Why is "diversity" automatically seen as being a "good thing"?

My initial inclination is that in a group dynamic, you would want to avoid groupthink decisions that can prove to be detrimental or have unforeseen consequences. It's less about having a quota or filling boxes on a checklist, but about making sure that you are hearing different perspectives in order to produce better outcomes.

But because it is often framed as a matter of race or representation, I also think an added benefit is that having a diverse atmosphere allows these places to attract a wider pool of talent. Few women want to be the only female in a workplace full of males. You can make the same argument for people of different minority groups. Because unfortunately people don't get to see your heart and mind first, they only see your face and your body, and being categorized against your will is simply not a good feeling. A diverse environment acts as a buffer against that.

I'm a capitalist and a business owner.

Diversity is important for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost, it's good for business. Having lots of perspectives in a room helps you understand how to connect with and market to different communities; it also helps you understand what needs they may have so you can offer goods and services that appeal to them.

It's good for the exact same reason. biodiversity is good.

Beyond that, diversity in hiring is also important because it helps us get the best talent; it challenges us to abandon our assumptions about who is the best fit for the job. You might not think of a veteran as a natural fit for working in IT, for example, but a career in military offers a lot of discipline and structure that doesn't come naturally to many IT folks.

All those businesses that canceled their DEI initiatives? Most of them just rebranded. DEI is foundational to being competitive in the corporate world.

It is, very generally, just flat out a good thing. It makes you money, it makes your company more agile, and it encourages new approaches to old problems that might not occur to you if you keep hiring the same cookie cutter employees.

The anti-DEI stuff is culture war nonsense.

Diversity also encompasses culture, so countries would be a lot less interesting if everyone just looked similar and followed similar customs or ideologies. The West has learned a lot from other cultures. We gained maths from other cultures, because those other cultures thought differently from us. Even Greek philosophy and the foundation of democracy inspired philosophical ideas in Muslim nations, so it's a two-way street. Of course, we don't always agree with some cultural mores, and that can cause friction. But, overall, we've benefitted enormously from diversity and diverse ideas about life and society. We've learned from the Arabs and Chinese. They have learned from us in the West, so such interaction needs to continue in order to maintain a healthy pool of influence.

If everyone were largely the same then you would neither have diversity nor need it.

Diversity is good only because we are all so different. So things affect us differently.

Imagine you’re designing a car. Well you should have short and tall and skinny and fat people working on it to make sure all the controls are adjustable enough to accommodate as many people as possible.

Or you’re designing a government policy, well you’d need people from lots of different cultures and backgrounds to advocate for how it will affect them and then examine the consequences.

When people are so different, you need diversity so smaller groups can be heard. If we didn’t have those differences we wouldn’t need diversity.

Do you remember the “racist motion sensor” thing a few years ago? It was to activate sinks handsfree except it didn’t work on black and dark brown skin. Because nobody who worked on it or tested it had black or dark brown skin. I never dug more into it and maybe it’s apocryphal but it illustrates the point.

That’s the practical reason, the other reason is that people being so different is cool, humans and infinitely complex and fascinating.

Everyone is different when it comes to appearences, tastes and lifestyles.

If we were all the same, the world would be such a boring place as we know it.

Diversity and individuality are two of many things that make this world an interesting place to live in.

To qoute the words of the late Fred Rogers: "Everybody may have common interests, but nobody's exactly the same."

The world wouldn't end but it's likely that society would stagnate. Society does best when we have a diverse array of ideas, abilities, ambitions and skill sets. Let's say everyone were super intelligent. How many would be content with low paid employment? If you greatly shift the numbers pursuing higher education then you vastly reduce the pool of workers available for essential low paid jobs. If everyone were of low to average intelligence then who would innovate? Who would push us forwards?

If everyone were the same height and weight then we would all be at a collective disadvantage in terms of survival. There are body types suited to specific environments and conditions. There are health conditions and health risks associated with certain body types which don't affect other body types. Even food consumption could differ greatly if you made everyone uniform in physicality and that could affect food production and, in turn, the economy.

Essentially, balance is important. Taking away physical and intellectual differences would greatly reduce that balance overall. It would address imbalance in some areas but the overall effect would be negative.

Diversity in general is not inherently good or bad. Context is required for a value judgment.

An example of bad would be having a diverse selection of screws while assembling an Ikea bookshelf. The screws have a specific function and need to have the correct thread, be the right length and be tightenable with the provided Allen key. A handful of screws from Grandpa's workbench probably won't give you great results.

If we are talking about people, they are incredibly diverse on a wide variety of metrics by default. So keeping that in mind, any kind of organization that lacks a diversity of people runs the risk of missing out on ideas relevant to that part of the population. They also risk becoming exclusionary based on irrelevant factors leading to systemic discrimination.

No it wouldn't end but the fact if the matter is we are not all the same, in fact each one of us is unique.
Diversity is seen as a good thing because it's seen as giving everyone a fair chance.

Genetic diversity is good as far as breeding goes because it creates healthier offspring , as the parents are more distantly related than those in communities less diverse . I assume we speak about genetics here since u mention only height weight etc

The alternative is a hive mind mentality or a strict obedience to a hierarchy. Groups that follow that methodology lack creativity that might improve situations.

Accepting that others are not the same as you, yet still just as valid, is something for a day care to impart. Demanding that you actively support a minority, rather than benignly accepting it is verging on totalitarianism.

Namely, a diverse workforce should be as a result of good hiring practices.

You don’t want to shoehorn diversity (i.e. quotas for women, or minorities). Ideally, you want your hiring pool to be so broad, that you’re hiring the best people for the job, and that should result in a diverse workforce.

There’s good ways and bad ways to enact diversity.

How boring life would be without the diversity of culture, food, intelligence, religion, thoughts, conversation. To have everybody be the 'same' would be...well, boring.

It's not 'lazy' to accept diversity, it's evolution.

It is not just an assumption. We have data and evidence to back it up. Even on a cultural level cultures that are isolated and have no outside influences and new ideas, ways of doing things tend to stagnate and often end up a footnote in history.

I mean a good simple example of this would be. Can you imagine trying to file your taxes or doing high level math equations with Roman numerals?

Modern math and science is only really possible because of the influence of Arabic numerals.

The world might very well end if we were all the same. It is our diversity which allows us to occupy and exploit different niches in both the physical and intellectual spaces we encounter. Diversity is simply an expression of genetic evolution and is vital to ensuring survival as a species.

I think I stay outa this one

So...we shouldn't have a fair, just or equitible society?

When is it not?

Probably because of the idea of it, being widely accepted and promoted in modern society.
Mostly in the context of social and cultural issues.

Just think about inbreeding!

Honestly, all you humans look alike to me.

Wow, really? Do you honestly expect me to believe you didn't know this was about cultural and racial diversity?