary Blinken announced she will become the first Chief Diversity Officer. (April 12, 2021)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday (April 12) named Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first “Chief Diversity Officer. The newly created position is intended to make the U.S. diplomatic corps more representative.
In introducing Abercrombie-Winstanley, Blinken said the State Department and the United States are in a “moment of reckoning” for racial equality. He was referring to the “Black Lives Matter” movement and the attacks on Asian-Americans.
He said Abercrombie Winstanley, who has been a career diplomat since 1985 and served as U.S. ambassador to Malta, will report directly to him.
Blinken said it is the responsibility of every State Department official to promote diversity inclusion, but the new diversity officer will hold the State Department leadership accountable on the issue.
The lack of diversity at the top of the State Department is appalling, he added, but it goes back to its history, as evidenced by the portraits of former secretaries of state lining the hallway leading to his office.
“It’s hard not to notice that almost all of the secretaries of state in the hallway are white males,” Blinken said.
A report by an independent federal watchdog released last year showed that at the U.S. State Department, which employs 76,000 people worldwide, racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the department, especially in high-level positions. Abercrombie-Winstanley is a black man.
“The fact is, this problem is as long-standing as the department itself. It’s systemic,” Blinken said. “The problem transcends any one agency or any one administration, and it has been perpetuated by policies, practices and people to this day.”
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