Mike Pompeo attacks multiculturalism, saying it’s “not who America is”

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“Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all -isms – they’re not what America is. They twist our glorious foundation and what this country is. Our enemies are stoking these divisions because they know they weaken us, ”he wrote on Tuesday. .

But Pompeo himself, who is widely believed to have presidential ambitions for 2024, fueled those same divisions with loaded rhetoric and doggy whistles denouncing the “awakening” and an “under attack” American way of life during the protests against racial injustice and police brutality.

The Secretary of State’s assertion that “multiculturalism” is not part of the American ethos was quickly denounced as a shocking and racist affront to the workforce he heads, the agency that it represents and the values ​​that it is supposed to espouse.

“Downside,” said one diplomat.

Another diplomat asked how this was supposed to make diplomats of color or those of non-Christian background feel.

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Career diplomat Conrad Tribble said on twitter that multiculturalism “is one of our greatest strengths as a country, and I go there often as an American diplomat. It is difficult to overestimate the global impact of the soft power of American cultural diversity.”

“We need to represent this better, not dismiss it,” he said.

“This is a truly unfortunate and disturbing statement for the Secretary of State to make at a time when the task that lies ahead of this country is to bring all the various sectors of our country together and become the United States again,” said retired Amb. Charles Ray, who served 30 years in the Foreign Service and 20 years in the United States Army. “It also sends a disturbing message to countries struggling with inter-ethnic conflict and to dictators who exploit ethnic and cultural divisions within their societies.”

The Association of Black American Ambassadors, where Ray is director of communications, said in a statement Tuesday that “while it was disheartening to read the tweet from outgoing Secretary of State Pompeo, we are pleased to note that Secretary-designate Blinken, in his statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee expressed its ‘commitment to having a diplomatic corps that fully represents America in all of our diversity … that resembles the country we represent.’ “

“ He positions himself very clearly ”

Political strategists see Pompeo’s tweet as part of a push in his final days to appeal to the Trump faction of the GOP, with the outgoing senior US diplomat speaking to a very specific group of Republicans who still support President Donald Trump, his anti-immigrant policies and his attacks on so-called “political correctness.”

“He is very clearly positioning himself to be a heir to the Trump base. It’s a message that goes precisely with what the president has said,” GOP strategist Douglas Heye said. “When I saw this tweet I thought, well, a lot of us were hoping this administration would have stood up for conservatism, but it was all thrown out the window in favor of anything Trump related.”

The State Department did not respond when asked for an explanation of the tweet.

Pompeo has maintained close ties to Trump throughout a tenure marred by racist and anti-democratic rhetoric and action. From Charlottesville to the “Muslim ban” to the Capitol headquarters, where rioters displayed white supremacist and anti-Semitic images, Pompeo has never accused the president of fanning the flames of a dangerous division. Pompeo denounced the Jan.6 insurgency itself in a series of tweets, but failed to acknowledge the links between the violent actions of the protesters and Trump’s incitement.

In one of his last public speeches as Secretary of State, delivered to the Voice of America News Service, he asserted that “censorship, vigilance, political correctness, everything goes in one direction – authoritarianism , disguised as moral justice “.

He has repeatedly attacked “Project 1619,” a New York Times Magazine Pulitzer Prize-winning initiative “that seeks to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the picture. of our national action. story. ”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of Project 1619, said Pompeo’s tweet proved the project’s thesis.

“When you say multiculturalism is ‘not what America is’ and ‘distorts our glorious foundation’, you unwittingly confirm Project 1619’s argument: that although we have been … a multiracial nation since our time. foundation, our founders set up a white rule government. Cool, ”she wrote on Twitter, also noting that the Trump administration attempted to censor Project 1619. The Trump administration’s racist rebuttal to Project 1619 from the “1776 Commission” was released Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
In a July 2020 unveiling of a report by his “Commission on Inalienable Rights” which claimed that “more rights don’t necessarily mean more justice,” Pompeo fanned the flames of Trump-fueled division, warning that ” the very heart of what it means to be an American, indeed the American way of life itself, is under attack “amid nationwide protests for racial justice and against police brutality.

‘His silence is deafening’

But on the underlying issue that motivated these protests, Pompeo has remained largely silent. Although he called the police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, “heinous,” he initially rejected suggestions from his staff that he was speaking to the ministry on the issue of racial inequality in the United States or would send messages of support and empathy to the department. write big.

“His silence is deafening,” a diplomat told CNN at the time.
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He also did not condemn Trump’s use of force to disperse peaceful protesters outside the White House and, when asked about the message he was sending to the world, especially to repressive regimes, Pompeo s ‘is laughed at the question.
“I think the question is so disturbing, isn’t it,” he said, claiming that the reporter asked “the question on the assumption that there is a moral equivalence between what is happening in these country “and the United States. He also said the incident – which current and former diplomats called “frightening” and “heartbreaking” – was an “incredible opportunity to tell this important story about how America is facing challenges within its own home.” own country in a way that reflects the best of what our founders would have hoped America could achieve. “



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