Russ Nieli of Princeton reviews The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies by Scott Page here.

In trying to come up with arguments to defend racial preferences, diversiphiles resort to an array of silly contentions, among them the idea that “diversity” helps us to compete in the global marketplace, and therefore top universities need to practice “affirmative action.” This book superficially appears to lend some credence to that argument, but in his review, Nieli makes short work of that notion.

Think for a moment about the great British code-breaking team during World War II. It happened to be diverse in the nationalities of the mathematicians and linguists on the team, but does anyone believe that if the British government had assembled the Bletchley Park team the way universities try to assemble an “interesting” student body, the code-breaking effort would have been nearly so successful? “Oh, that Turing chap is very smart, but we don’t need more white men. Let’s find some women of colour for greater diversity.”