Diversity is crucial to running a good organization in the modern world. In order for a corporation to compete in today’s dynamic marketplace, it must employ personnel with diverse skillsets of talents and expertises. A university must retain professors with different specializations in order to provide students with complete mastery in his or her chosen field of study. There has never been a time where diversity was more important than it is today.

However, a lot of people have the wrong idea of what diversity is.

Diversity is not about having token minorities. It is not about meeting hiring quotas, or accepting ethnic students just to make your campus seem more inclusive. Yet, in the race to keep up appearances, universities have implemented a policy known as “affirmative action”.

With affirmative action, certain ethnic groups are given preference in university admissions. Studies have shown that when underrepresented minorities apply for college admissions, they receive the equivalent of an SAT boost. However, Whites receive no such boost, and Asians receive the equivalent of an SAT penalty when applying for college, because they are “over-represented”. Penalizing an ethnic group collectively for working hard and scoring high is discrimination, plain and simple! People should not be admitted based on their ethnicity; they should be judged based off of their individual abilities, merits, and ambition.

While I am sure policymakers had good intentions when they decided to institute affirmative action, you cannot fight discrimination with reverse discrimination. Instead of artificially lowering the barriers of entry for an underrepresented group, we should make sure that they get the resources to be competitive with everyone else. A pitfall of affirmative action is that it can cast the achievements of its beneficiaries into doubt. When someone receives preferential treatment for college admissions because of their skin color, people can speculate whether or not they were truly qualified. If there was no affirmative action, then we could shift the focus from race to merit, as it should be.

Additionally, diversity is not about censoring opinions that others might find offensive, in an effort to appease others.. It is not about making the silent majority to pander to the every whim and demand of the vocal minority. It is not about telling others that their opinions are invalid, because it violates the norms of political correctness, or demonizing the right-wing. Censorship of ideas should be the last thing on the minds of those who value diversity.

So what is diversity?

Diversity is embracing the differences in beliefs, ethnicity, nationalities, and ideals in humanity in order to achieve a common organizational goal, whether it is charitable, financial, or educational. It is where the decision on whether or not to admit the person to the organization is made based on qualifications and merits, instead of ethnicity. Lastly, it is respecting the rights of people to voice their opinions, regardless of whether or not they are politically correct. You do not have to agree with them, you do not even have to listen to them, but all have the right to voice their beliefs.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Like this: Like Loading...