Rice wants more blacks in US State Department

Washington, Sept 10 : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that it was unacceptable to see that blacks had negligible representation in the State Department. Lamenting about the lack of blacks in the US administration, like herself, she wished to see more blacks in the State Department.

Rice is the second black person to become secretary of state after Colin Powell.

"As a matter of fact, I can go into a whole day of meetings at the Department of State and actually rarely see somebody who looks like me, and that's just not acceptable. I want to see a Foreign Service that looks as if black Americans are part of this great country," the Daily Times quoted her as saying while speaking at a gathering of black colleges and universities in Washington.

She added: "I want to see a Foreign Service that looks as if black Americans are part of this great country."

She said she has been working with black Congressman Charles Rangel to target students at schools with large numbers of blacks.

"I've been working hard to double the number of Rangel Fellows... to interest them in foreign affairs when they are young, to give them the training and support to learn languages and to learn about the world, and then to go out into that world to be a part of the great global debate, challenge and difficulty, too, that we face in the international system," she said on the occasion.

ANI