They have valid points but I think a real discussion has to be a lot broader and include things like: the Ivy League just doesn't admit enough students to have a decisive impact on social mobility, so much of the "meritocracy" story involves what happens outside college, almost all professors are professor's kids, the pipeline into academia used to be a lot more diverse and could take people like Eric Hoffer and Stanley Aronowitz from a working class background -- 'DEI' as we know it makes the pipeline more rigid which is particularly problematic for women (but, hey, maybe there won't be as many professor's kids in the future and they'll have to recruit more broadly)