Nicholas De Santo: diversity doesn't work

Straight out of the HBD camp (human biodversity), here's standup comedian Nicholas De Santo on why diversity doesn't work:

I'm always of two minds about this. On one hand, diversity and pluralism bring disparate people together and give those people a chance to learn and practice tolerance—the "higher value" that allows for peaceful coexistence. A diverse environment also allows people to experience other cultures, worldviews, cuisines, etc., resulting in social and spiritual enrichment. On the other hand, diversity can lead to intolerance and conflict as different cultures find themselves shoulder to shoulder in ostensibly pluralistic environments, with friction being caused by differing cultural goals and values. 

Korea might be seen as a pro-HBD case study: sure, there are racial minorities here, but they're so vanishingly small that they pretty much always have to be on their best behavior. If Muslims living in Korea decided to try something terroristic, it's a good bet that Korea would rediscover its nationalistic (and culturalistic, and racialistic) self and kick most or all Muslims out. So Korea's current (but eroding) racial homogeneity could be seen as a factor in maintaining the peace. At the same time, though—and the HBD crowd never likes to face this—we have the example of certain African countries where violence and chaos prevail despite a lack of racial/ethnic motives for strife. Here's a World Bank paper from 2000 arguing that clashes in Africa are not due to ethnic conflict but rather to other factors like poverty, corruption, and the perennial struggle for natural resouces. Somalia might also pop up as an example of a racially un-diverse nation that is nonetheless in the grip of a whole slew of conflicts. This sort of evidence is hard for HBDers to reckon with.

Assuming it's true that conflict is a risk of diversity and pluralism, the values question is whether one will accept that risk. These days, I'm fairly comfortable living in Korea despite some of the lockstep conformism I have to deal with, and I have little desire to return to the States unless I end up in a place like Wyoming, with its racial homogeneity and extremely low crime rate. So maybe I've been seduced by the HBD side after all. But there are days when I resent the predictability of Korean culture, which doesn't lift up individualism but instead insists on group-first sameness: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down, as they say in East Asia. Is a peaceful society worth the price exacted by conformism?