| Source | Year | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Annie E. Casey Foundation | 2013 | Use with care |
| NABJ | 2022 | Use |
| Diversity Style Guide | 2023 | Use with care |
| Racial Equity Tools | 2023 | Contested |
“diversity (vague and overused; be specific)”
In its editorial word-usage list, the Annie E. Casey Foundation flags diversity as vague and overused and directs writers to be specific rather than treating it as a hard avoid.
“Catchall term to describe a condition or environment that is multiracial and multicultural; being representative or reflective of the multiethnic society. Diversity is not synonymous with affirmative action, is not limited to race and is not government-mandated.”
NABJ holds the firmest accept-and-define stance on the page, and its three disclaimers read as pre-emptions of specific political misreadings — that diversity is a quota program, a race-only concern, or a federal mandate. The boundaries exist to keep the word usable against those charges.
“There are many kinds of diversity, based on race, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, class, age, country of origin, education… Valuing diversity means recognizing differences among people, acknowledging that these differences are a valued asset, and striving for diverse representation as a critical step toward equity.”
The Diversity Style Guide defines diversity broadly — across race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age, ability and more — and frames valuing it as a step toward equity. Its companion "diverse hire / diversity hire" entry cautions that an individual should never be described as "diverse."
“Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ… many activists and thinkers critique diversity alone as a strategy… "Diversity is silent on the subject of equity… the issue is not diversity, but rather equity."”
Racial Equity Tools presents diversity as encompassing all the ways people differ, but foregrounds a critique it attributes to Baltimore Racial Justice Action: that diversity alone is silent on equity, so the real issue is equity rather than diversity. The entry holds the definition and the critique side by side.
The four guides split into two stances on a single word. NABJ and the Diversity Style Guide define and accept it: “diversity” is a valid catchall for a multiracial and multicultural environment. NABJ draws explicit limits (it is not affirmative action, not limited to race, not government-mandated), and DSG lists the many axes diversity can run along while framing it as a step toward equity. On this reading the term is usable and useful.
The other two sources do not reject the word but push on its limits. The Annie E. Casey Foundation flags “diversity” as vague and overused and tells writers to be specific. Racial Equity Tools goes further, citing the Baltimore Racial Justice Action critique that “diversity is silent on the subject of equity — the issue is not diversity, but rather equity.” The worry is that the word can let an institution look progressive, representation across difference, without committing to the redistribution of power or the change in outcomes that equity names.
The two stances run parallel rather than colliding. The 2013 Casey flag and the 2023 equity critique both qualify the word’s acceptance, and the emphasis shifts over the window from diversity-as-representation toward equity-as-outcome. The practical guidance is consistent across all four: use “diversity” when you mean a range of difference, name the specific dimension when a narrower word is more accurate, describe groups and pipelines rather than individuals as diverse, and reach for “equity” when you mean an outcome rather than a mix.
NABJ (2022) and the Diversity Style Guide (2023) define and accept the word. The Casey Foundation’s editorial flag (2013) and Racial Equity Tools’ equity critique (2023) sit alongside that acceptance, treating “diversity” as imprecise or as a term that can substitute for equity. The shift is one of emphasis, from diversity-as-representation toward equity-as-outcome, rather than a rejection of the word itself.