New Biden State Department racial equity envoy once said white diplomats too fond of America

The Biden State Department's new equity envoy once criticized white diplomats for being overly “protective” of the United States and lacking the “empathy” of minority ambassadors.

Desirée Cormier Smith made the comments in an October 2020 interview with the Black Diplomats podcast while she was still served as senior policy adviser for liberal mega-donor George Soros' Open Society Foundations,

The State Department named Smith to her new post last week with a charge to “confront systemic racism and injustice around the world.” The department described Smith as a “racial justice expert with a deep and steadfast commitment to equity and justice for all.”

The Department prohibits statements that show “hostility toward an individual because of his or her race.” Department guidelines also prohibit discriminatory harassment in the form of “racial epithets, ‘jokes,’ offensive or derogatory comments, or other verbal or physical conduct based on an individual’s race/color.”

In the fall 2020 interview, Smith said her white colleagues when she worked in the foreign service displayed an “ownership” mentality when awarding visas to foreign applicants. White diplomats, Smith said, “were so protective of the United States, and they didn’t want anybody who could sully the image of the United States because it’s this perfect shining city on a hill.”

Minority diplomats "also come with a certain humility that I would say that a lot of white foreign service officers lack," she added, calling herself one of the "black acvivists."

"We approached it with so much more empathy,” she said.