Maggie's Farm

Agree completely.

Here's a great example of how insane this stuff has gotten. At one company I worked, we had an opening in Sales. We were trying to crack the electronics industry, and I knew the perfect candidate. He was up to date on all the trends in electronics, computers, and was a terrific salesman.
When I brought his name and resume in, the fellow who was running the interviews asked why I brought in the name of a white male, when "everyone knows I have to hire a black female."
I asked why this was so important when we needed someone who could crack electronics wide open.
"We have diversity goals. Regardless of what we NEED, we are paid our bonuses based on our ability to meet the diversity goals."
They hired a black woman who was released several months later.

Almost a year later, I attended an executive meeting at HQ. The CEO was discussing the diversity goals and how "successful we've been in meeting them".

A female VP raised her hand and asked "when do we know when we're successful, when we're finished?"
The CEO asked "what do you mean?"
She replied "most goals have a finish line - we meet them and then declare victory and either the goals change or we look for new goals. With diversity, it's a never ending battle. Do we begin to hire people so our diversity is 'better' than US averages, and if so - what is 'better'? What happens when we are 'better than average'? Does it make us a better organization and more competitive or successful economically?"

The CEO stared at her with an open mouth, turned to the HR VP, and asked "Care to handle this?"

The response at that point was a bunch of Personnel blather and nonsense.

I happen to think diversity is a worthy concept and should be part of any group's broader guidelines. But setting rules and goals around them is foolish in the extreme.

By the way, that company's best years occurred BEFORE the diversity program kicked in. 2 years later, I'd left, their revenues were declining, and they wound up being sold.
Was there a link between diversity and their decline? Possibly not.

But we'll never know. Having been there, I can honestly opine there was. I can provide information on the 'diversity' candidates they hired and how they performed.