I wonder … the people blaming “DEI HIRES” and screaming for “only on merit, only the best and brightest”…how many of them are even remotely “the best” in their field? Or even in their jobsite? How many of them are purely successful on merit, and not because they got their first job working for their uncle, or whatever?
I’m thinking it’s probably very few.
I’m very good at what I do, but I am definitely not “the best”. Neither are the people who hired me. We work together and help each other improve. But I’m a woman in a man’s field, so presumably someone is looking at me and thinking “DEI HIRE”.
The leaders who are driving that point, want to tell the working folk in their intended audience that DEI forces their uncle to hire someone who’s not one of them.
“You know, maybe it’s true you would not get the job 100% w/o pulling some strings… but how can they expect you to believe then that THOSE PEOPLE ever could at all??”
I’ll also point out that Ms. Duckworth, despite a deficiency of limbs, is still an active licensed pilot (although fixed wing these days, not rotorcraft)