diverse = 'ethnically different'

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/19/2011 10:01 AM, Leslie Decker wrote:

>In primary and secondary education circles, diverse often has the meaning
>'non-white' or 'of non-Northern/Western European descent.' You'll often hear
>things like, "This school is very diverse,"  when it's 95% Hispanic (and 99%
>of those Hispanics are Mexican).

The previous is dumb, but for the following:

>I once had a lecturer in Education classes at grad school who not only made
>statements as in the above, but used to say things like 'people who are
>diverse' or 'people of diverse ethnicity.'

Isn't this what the OED calls (perhaps sexist-ly):

1.b.  Without the. With pl. concord.In this sense people has in
colloquial use taken the place of men in 'men say', etc. (see man n.1 1b).  ?

Or:

6.  The body of men, women, and children comprising a particular
nation, community, ethnic group, etc. Cf. folk n. 1.Sometimes viewed
as a single unit, sometimes simply as a collective of individuals.
(b) With pl. concord. A nation, regarded as a collection of individuals. ?

Joel

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