I have commented several times on the humorous if Orwellian linguistic contortion of “diverse” having come to connote the virtual opposite of diverse. (Most recently here, where I observed that “maybe ‘diverse’ has already become so widely accepted as a synonym for ‘black’ that such complaints are pointless… I should know. After all, the car we just bought is diverse.”)
Today’s Cavalier Daily has another delicious example. The University Career Services office at University of Virginia has just sponsored its 20th annual “Minority Career Day,” and the article headline proclaims Fair Attracts Diverse Applicant Pool.
The article notes that “the event always has been and continues to be open to all students.”
“Our goal is to bring diverse opportunities to a diverse group,” said Jen Hoffman, University Career Services associate director of employer services.
The photograph accompanying the article suggests, however, that the group was anything but diverse. The implicit theme of the event was nicely captured in the photograph, which shows one of the company booths with a large display proclaiming, rather too cutely for my taste, “Race in for Rubbermaid.” (Click on the picture; it expands to full size.)
UPDATE – Jane Galt observes that it is “common now to hear 9/11 referred to as Black Tuesday, but the phrase originally referenced an entirely different sort of catastrophe: the great stock market crash on October 29, 1929.”
If the trend discussed above continues, by next October 29 we may be referring to both as Diverse Tuesday.
