We all have our perspectives. Mine is influenced by more than 20 years as one half of an interracial couple. I’m Anglo, and my wife is Afro, which means I have experiences that most Anglos don’t.

For instance, I get to hear my wife say how the police followed her home from the grocery store, or that they stopped her for driving while black just a bit too close to the Stanford Law School.

When we’re out together, some odd things can happen — some subtle; some not.

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My interest in such a topic as law firm diversity? It was about a year ago, the early part of 2006. I was reviewing law firm diversity statements, and I noticed that most large firms had much the same to say about diversity. So many of their diversity statements used the same phrases arranged in the same order that I thought they’d all been written by the same hand (and I later learned that — in a sense — they were). Many offered exotic definitions of diversity (which had little or no relation Webster’s). But what riled my curiosity was this: so many of those statements claimed that a diverse group is more creative and more effective at solving problems than a homogeneous group.

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I’m a writer and mathematician and I often write about things that don’t add up. From my perspective, what law firms say about diversity — that it promotes creativity and leads to better solutions — doesn’t add up, and I can think of so many examples that defy the claim (e.g., the United Nations might be the most diverse organization in the world, but it’s certainly not known for its creativity or its ability to solve problems).

So . . . out of curiosity . . . I started this blog so to see what others thought. I hope to learn a thing or two; and I hope this blog becomes The Place for a rational discussion about law firm diversity.

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You can learn more about me by visiting my Web site or my other blog — Set in Style — a blog about law firm publishing.