‘DEI Hires’ Raise the Bar for Everyone: Laura Morgan Roberts

“DEI hire” is a new version of an old insult. For the past 50 years, the term “Affirmation Action hire” hurled the same accusations of ineptitude. Then and now, the goal is to imply that the person is incompetent — even illegitimate — whether they are the vice president of the US, the head of the Secret Service, a hypothetical airline pilot, a Supreme Court justice, a mayor, or a college president. The criticism is clear: a DEI hire “Didn’t Earn It.”

The usual response is to get defensive, insisting that the person’s ...