Ironically, the methods that the DEI types use are not even hidden. There are numerous books and "scholarly" articles that discuss their methods in detail and also their true purpose.
At it's root DEI is one of the byproducts of Critical Race Theory which is derived from Critical Theory which is (arguably) the root of Marxism and a bunch of other -isms. You can think of Critical Theory as the most abstract form of that particular tree of political theory and Marxism applies it to class inequality and CRT applies it to race/gender inequality. This is a simplification, but it's good enough for now.
The CRT leader types are without a doubt anti-meritocracy, anti-science, anti-civilization, anti-family, etc.. They have said so directly and emphatically in books, papers, talks, etc..
If you wanted to discredit "numerous books" you should have named at least one. Do you have an example?
By the way, the author of the Post-Meritocracy Manifesto is known as "Bantik" on 1990s Usenet, there is high quality evidence on the Web that that's correct, some of it has been removed from Google. That just shows the background behind some of the most prominent people in DEI programs, at least in open-source.
https://archive.ph/P258A https://archive.ph/NsPmk https://archive.ph/EkJzO https://web.archive.org/web/20180717044421/http://s35819.gri... Bantik writes, in 2000: https://everything2.com/title/How+to+Be+a+Charismatic+Cult+L... - "How to Be a Charismatic Cult Leader"