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The U.S. State Department has officially announced the end of its DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs in the American Foreign Service, describing the previous agenda as “ideologically extreme and discriminatory.”
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An internal review by the department revealed that the mandatory reading list for instructors training diplomats included Critical Race Theory texts, among them a publication titled “How White Women Tears Oppress People of Color.”
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Promotion criteria required diplomats to raise DEI-related issues in conversations with foreign governments, and training included, among other things, the introduction of invented non-binary pronouns into course materials.
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The decision is part of a broader process underway since January 2025, encompassing the elimination of federal diversity offices and a ban on funding foreign aid programs based on DEI
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The State Department presents the change as a return to a recruitment and promotion model based solely on merit, although the announcement itself does not specify the implementation mechanism in detail.
A consistent line from the American administration
The U.S. State Department officially announced the end of the programs conducted under DEI policy (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) in the American Foreign Service. In a statement published by the Department’s Office of the Spokesperson, the previous agenda was described as “ideologically extreme and discriminatory,” with a pledge to restore in its place “rigor and accountability” and to refocus training on practical diplomatic skills.
The State Department’s recent decision is part of a broader trend of the current U.S. administration, which has been consistently withdrawing from DEI policy across successive federal institutions. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had announced the dissolution of the Department of Education and prohibited the use of its funds to promote DEI and gender ideology, while the State Department itself had already announced in November 2025 that in its annual human rights report it would classify, among other things, employment preferences granted on the basis of minority membership as a violation of those rights.
What is DEI policy?
The roots of DEI policy go back to the 1960s—the era of the struggle by anti-racist and emancipation movements to expand civil rights in the United States. Its foundation is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or ethnic origin. In the following years, the concept was developed through the executive orders of successive presidents, which introduced into U.S. federal law the notion of “affirmative action”—measures intended to level the playing field for historically marginalized groups through preferences in recruitment and promotion. In the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of diversity permeated human-resource management in corporations, public administration, and educational institutions, and at the turn of the century it was joined by the concept of equity, which—unlike the traditional equality of opportunity—assumes the need to introduce compensatory measures such as quota policies or the preferential treatment of certain groups in recruitment and promotion.
In recent years, DEI has begun to be actively promoted at the international level by organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the European Union, and global corporations, encompassing both linguistic changes (e.g., gender-neutral terms) and mandatory anti-discrimination training as well as diversity-assessment mechanisms, which has made it one of the key instruments of social policy in Western countries. The manner of implementing these assumptions, however, remains a matter of dispute, as critics point out that instead of leveling the playing field through education and the elimination of legal barriers, such measures introduce preference mechanisms that constitute a new form of discrimination—this time directed against people outside the groups deemed privileged.
“How White Women Tears Oppress People of Color”: ideology takes over American diplomacy
The internal review published by the State Department revealed the detailed extent to which DEI policy had been built into the institutional culture of American diplomacy during the administration of President Biden. The mandatory reading list for instructors training new diplomats included texts derived from Critical Race Theory, among them publications such as “White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement,” “In Defense of Looting,” “How White Women Tears Oppress People of Color,” and “The Case for Reparations.” Professional promotion criteria required Foreign Service officers to raise DEI issues in conversations with high-ranking representatives of foreign governments and to demonstrate an attitude described as “allyship,” understood as the active support of the interests of groups deemed marginalized. The training package for instructors included exercises on discussing the concepts of “white privilege” and “systemic racism” in foreign languages, including Bengali, Urdu, and Hebrew, while a list of recommended terminology instructed officers to avoid the term “illegal alien” as “problematic” when discussing illegal immigration. Training staff additionally received an “Inclusivity Guide” promoting, among other things, “International Pronoun Day” and the introduction of invented “non-binary” pronouns into training materials.
DEI policy is widely criticized as a mechanism that replaces the merit criterion with an ideological one. Critics of this model, including numerous conservative organizations active at the United Nations, have for years pointed out that, in practice, it leads to a situation in which serious strategic errors may occur within institutions responsible for key decisions concerning international security, public health, or humanitarian aid.
What is the significance of the State Department’s decision?
The State Department’s decision is part of a broader process underway since January 2025, encompassing the elimination of federal diversity offices, a ban on funding foreign aid programs based on DEI, and a change to the entrance examination for Foreign Service candidates. The August announcement removes DEI content from training programs and eliminates the associated promotion criteria, which the State Department presents as a return to a recruitment model based solely on merit.
“The move away from ideological criteria in favor of merit-based standards deserves a positive assessment as yet another consistent step taken by the U.S. public administration—this time in an institution responsible for representing the state’s interests on the international stage. It is worth noting, however, that the department’s statement itself focuses mainly on enumerating earlier manifestations of DEI policy, without specifying in detail the mechanism for implementing the change—which, nevertheless, does not diminish the importance of the declaration itself or the scale of the disclosed training materials. The measures taken are consistent with the criticism of DEI policy long voiced by circles that defend the traditional understanding of the principle of equality before the law, and their practical effects—including the actual process of dismantling these programs in the day-to-day functioning of the Foreign Service—will be able to be fully verified only over time,” emphasizes Patryk Ignaszczak, an analyst at the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law.
See also:
• Who Will Run the UN? Pro-Abortion and Gender-Ideology Candidates for Secretary-General
• No More U.S. Money for Those Who Fund Abortion and Gender Ideology Abroad
Source of cover photo: iStock
