But this e-mail is a bit ludicrous:

[Firm] will be hosting a reception for all diverse 1Ls on [date], at [time] at our offices ([location]). It would be greatly appreciated if you could please forward this invitation to any mailing list of diverse 1Ls that your office maintains and help us advertise on campus.

Diverse 1Ls? Can't we just use a straightforward term like "women and minorities," if that's what is meant? DuPont has no problems with that; it's the "DuPont Minority Job Fair."

This is not an argument against affirmative action; I think law firms should be trying to make their attorney pools more reflective of America. This is a language use gripe. I don't like narrowing the meaning of diverse so that it only applies to protected categories like race, gender and orientation. The dictionary gives it a broader scope: "Differing one from another; made up of distinct characteristics, qualities, or elements." So we have a diverse class, a diverse school, but surely as individuals we are not diverse unless we have multiple personality disorder.

If I apply for law review, I absolutely refuse to write my diversity statement on something that entails being on a mailing list. It'll have to be about being the only small-town-raised blogging Texan. After all, there's less competition in that category than the others. Too many damn women and South Asians in my class.