^ All of that.
DEI gets a bad rap, and often portrayed as filling quotas mindlessly, which I absolutely agree is a dumb way to run any organization. I also have no doubt that some people or organizations do it that way. What can I say? People are free to make bad management decisions all day and all night, regardless of politics. Can't fix stupid. But I don't think the military is guilty of this in the least, nor do I think that is what DEI is actually about.
I've been interviewing a lot for management jobs at my employer, and the DEI question is always one that comes around. I never know how the person across the table feels about it. No doubt, some feel like Bill Lowery even if they can't say so in that context.
My answer is simply that I don't care who you are or what you look like. If you are the best person for the job (and aren't an a*hole that would cause more problems then you are worth), then you've got the job.
But.
If you fill a room with the 100 best people at ________ in the world (or country), it will decidedly NOT be 100 white dudes, no matter what you fill in the blank with.
So if you look around the office place and notice disproportionately white men, then that is likely a symptom of a poor recruitment effort. In the worldwide (or nationwide) marketplace for talent at X, amazing people will come from literally every single demographic. Black people. Asian people. Women. Even *gasp* trans people. So if no highly talented black people, women, lgbt, whatever, are applying to your open positions, then that probably just means you need to try harder. Go to recruiting events and target those folks. Let those professional societies know that you will take applicants seriously, and advertise open positions in their periodicals. Etc, etc. Don't hire someone if they aren't qualified, period, but make sure that the best of all communities know who you are and are applying. Diversity will come naturally from that point, and a more qualified and better vetted workforce too.
I keep getting called back for more interviews, so I am inclined to believe that it is a mostly well-received answer. Unless you think your organization just plain shouldn't be doing outreach to as broad an applicant pool as possible, it's hard to really object to any of that I think. And if you disagree because you think we should be mindlessly filling quotas, then I am probably not the person you want to hire anyway.
