Yes it is. I know the culture war disagrees with anything and everything that pissing all over DEI, but thats exactly what it is. You cant correct past or future mistakes that way. You either hire/recruit based on merit, or you dont. Theres no in between.
https://time.com/7291474/supreme-court-reverse-discrimination
The case was brought by Marlean Ames against the Ohio Department of Youth Services, where she started working in 2004. In 2019, she applied for a promotion, but was turned down and a colleague with less seniority—who was a lesbian woman—received the promotion instead. Ames was later demoted and her previous role was given to another colleague who had less seniority, a gay man.
I’m sure readers saw the title of this article and thought “what!? White straight men are the most represented group in businesses!” Nonetheless, an employment tribunal in the United Kingdom recently held that a strong candidate was deliberately not hired because he was a white, heterosexual male. See Furlong v Chief Constable of Cheshire Police, Case No. 2405577/2018 (U.K.).
It would be a mistake to conclude that discrimination based on sex, race, or sexual orientation only goes one way. I have loads of examples in the US and elsewhere, of "positive discrimination" by bad actors. And even more, where its clear as fuck, it was only something they were doing to wash their shitty reputations.