The author argues that the increasing acceptance of the diversity concept is indicative of a move away from strictly remedial rationales for affirmative action policies to ones that embrace the prospective benefits of such policies. She adopts a hybrid "equality" paradigm that incorporates both backward- looking and forward-looking elements to assess the effectiveness of the current concept of diversity in promoting equality for individuals from groups that continue to be systematically excluded and disadvantaged. Within that paradigm, the author criticizes the current concept of diversity as "empty" by treating all differences the same, as fostering essentialism in placing the prospective value of diversity in the contribution of viewpoints from those deemed "different," and as further marginalizing certain differences by creating a fringe category of ostensibly acceptable criteria unrelated to merit. The paper concludes that the goal of diversity should be affirmatively to include individuals from systematically excluded and disadvantaged groups on all levels of society so as to empower them to decide for themselves what standards they will be judged by and what viewpoints and ideas they will hold. 217 footnotes