[coldtea]

>That assumes the status quo ante was a meritocracy.

No, it just assumes it was more of a meritocracy than actively hiring based on irrelevant guiding principles like counter-balancing historical wrongs.

A blind process would both be neutral to the ideology that caused the wrongs (racism and such bias) and based on far more meritocracy.

[stvltvs]

Sounds like we kind of agree but you wouldn't include blind hiring under the label of DEI. Also, I wouldn't agree that historically hiring was more meritocratic before DEI programs.