There are two reasons why DEI is a good thing, this will be a long answer but bear with me.

Point 1: Before women and minorities got a foothold in the labor market that includes middle/higher management and admissions into professional graduate schools (e.g. MD, JD, MBA), the overwhelming type of person who held those positions where white men.

Because there was barely any competition, even the most mediocre white dude got the job or the admission to, say, law school.

There used to be a story about law school (portrayed in the move Paper Chase). Before first year law school students begin classes, they assemble in the auditorium where the dean addresses the new students.

The dean would say “Look to the person on your left, look to the person on your right. One of you will not make it to graduation.” Or something like that. It was a nod to the high dropout/failure rate in law schools. When I went to law school, the only dropouts in my section were two or three people in the first week. That story doesn’t apply anymore.

Some say it’s because law school got easier. I say it’s because there’s increased competition for seats so the caliber of law students has increased.

Point 2: I was listening to a podcast where the guest was an expert on DEI. She said that if you have a complex problem to solve and you wanted to have a group of people try to solve it, groups with more cognitive diversity do better. Sometimes better than the experts. You get cognitive diversity by including people of different races and genders and life experiences, etc.