“Awakening, multiculturalism, all the isms – they are not who America is. They distort our glorious foundation and what this country stands for. Our enemies feed these divisions because they know they make us weaker,” he wrote on Tuesday.
The Secretary of State’s claim that “multiculturalism” is not part of the American ethos was quickly denounced as a shocking and racist affront to the workforce he leads, the agency he represents and the values he seeks to defend.
“Unconscious,” said a diplomat.
Another diplomat asked how this should make diplomats of color, or those of non-Christian origin, feel.
“We need to do a better job to represent that, not to reject it,” he said.
“This is a truly unfortunate and disturbing statement for the Secretary of State to make at a time when the task facing this country is to bring all the diverse sectors of our country together and become the ‘United States’ once again,” said retired Amb. Charles Ray, who served 30 years in the foreign service and 20 in the US Army. “It also sends a worrying message to countries struggling with interethnic conflicts and dictators who exploit ethnic and cultural divisions within their societies.”
‘He’s clearly taking a stand’
Political strategists see Pompeo’s tweet as part of an impulse in his final days to appeal to the Republican Party’s Trump faction, with the outgoing US diplomat speaking to a very specific group of Republicans who still support President Donald Trump, its anti-immigrant policies and its attacks on the so-called “politically correct”.
“He is clearly positioning himself to be an heir to the Trump base. This is a message that follows precisely the things the president said,” said Republican strategist Douglas Heye. “When I saw this tweet, I thought, well, many of us hoped this government would have defended conservatism, but it was thrown out the window in favor of all things Trump.”
The State Department did not respond when asked for an explanation of the tweet.
Pompeo maintained close ties with Trump throughout a term marked by racist and undemocratic actions and rhetoric. From Charlottesville to the “Muslim ban” to the siege of the Capitol, where protesters displayed images of white supremacy and anti-Semitism, Pompeo never accused the president of fanning the flames of a dangerous division. Pompeo denounced the January 6 uprising itself in a series of tweets, but did not recognize the links between the protesters’ violent actions and Trump’s incitement.
He has repeatedly attacked “The 1619 Project,” a Pulitzer Prize winning initiative from The New York Times Magazine “that aims to reshape the country’s history, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the center of our national life. narrative.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of Project 1619, said that Pompeo’s tweet proved the project’s thesis.
‘Your silence is deafening’
But on the underlying issue that motivated these protests, Pompeo remained silent. Although he called the police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, “abhorrent”, he initially rejected his team’s suggestions to address the department on the issue of racial inequality in the U.S. or send messages of support and empathy to the department in large print.
