Actual Black Person and National Security Advisor Susan Rice told graduates at Florida International University in a commencement speech a week or three ago that the presence of too many \u201cwhite, male, and Yale\u201d personnel in America\u2019s national security agencies she helps staff and run is posing a threat to the very security of the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo often, our national security workforce has been what former Florida Senator Bob Graham called \u2018white, male, and Yale,’\u201d Rice stated. \u201cIn the halls of power, in the faces of our national security leaders, America is still not fully reflected. I\u2019m not talking about a human resources issue. I\u2019m highlighting a national security imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what the hell exactly is Rice talking about that\u2019s so dangerous besides herself?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBy now, we should all know the dangers of \u2018groupthink,\u2019 where folks who are alike often think alike. By contrast, groups comprised of different people tend to question one another\u2019s assumptions, draw on divergent perspectives and experiences, and yield better outcomes.\u201d <\/p>\n
So that means all people of a certain melanin ratio think the same way? I think that\u2019s the same kind of racist hate that many still say about people of color.<\/p>\n
Or that once in government, Blacks, Whites, Latinos, gay people and all others don\u2019t all become weasels and suckups who always agree with their boss? Also, one can\u2019t help but notice that Rice, in her powerful position, is already Black. And that other guy, the one who sits at the head of the table, he also looks Black.<\/p>\n
And about that \u201cYale\u201d part of the equation Rice also does not like. Rice attended elite Stanford University, and then went on to even more elite Oxford University in England, kinda on the Yale spectrum. Her boss, Barack Obama, went to Columbia and Harvard, so so much for diversity there. Maybe she should resign in favor of someone who went to Ohio State on a football scholarship.<\/p>\n
Rice wasn\u2019t done in her commencement speech, as she had to explain her views on the utter shallowness of diplomacy, about how America can fool foreigners with funny costumes that for sure matter more than policies such as drone strikes against civilians and overthrowing governments:<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, we want our national security leaders to reflect America\u2019s best self to the world and inspire others to follow our example. Not by preaching pluralism and tolerance, but by practicing it. Think of the LGBT person in Bangladesh who knows that someone at the American embassy understands who she is. Think of the Iraqi soldier, learning to fight alongside Iraqis from other religious sects, who takes inspiration from America\u2019s own multiethnic force. Think of young Haitians drawn to converse with a Foreign Service officer who has dreadlocks like their own. That is how we build bridges and deepen partnerships in an increasingly globalized world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damn, that\u2019s it. If only more of our diplomats grew dreads things would be working better for America out there.<\/p>\n
BONUS: I am in favor of diversity. But the arguments Rice is making were made in part years ago about bringing more women into government. We did, and it didn\u2019t change sh*t about the way America conducts itself in the world.<\/p>\n
Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, <\/i>We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People<\/a>. His latest book is <\/i>Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent<\/a>. Reprinted from the his blog<\/a> with permission.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Actual Black Person and National Security Advisor Susan Rice told graduates at Florida International University in a commencement speech a week or three ago that the presence of too many \u201cwhite, male, and Yale\u201d personnel in America\u2019s national security agencies she helps staff and run is posing a threat to the very security of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-27158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27158"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27160,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27158\/revisions\/27160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27158"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=27158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}