Diversity is for (insert some type of slur)!

Assume you're interviewing at law firms. Assume that 20% of your class make up a group collectively known as "diverse." Finally, assume that a major firm has 50% of each hiring group from this "diverse" group. Now, this means that a diverse student has four times the chance of getting hired as a non-diverse student with an identical GPA and resume. So you ask yourself, "Why would I bother applying at this firm?"

Next, you have to ask yourself why would any profit maximizing firm do this? There are two answers really. First, the legal profession leans left and probably feels good instituting affirmative action. Second, the ranking organizations force them to.

Most students couldn't name three law firms when they enter law school. They rely almost exclusively on ranking organizations to signal which firms to apply for. Included in a firm's ranking are such factors as diversity, number of hours worked, quality of life and income.
The quality of life factor is composed of sub-factors which include diversity and number of hours worked. The interesting part is that these two sub-factors are given equal weight--that is, diversity at a law firm is as important in terms of quality of life as the number of hours the associates have to work. This is the same as saying, "Sure, it's a lot of hours, but look at all the black people I get to work with." Or, "Man, it's great working so few hours, but I'd trade it all for a Puerto Rican."

It is ridiculous to say that your quality of life is equally determined by your hours as by how many minorities you work with. It's incredible to think that people would work twice as many hours if they just had twice as many minorities to do the work with. Especially in law, where the hours are 60+/week already.

This ranking structure bullies firms into hiring people they normally wouldn't and rejecting those they normally would. As Clarence Thomas has pointed out, these firms expect more from these diversity students than they are qualified to give, which eventually leads to the student's failure. They are taken advantage of to benefit the firms' rankings and then dropped as soon as they become unprofitable. Who are we helping with this system?