Troubling Truths about the U.S. Passport

Who is represented? And who isn’t? 

On Sunday, I’ll be traveling to Nepal to visit good friends and share Deficient with schools. I can’t wait to get there, and I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

In preparation for the trip, I recently received a shiny, new passport with updated security features (including a polycarbonate data page and laser-engraved personalization) and an identification number that is easy to remember…for once!

One of my favorite things to do with a new passport is to read the quotes on the visa pages (you can find these at the bottom of this post). I’m always curious to see whose words get chosen to represent an entire nation on a core document that identifies U.S. Americans to others while also lending us a sense of collective identity.

However, there’s a problem with the U.S. passport. A BIG problem. As I flipped through the pages, which include 23 quotes, I noticed that almost every quote came from a man. I flipped and flipped and flipped. Finally, on the last visa page, I came across a quote by the author Jessamyn West. It reads: “A big iron needle stitching the country together.”

It’s hardly an inspirational quote. It’s not even a complete sentence, and it references a phallic simple. Could the U.S. Department of State not find anything better from West’s work…or from any other woman in the nation’s history for that matter?

Practically hidden on the inside of the back cover—at the bottom of the page beneath a large image of the earth, moon, and satellite—is a second and more powerful quote by Anna Julia Cooper, a scholar and Black liberation activist who was born into slavery.

I decided to explore the compilation of quotes from a diversity lens, looking into things like sex, race, sexual orientation/gender identity, and people living with disabilities.

And what were the results?

Surprise, surprise! Men came in the lead with 19 out of 23 quotes (or 82.6%). Shockingly, there were only 2 quotes by women (8.7% of all quotes).

(As a reminder, women comprise 50.4% of the population according to the 2022 U.S. census.)

You might have noticed that these percentages add up to 91.3%. So what comprises the remaining 8.7%?

Two quotes come from (1) a Mohawk Thanksgiving excerpt and (2) the golden railroad spike in Utah. I classify the first as an Indigenous voice, even though it is not associated with a specific person. I classify the second as an inanimate object (though it was probably written by a man). Interestingly, there are almost as many quotes from inanimate objects as there are quotes from women in the U.S. passport.

But wait… it gets worse!

There are only 2 quotes from Black people. One is Martin Luther King Jr., and it appears on the first visa page (at least you got this right, U.S. government). The second is Anna Julia Cooper, but it took me weeks to realize that her words were even there, hidden as they are on the inside back cover.

Black people comprise only 8.7% of all the quotes, as opposed to White people (16 men and 1 woman) comprising 73.9% of all quotes, not including railroad spikes. According to the 2022 U.S. Census Bureau, 13.6% of the U.S. population identifies as Black alone. The current passport doesn’t even meet this minimal target of representation.

There is only 1 Indigenous voice if you count the Mohawk Thanksgiving excerpt. There is 1 Latino voice (4.3% of all quotes) – Jose Antonio Navarro, a Texan stateman, revolutionary, rancher, merchant, and…get this…slave owner!

There is 1 quote from a person of Asian origin (4.3% of all quotes), Ellison S. Onizuka. He was from Hawaii and was the first person of Japanese origin to reach space. He died in the Challenger explosion in 1986.

Besides Martin Luther King Jr., Anna Julia Cooper, Jose Antonio Navarro (again, a slave owner), and Ellison S. Onizuka, there are no other identifiable People of Color represented in the U.S. passport. Identifiable People of Color comprise only 17.4% of all quotes.

LGBTQIA+ people and their struggles seem not to exist in the United States of America, because 0 have quotes in the U.S. passport. I also do not recognize anyone who would have identified as a person living with a disability among those quoted.

Slave owners (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Jose Antonio Navarro) comprise 3 out of 23 quotes (or 13%), which is more than the number of Black people represented on the passport. Thomas Jefferson serves hypocrisy and cringe with his quote: “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people during his lifetime.

Fortunately, abolitionists comprise 5 out of 23 quotes. Congratulations Daniel Webster, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, and Abraham Lincoln. (Honest Abe has 2 quotes in the passport, one on a visa page and the other on the first page of the passport).

Lastly, to my horror, was a quote from John Paul Jones, a Scottish-American naval captain who is called the “Father of the American Navy.” The problem with Mr. Jones is that he was accused of raping a ten-year-old girl, Katerina Stepanova, in the 1780s. Jones responded to the accusation by saying he paid Katerina for sex several times. He later changed his story and denied all the allegations.

So 1 out of 23 quotes is by a rapist/pedophile. Ding, ding, ding! You, John Paul Jones, are the biggest winner of all, as there is no possible way someone like you should be mentioned on such a document. Yet there you are, claiming nearly as much space as women or Black people.

