A nice bit in the FT called “Where Woke Went Wrong“ which gives an overview of the movement and how in many ways it fell in on itself.
While at university I was unfamiliar with the term SJW (Social Justice Warrior) but it was close to a perfect fit of the “grandstanding” which was obviously to me killing off the students’ union. Things like boycotting Esso of which the only effect was to leave some sports clubs out of pocket on travel expenses, boycotting the Daily Mail which was pointless since the union shop had folded, and a ban on the union investing in tobacco shares which it would never be able to do anyway. Today this would be known as virtue signalling but that term only became mainstream in the mid-2010s. A good portion of the vandalism such as the statues of Winston Churchill and Edward Colston are people using historic injustices as an excuse rather than a reason.
The problem with diversity is like most targets driven by government it decayed into gaming the system to get the numbers so meritocracy goes out the window. Fine if it is boom-time with lots of people being recruited anyway, but all too often comes down to white males being automatically rejected when things are lean. When openings are scarce the effect on diversity figures is exaggerated.
The backlash can be summed up as DEI: Didn’t Earn It. The feeling one needs to have some sort of minority status to get off the ground.
Like the university SJWs much of DEI was being pushed by people who present a tone-deafness for those on the receiving end and the resentment this breeds eventually blows up. Gaming the system is seen as disregarding the real problem of overall shortage of opportunities.