--- title: Politics: The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White' description: America's diplomatic corps is too white. Also, race in Obama's America after Charleston, California's water woes and more. canonical: https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-20T16:01:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:01:59.264Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White' og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White' twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White' by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 20, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 20, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Two top diplomats have a message about America’s foreign service: It’s “too white.” (From May 19, 2015)**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/05/18/the-foreign-service-is-too-white-wed-know-were-top-diplomats/) By Thomas R. Pickering and Edward J. Perkins in the Washington Post **2\.** [**Charleston and the age of Obama. (From June 19, 2015)**](http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/charleston-and-the-age-of-obama) By David Remnick in the New Yorker **3\.** [**California has about one year of water left. (From March 18, 2015)**](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-drought-california-20150313-story.html#) By Jay Famiglietti in the Los Angeles Times **4\.** [**The prison system is costly and rarely “rehabilitates” prisoners. Imagine a better way to transition inmates to freedom. (From March 20, 2015)**](http://www.vox.com/2015/3/18/8226957/prison-reform-graduated-reentry) By Mark A.R. Kleiman, Angela Hawken, & Ross Halperin in Vox **5\.** [**A new discovery about the brain and immune system could unlock autism, Alzheimers and more. (From June 19, 2015)**](http://news.virginia.edu/content/researchers-find-textbook-altering-link-between-brain-immune-system) By Josh Barney at the UVA Today  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/"},"headline":"The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White'","datePublished":"2015-08-20T16:01:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:01:59.264Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/","keywords":["Innovation","Autism","Race","Drought","diplomacy","Prison","Charleston"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4004538/the-u-s-foreign-service-too-white/","name":"The U.S. Foreign Service Is 'Too White'"}}]}] ```