Diversity for Its Own Sake Is Not a Virtue

Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.                            — H. L. Mencken

Years back, a New Yorker cartoon showed the exterior of a disco. A sign in the window said: 

Closed Until the Next Big Thing Comes Along

Topics of public conversation come and go too. Some stay in vogue longer than others.

Remember the furor over bullying a few years ago? Heard anything about it lately? Critical race theory also fizzled out quickly. #MeToo has staying power because people like Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo keep it alive.

BLM waned because the George Floyd murder and other killings and abuses of black people faded in the public memory. LGBTQ’s prominence also dimmed. Same with the diversity imperative but, with qualifiers, it especially warrants keeping.

Racial, ethnic and gender diversity is a worthy pursuit, but diversity for its own sake yields no benefits. For benefits to accrue, the bottom line has to be merit. For success in business, government, sports, teaching, science, entertainment, the military, etc., the people involved must be qualified; they must be competent regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. Otherwise, everything declines.

Suppose you were tasked with recruiting an NBA team from scratch. If you looked at the other teams, you’d see a lot of tall black guys. Would you recruit short white and Asian guys for your team for the sake of diversity? If you did, your team would lose a lot of games. The principle applies generally.

Discrimination is an infection that damages the whole society. Education and training are the remedies. They create competence. Competence breeds success.                                                                                                                                                                                                      — Doug Fiske