Numbers tell stories.

In the City of Buffalo, for example, the numbers tell us that there is an even split between minority and nonminority residents.

In a recent lawyer survey conducted by the Buffalo Law Journal and the Western New York chapter of the Women's Bar Association, the numbers tell us this: this region's law community comes nowhere close to mirroring that diversity.

Reporter Allissa Kline writes, "Less than 6 percent of survey respondents identify themselves as African-American, Hispanic or Asian attorneys, results show. In turn, the number of minority lawyers at corporate law firms who are partners, either equity or non-equity, is strikingly low."

Those numbers aren't scientific - the survey participants were self-selecting - but they are jarring.

"I think it's fair to say the statistics speak for themselves," said David Edmunds, an African-American attorney who is special counsel at Phillips Lytle LLP. "We have not made a lot of progress in this area. Those numbers ought to look somewhat like the society we live in."

Certainly, law is not the only industry that faces such a discrepancy, locally or nationally. And no one can say that the small but growing numbers of ethnic minorities in leadership roles at area law firms or in prominent government positions don't represent progress.

Still, Edmunds is right. We need to do better.

We can start by educating our children to a standard that will give them a chance to work in good-paying jobs, and to inspire them to consider partner-track careers in law or commensurate positions in medicine and the biosciences, to list a few promising examples.

The secondary challenge, one within our immediate reach, is for all area employers to be proactive in making sure word of our job postings reaches nonwhite audiences.

Both people and companies in positions of power need to reach out, nurture and mentor promising individuals from all segments of our community. If that happens, then over time the numbers will tell a much more fitting story.