This press release begins like this:

Milwaukee, WI, December 15, 2006 –(PR.COM)– In recognition of the economic power of multicultural businesses, DiversityBusiness.com, recently named Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP as one of the “Top Diversity-Owned Businesses in Wisconsin (Div50).” The law firm ranked ninth in the state.

What could be a diversity owned business? Does that make any sense?

Consider this copy from Thelen Reid:

The diversity of our incoming associates has ranged from 15 to 27 percent for minority associates and 44 to 70 percent for female associates over the last three years.

Does this make any sense? The diversity of our associates ranges from this percentage to that?

Diversity is a characteristic of a set of things. It could be a set of humans or it could be a set of colors, but it must a set with at least two elements. An individual can’t be diverse, and it’s not even polite to call an individual diverse, implying he or she is somehow different from most of us, now is it?

You could say that someone is talented, or good looking, or young at heart, but you can’t correctly say that someone is diverse because that’s a characteristic of a group of people, not of one among them.