The real reason DEI became such a toxic word is because it’s advocates are using it as justification to commit the same mistakes it ought to prevent.
Just look at what happened to the movies industry. Disney and Marvel for example explicitly discriminate against whites and males.
Instead of equal opportunity the only thing I see DEI advocates doing is targeted discrimination.
If we are going to have people decide who to discriminate against let’s end this all together and just focus on skills. It’s a fair compromise