Apologies. I misread this post and originally thought you missed the point. But on second look, I agree.
One of my dearest friends was one of the most intelligent, capable, intuitive, remarkable people I've ever had the pleasure to know. A highly honored success in her field. But as a black woman she said she was discriminated against far more for being a woman than she ever was for being black.
But the one thing that bugged her most was the impression that she got her job, promotions, position because she was black and not because she worked hard for them, merited them, deserved them. Affirmative action was not a good thing for her and had had no place in her success.
When this administration indicated they would be hiring/appointing based on gender, transgender, sexual orientation, skin color, it immediately diminished anyone hired as being a DEI pick and not because they were qualified and deserving of their respective positions.
And because so many of those hires/appointees actually were unsuited for their jobs or performed so miserably in them, it only reinforced any negative opinions anyone had of any of those respective groups however unfair that might be.