Thinking about Diversity

Cover image credit: Nicole Lee

What is diversity? For most people, racial, gender and cultural diversity would immediately come to mind. For some, diversity is something to be celebrated as it adds to the vibrant tapestry of human life. Others still are more critical of diversity, asserting that it leads to cultural incompatibility and even the erosion of merit. Diversity is more than just that. This article will clear some misconceptions about diversity, introduce some fresh perspectives and argue that diversity is a beneficial process that needs to be integrated at a systemic level. 

Diversity is not just DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), representation and quotas (though these may be good policies to ensure diversity). Diversity is what happens when people put aside differences to work together towards a common aim. Diversity is a process - one that involves rejecting biases and prejudice, accepting and embracing differences, creating equality of opportunity and allowing different voices to coexist and be heard. For example, a good example of what diversity would look like in a workplace would be Hiring Resource (HR) managers taking courses on how to avoid discriminatory hiring practices or employees correcting coworkers when they assume that someone would be weaker at a task based on their race, gender or age, often through gentle reminders.

Equality of opportunity means no one is unfairly denied of education, employment or legal rights because of discrimination. Just as the name suggests, many types of diversity exist. Aside from the commonly-known types of diversity, socio-cultural diversity (race, religion, nationality), socio-economic and intellectual diversity are also valid and important forms of diversity. Also, while an individual can have different and overlapping identities, an individual alone cannot be diverse. Diversity is only possible when different people come together. 

A showcase of different types of diversity. Image credit: OKA (Otto Kroeger Associates)

Diversity can be implemented at an organisational or legislative level. In America, DEI initiatives such as accessibility measures and anti-discrimination training can be employed in companies to foster workplace diversity. These measures are mostly voluntary, though Title VII of the civil rights act expressly prohibits employment discrimination based on protected characteristics (such as race and sex). On the other hand, the European Union (EU) sets policies that require company diversity as a legal obligation rather than an option. For example, the Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive aims for balanced gender representation on boards of registered companies across the EU. On that note, explicit quotas based on minority representation (10 seats must go to minorities of a certain background) is (thankfully) illegal almost everywhere. 

Diversity and the theory of dispersed knowledge

The theory of dispersed knowledge in economics, popularised by Thomas Sowell, states that no single agent has access to all the information regarding prices and production within a market. Though originally created as an argument for economic liberalisation, this theory can be applied to diversity as well. Different groups of people have access to different contextual and specialised knowledge, meaning that for an organisation to harness its full potential, it has to have people who come from different backgrounds and specialisations. Workplace diversity is not just about people having different qualifications and specialised skillsets (though this is important for obvious reasons!), but having socio-cultural and intellectual diversity helps an organisation unlock contextual knowledge. Knowledge does not exist in a vacuum, but is harnessed differently in different social and cultural contexts. For example, a company wishing to expand its operations to a new country may wish to hire someone from that country to learn more about the cultural nuances and sensitivities of that country. More broadly, a government trying to make plans for the redevelopment of a heritage site would need to involve not only urban planners, developers and historians but also members of different communities to know the impact of such a project on different groups of people. This results in the exchange of knowledge, skills and ideas to help people make better decisions. 

So, do we really need diversity?

Some of us would already be convinced by these arguments that diversity is healthy and necessary. For others, not so much. The Trump administration and its supporters argue that diversity policies such as DEI have eroded the value of merit, and a “colourblind” approach rewards genuine capability instead of “radical and wasteful discrimination”. These arguments, though seemingly logical at first glance, make one crucial assumption that has unfortunately gone unchecked. It assumes that everyone has equal (or near equal) access to opportunity, so giving minorities more access to said opportunity is giving them extra (and undeserved) privileges. This is flawed as systemic discrimination exists that place minorities at an inherent disadvantage, so DEI policies seek to level the playing field rather than to distort it. 

