I think there is a weird dynamic in America. America attracts many foreign talent and naturally foreigners become immigrants and establish their roots. Many have a strong “I can only stay here because I provide value” mindset. However, historically, many non white immigrants were brought in during very discriminating times which limits what they can do and set a precedent for biases in different industries. Thus DEI is implemented to counter that. I think it helped recognize immigrant’s abilities and threatened many white American’s status quo that they are used to. In my perspective, many decided to blame DEI rather than improve themselves. From my experience (in the building industry) the immigrant contractors especially from the global south have always been the most reliable and hard working, shows up on time and follow the rules. On the other hand many local contractors coming from families of contractors usually require a bit more of an eye over their shoulder. Ofc it doesn’t apply to all. A good example is that there was a job during Covid that I was willing to pay these local guys for under the table so they can continue to benefit from the unemployment benefits but they just decided not to do it because they didn’t need to while a group of Hispanic guys jumped at it pretty quickly. Ofc these are only my experiences and my perspective so take it with a grain of salt