I think you're exemplifying exactly what this article is criticizing. DEI is not about hiring unqualified people. You're conflating it with Affirmative Action, which also is not about hiring unqualified people. The very notion that considering non-White people for positions or educational opportunities where they traditionally were overlooked is pandering to a group of people or displacing more qualified White people is perpetuating the problem.

DEI has just become yet another thing White conservatives demonize without even knowing what it really is. Even more so they fail to see how resisting such efforts hurts them as well. There are still too many people is positions of power that will always see us as less than no matter what we achieve. We can't just wait for them to die off to fix everything.