Merit is not an empirical fact, it is socially constructed and shaped by privilege. It rests upon the opportunities individuals are able to receive and whether their contributions are appreciated by society. The fact that meritocracy is a social construct is not bad in itself. Constructs are the way we put together the complexities of the world in ways we can understand. For example, we would want to know if the medical professionals in charge of our lives have experience and a degree. The problem is only when we see these constructs as the only source of truth and fail to question the underlying assumptions behind these constructs. The underlying assumption behind meritocracy is that success is the exclusive result of hard work as we all start from the same point. However, systemic discrimination remains entrenched in many areas, which leads to minorities and people of lower socio-economic status being seen as being simply lazy when they are actually disenfranchised in many ways. When people fail to acknowledge systemic discrimination and disadvantage in discourse about merit, it creates a fallacy of acting as if systems are fair when they are not - justifying the systems of inequality and oppression merit was supposed to erase. The idea that everyone can succeed just through working hard is unfortunately an ideal rather than a lived reality for many people.

Image credit: startequal.org

Institutionalised diversity and the problem with tokenised representation

Having said all the benefits of diversity, it is important to caution that most organisations do not enact diversity policies simply out of values or goodwill. Many institutions including companies and governments enact these policies simply for compliance or image management. While some may argue that “some representation is better than no representation”, representation that is seen as inauthentic makes diversity which is already under attack even more vulnerable to public vitriol. When individuals are seen to be fielded based on hiring quotas, it raises suspicion over whether said individual got their position based on genuine capability. After all, diversity is not really part of the organisation’s vision and messaging, so suddenly including DEI policies seems performative at best and foolish at worst. Regardless of the talent level of the individual, supposed “DEI hires” receive backlash which erodes trust in institutions and minorities, and reduces the individual’s ability to perform, creating a vicious cycle. 

For example, when Halle Bailey acted in the 2023 live action remake of The Little Mermaid, while there were some racist comments that a black actress should not be playing a white character (ie a character previously portrayed as caucasian), there were also rather valid comments that if Disney genuinely wanted to have diversity in its crew, they would have crafted a new minority character rather than making a phoney remake. That is not to say that minorities should not be allowed to cast roles previously held by non-minorities, such representation is good as it allows people to see their favorite characters who they grew up with look like them. It is to say that when diversity is one-off rather than systemic, it would not receive the support and impact it needs for diversity efforts to thrive. Diversity must be genuine rather than performative not just because it is more likely to garner support, but because minorities have actual talents and skillsets and are not just tools for a performance. 

Conclusion

The premise of diversity is simple: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Diversity is recognising that no group can achieve anything alone and embracing differences that lead to understanding and innovation. Diversity should begin in our education system, so it can be the leveller of equality it was designed to be and create future generations of people who embrace rather than reject differences. Governments and institutions should consciously choose diversity, not because it is fashionable but because putting aside discrimination often leads to more effective and equitable outcomes. Individuals should be aware of their biases and prejudices and be mindful not to reinforce them. And if all that wasn’t enough to convince you, let’s put diversity into economic perspective. A report by Accenture found that non-inclusive workplace cultures cost American companies $1.05 trillion annually. A 2021 Brookings study found that U.S. GDP would have been $22.9 trillion higher from 1990 to 2019 if opportunities and outcomes were more equally distributed by race and ethnicity. It is therefore clear that diversity brings many tangible benefits beyond social cohesion and political rhetoric. Diversity is not just a slogan. It is the key to a more equitable, sustainable and dynamic future. 

Bibliography

1. John Spacey. "What is Dispersed Knowledge?." Simplicable. Retrieved February 12, 2026. from https://simplicable.com/new/dispersed-knowledge

2. National Urban League. The facts about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. 

   https://nul.org/sites/default/files/2025-01/2025_01_20_CIV%20NUL%20DEI%20FAQs%20-%20FINAL_0.pdf

3. The White House. (2025, March 19). Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump removes DEI from the foreign Service. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-removes-dei-from-the-foreign-service/

4. Tolliver, S. (2022, October 24). Ariel was meant to be white — The Virginia Black review. The Virginia Black Review. https://www.virginiablackreview.com/culture-society/ariel-was-meant-to-be-white#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20Black%20women%20are,dissonance%20from%20their%20social%20norms

5. US National Archives (1964, July 2) Civil Rights Act 

   https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act