Critical Race Theory may have started in academic circles but it has grown far beyond that, and is now being used (daresay stretched?) as justification for lots of policies, training, and jobs. CRT advocates might not like it to be pointed out but it is highly reductive (everything, ev-re-thing is about race & any differences in outcomes between races is a result of racism on behalf of whites). And yes, at its core it is about redistribution and power, just like <gasp> Marxism, but under a new name.
The Courage of our Convictions from the Manhattan Institute
Of course if every difference in outcome is the result of racism, then equality of opportunity is insufficient. We need equity, which sounds very similar but is very, very different.
In other words, we need equity of outcomes. Because, if you're white, anything you have is the result of your racism, any hard work you've put in is a distant second to systemic racism.
DEI is the response to the problem-framework CRT poses, and in practice looks like this:
So CRTs lapdog of DEI are at their core reductively sorting based on race and not individual, and "anti-racism?" That means active discrimination, just toward whites. It's not me saying this, it's Ibram X. Kendi, CRT advocate, from his book How to Be an Anti-Racist:
That's pretty informative to me. Equality of opportunity, bad. Equity of result, good. White mean oppressor and BIPOC means victim. CRT is the diagnosis and DEI the cure.