It depends on the context, I suppose.
In terms of a business, I'd say that, on its own, diversity is neither a strength nor a weakness. I want the best people we can get for the particular needs we have. How those people stack up in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. is probably not of any consequence. Now, I can see where some organizations would have particular needs that call for people who meet certain superficial criteria. That's why I'd say that context matters.
Think of a football team in terms of race or ethnicity. Should a team care if the best players it can find to meet the needs it has are black, white, Latino, or otherwise? Or do they simply care if they're the best ones available? Would the team be better if they had a certain mix? Worse?
I'd say that it's of no consequence. When Nick Saban put Tua Tagovailoa in at QB at halftime, I'm about 100% certain that what he had in mind was "Tua's a better passer than Jalen Hurts is and we need to be passing to win this game" not "Tua's a Polynesian and they really weren't well represented out there in the first half."
In terms of an entire society (and I know that's what you were asking about), that's a different question. I'd have to give it some thought.
This is an excellent topic for MLK day.
I have a dream that my four littlechildren will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
It looks like we can file this quote in the "fat chance" file. Nowadays skin color is a very important consideration in everything we do, say, and believe.
For this discussion I treat "diversity" and "differences" pretty much the same. People are different in immutable characteristics and in ideas, culture, beliefs and religion. We seem to go out of our way to find differences, magnify them, and use differences to hate, disparage, belittle, and destroy, other people. And that's on a good day. On the bad days we bomb, maim, shoot, and murder others because they are different.
These differences drive almost everything we do and everything that happens in the world today.
Just in recent months . . . .
Trump talks about shitholes and Norway
Pelosi criticizes immigration reform because white guys proposed it
A Muslim runs down bicyclists in New York City
The shooting war in Afghanistan goes on
The world goes nuts over the US moving the Israeli embassy
Catalonia holds a referendum on separating from Spain
California wishes it could hold a referendum on separating from the US,
"Me too" is ramping into an anti-men effort in some quarters,
Blacks want separate commencement ceremonies at some Ivy League schools,
and more and more see the American Flag, a prominent and proud unifying symbol in many Martin Luther King's civil rights marches, as a sign of oppression and racism.
In recent years diversity has put the EU under stress, Belgium talks about dividing, Scotland held a withdrawal vote, Israel is still not recognized by neighbors, Jew hatred once again raises its ugly head in Europe, and every policy initiative in the US seems to be measured in terms of victims and perpetrators, winners and losers, men and women, blacks and whites.
Why? This isn't about money or wealth, or the things that they buy. The intolerance about differences is about a more base human motivation that either money or wealth. It's about power, influence and control over people who are different than me. Our side must win. Our side must dominate. Others who are different or think different things are beneath us.
Diversity doesn't have to be this way. Chess is played with white and black pieces. But it is played with established rules, accpeted decorum, and acceptance of the results. We are losing the ability to play by the rules, to be civil, and to accept a result.