DEI is one of the better ideas Americans ever had. White-only policies were hard wired into the culture for most of our history. Which meant that the talent pool for all public and private jobs was tiny: white men only. Even after civil rights laws finally seeped into the bones of society, white men dominated virtually all industries and sectors.
DEI is a political crowbar needed to change an apartheid culture into an integrated one. It had barely begun to work in a relatively small percentage of the workplace when it became a target of that very old disease which we’ve never cured, white supremacy. MAGA is merely the most recent incarnation of that enemy of a merit-based, competitive economy, white Christian nationalism.
DEI is the best way to get the best people for the job, whatever the job is. Merit-based competition is expanded beyond the white male population. The lies told about DEI are projection. By returning to the racial dark ages we limit the talent pool to those whose white privilege blinds them to the fact that they got the job because of their skin color.