So today, the image of U.S.  diplomat  is no longer a white man in a pin-striped suit. America’s diplomats are now as likely to be female as male and reflect the broad range of immigration that has created modern America. While most Foreign Service officers grew up speaking English as they assimilated into schools and society, their parents may well have spoken Mandarin, Punjabi, Russian or something else. The diversity they represent in our embassies reflects their heritage and their American stories as well as the dynamic diversity of the United States and the  Department of State . 

The  Department of State ’s employees more closely reflect the ethnic mosaic of the United States than ever before and that will continue to change with the country. More than 25% of the Department’s civil servants are African American, as are 5.4% of Foreign Service Generalists and 9 percent of Specialists. Asians now make up 6.3%of the Civil Service, 6.7% of Foreign Service Generalists and 6.4% of Specialists. Hispanics comprise more than 7% of Foreign Service Specialists and 5% of Foreign Service Generalists and civil servants. 

To recruit the best and brightest from all backgrounds, geographic regions, academic majors, and ethnic groups, the State Department participates in diversity fairs; it offers a graduate  foreign affairs  fellowship program aimed at women and minority students; and it partners with employee organizations such as the Asian Pacific American  Foreign Affairs  Council, Blacks In Government; Disability in  Foreign Affairs Agencies, to name a few.