I’ve written these observations not out of cynicism but to express my absolute shock that we can still get away with blatant gender inequality and racial and ethnic exclusion in something as fundamental to the American identity as the U.S. passport. We should also reconsider whether the words of those who willingly owned slaves or raped girls merit a place in the passport. U.S. history is built on horrible things like colonization, genocide, land grabbing, enslavement, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, gender inequality, and misogyny. Straight White men have benefitted the most as the architects and power-holders in this history, and this is shown in the selection of quotes.

The U.S. Department of State must do something to address this. I have a few recommendations for how this should be done.

• Rethink the quotes in the U.S. passport from a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. Quotes should reflect the rich tapestry of diversity in the country and not be focused primarily on White men.
• Ensure a gender balance (50:50) among quotes, with men and women holding equal numbers. I assure you that it is possible to find at least 12 quotes from inspiring women in U.S. history.
• Be mindful of where the quotes are placed. Quotes from women or any other excluded groups should not pushed to the end.
• As much as I love Abraham Lincoln, giving him two quotes means that we fail to represent someone else in the passport. Give him one and spread the representation.
• Do not include quotes from slave owners, rapists, or pedophiles.
• Include quotes from people who identify as LGBTQIA+. There are so many inspiring activists in U.S. history to pick from (see a few mentioned here).
• Include quotes from people who lived with a disability.
• Pay greater homage to Indigenous voices, for theirs was the land that Europeans raided and stole.

These recommendations are not rocket science. In 2023, they should be common sense. Reflect diversity! If the U.S. Department of State is capable of creating a polycarbonate data page with laser-engraved personalization, then it should be fully capable of selecting quotes from a more diverse selection of people.

This issue reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite American sci-fi writers, a Black lesbian woman named Octavia Butler. In her book, Parable of the Sower, she writes:

“Embrace diversity. Unite—Or be divided, Robbed, Ruled, Killed by those who see you as prey. Embrace diversity or be destroyed.”

These are wise words. Maybe one day we’ll see them in a U.S. passport.

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Questions for readers: Do you have recommendations for people or quotes that should be included in the U.S. passport? And, if you are not from the U.S., does your passport have similar issues?

@michaelsolisauthor

In preparation for my trip to Nepal, I made some troubling observations as I flipped through my new US passport. Women and historically marginalized groups are excluded from the 23 quotations in the document. Diversity is seriously lacking. Check out my analysis and thoughts in this video. This needs to be addressed by the usdepartmentofstate! Do you have any ideas of people or quotes that should be featured in the passport? And if you’re not from the US, does your passport have similar representation issues? #uspassport #diversityandinclusion #diversitymatters #inequality #exclusion #genderinequality #passportproblems #marginalizedvoices #misogyny #racism #whiteprivilege #americanidentity

♬ original sound – Michael Solis | Author 📚🌈

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Quotes in my U.S. passport in order of appearance:

1. “…And that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” -Abraham Lincoln
2. “We have a great dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” -John F. Kennedy
4. “This is a new nation based on a mighty continent, of boundless possibilities.” -Theodore Roosevelt
5. “We send thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us people. We are glad they are still here and we hope it will always be so.” -Excerpt from the Thanksgiving Address, Mohawk version
6. “The principle of free governments adhere to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains.” -Daniel Webster
7. “Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower
8. “For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say ‘Farewell.’ Is a new world coming? We welcome it–and we will bend it to the hopes of man.” -Lyndon B. Johnson
9. “Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds…to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.” -Ellison S. Onizuka
10. “May God continue the unity of our country as the railroad unites the two great oceans of the world.” -inscribed on the Golden Spike. Promontory Point, 1869.
11. “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair.” -George Washington
12. “This nation has a banner…it is the banner of Dawn. It means Liberty…Every color means liberty; every thread means liberty. -Henry Ward Beecher
13. “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” -Thomas Jefferson
14. “What a glorious morning for our country.” -Samuel Adams
15. “It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.” -John Paul Jones
16. “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” -Horace Greeley
17. “We live in a world that is lit by lightning. So much is changing and will change, but so much endures and transcends time.” -Ronald Reagan
18. “We are covered by the American banner; let us cling to it, and if required, sacrifice our lives defending it.” -Jose Antonio Navarro
19. “…That this nation. under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” -Abraham Lincoln
20. “Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.” -Harry Emerson Fosdick
21. “Liberty is never out of bounds or off limits; it spreads wherever it can capture the imagination of men.” -E.B. White
22. “A big iron needle stitching the country together.” -Jessamyn West
23. “The cause of freedom is not the case of a race or a sect or a party or a class — it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.” -Anna Julia Cooper