A Reckoning With Race to Ensure Diversity for America’s Face Abroad

WASHINGTON — Tianna Spears dreamed for years of becoming an American diplomat. She quit in January after two, and says she will never return to the State Department, given what she has described as its failure to protect her from racial discrimination — from the United States government — while on the job.

Ms. Spears is black. Her first foreign post, in 2018, was at the American Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, just over the Mexican border from El Paso. Over six months, she said, U.S. border officials pulled her aside about 25 times for extensive questioning and inspections.

She was asked if she was a drug dealer. At one point, she said, she was told to not look a male officer in the eye. The Customs and Border Protection officers questioned whether her diplomatic passport was counterfeit. At times she felt threatened. And her white colleagues, Ms. Spears said, appeared to cross the border easily and without delay.

When she reported the episodes to her supervisors at the consulate, Ms. Spears said she was advised against speaking out and was transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.