On last Monday’s CBS Evening News, Katie Couric lamented the New York City Fire Department’s lack of “diversity.” She reported how “…a federal judge says something is missing in their ranks: Diversity.” Jim Axelrod noted: “Fire Captain Paul Washington has a big problem with his department.” Washington declared the FDNY to be “all-white, lily white.” Most rational people would think a “big problem” with a fire department would be something like being unable to put out fires.

A sound bite was played from Columbia Law School Professor Suzanne Goldberg, who described the lack of diversity as a “singular embarrassment” to the department. The singular embarrassment should be on those who dwell on something as inane as having an arbitrary number of a particular race or sex. It’s an intellectually vacuous position to discard substantive qualities in favor of the superficial.

Defending how the “federal judge agreed” with Goldberg, Axelrod explained: “…the hiring test to become one of New York ’s bravest was not just discriminatory, but illegal.” And the judge ordered the city to ‘fix’ it (read: quotas or lower standards).

No study has ever shown any benefit from this notion that places an undue emphasis on things not related to merit. Emotional attachments to concepts such as ‘diversity’ only serve to create resentment in those who are qualified but overlooked for less qualified candidates.