‘I WAS ASKED IF I STOLE MY CAR’ BLACK DIPLOMATS DESCRIBE HARASSMENT AT U.S. BORDERS. In April 2018, Tianna Spears joined the State Department, looking forward to the promise of a fulfilling career… In the six months that she worked there, Spears says she was pulled aside more than 20 times while crossing into the U.S. Each time, she says, the harassment escalated. The Foreign Service is overwhelmingly white. Just 6% of foreign service officers are African-American.