I didn't immediately jump to it, but here's why I mentioned it. DEI is essentially nothing more than "brown nosing", as you put it; manipulation of various factors for personal gain.
In DEI type con jobs, it is just administered by an odd and even contradictory hodgepodge of people/identities who are hijacking different characteristics, or more accurately, maybe manipulating characteristics differently.
Where brown nosing also manipulates things like flattery, currying favor, narcissistic positioning and sabotage; DEI manipulates things more like sympathy, graciousness, generosity, and empathy. At the same time is also employs psychological and emotional coping mechanisms, like gratuitous pride and affirmation, while also making heavy use of rather harmful personality traits like shaming, blaming, blame shifting, cooption, purloining, appropriation, and emotionally abuses people generally.
It's all very common and typical of extreme and malignant narcissism, including the put on, fake self-congratulation you often see the DEI type crowd engaging in where they lay on the affirmation of equality and equity so heavily that it usually just highlights the contradiction with reality most people experience.