Even worse - it created a new class that never really existed in the current form, namely 'of color', which includes a vast group of people both that have been

Even worse - it created a new class that never really existed in the current form, namely 'of color', which includes a vast group of people both that have been historically disenfranchised as well as those who are in the highest tiers of per capita wealth in the U.S. by current statistical measures. People who have a generational claim to U.S. inequal structures, as the person you are replying to might say, as well as recent immigrants who have gone to top tier tech schools in their home countries, raised in the top caste of their home countries. A similar category is 'Hispanic', which within it has some people of extraordinary wealth. I know of one who used a half-Hispanic heritage to get into an undergrad Ivy League school, and proudly said he was gaming the system - extremely wealthy family. There are so many 'but that's an edge condition' situations one can come up with, that what ends up happening is a random collection of ways that you can 'register' to be in such an oppressed class (it's not hard to do, especially if you are an immigrant with immigrant parents, depending on where they were born, or if you want to be REALLY cynical and claim gender identity differences). And if you don't, you are left out and hence we have a big backlash and massive suspicion in the large corporations where these HR departments are taking a hammer in enforcing DEI in a sweet but firm tone. Even one who supports DEI efforts should at least understand this backlash. (This reply isn't geared specifically to the person I'm replying to, who seems to agree, but more broadly)