You are imagining that the opposite of DEI is discrimination, whereas most see the opposite of DEI as merit.

The irony is that DEI promotes merit by forcing companies to justify hiring beyond basic “cultural fit” vibes.

I’ve been in the business and seen a ton of hires on vibes. DEI actually asked people to expand the talent search, not hire anyone unqualified (which is what the anti-DEI folks are desperate to have us believe it did).

I predict some major EEO lawsuits will eventually bring the pendulum back in the other direction because my sense is that the return to vibes hiring (and RIF-ing) is resulting in very actionable discrimination cases.

If DEI operated on merit, there would be no need for the special new concept of DEI.

Ive seen many cases where HR stalls hiring until the most qualified candidates move on, prefilter insufficiency "diverse" candidates from the pool presented to teams, or implement internal quotas to meet external funding or contract requirements.

Not to mention the actual external requirements for "diversity" from public tender process, government backed funding bodies, and politically protected mega wealthy.

  > my sense is that the return to vibes hiring (and RIF-ing) is resulting in very actionable discrimination cases.
Your sense? Based on what?

The enthusiasm for disparaging DEI combined with a lack of articulation of how they plan to quantify 'qualifications' in a non-biased manner. My sense is that they don't plan to do this at all, they don't have a plan, and they are going to blunder into patterns of discriminatory practices that DEI frameworks were protecting them against.

Who is “they?” All employers?

With respect, it seems like the hiring managers you were complaining about above weren’t the only ones operating mostly on vibes.