People who follow politics mainly through mainstream papers, NPR, etc have been conditioned to react negatively to “DEI” - even though it’s highly unlikely they have a clear understanding of what that is. The widespread association is: That’s part of that crazy “woke” nonsense, things going too far.
A big reason why it matters that reactionary centrists and anti-“woke” liberals constantly launder rightwing crusades (against “CRT,” or “DEI,” or “postcolonialism”) is that it completely neutralizes the mainstream response to a blatantly anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian move like this.
