There are often close misses. To imply we don’t need better qualified and competent ATC is wrong. As someone else said today, when you or a loved one is flying into an airport or just on a plane, what’s more important to you, the color of their skin and what gender they are or how much experience they have and how competent they are. Are you really saying with something as critical as ATC that it’s ok to not seek to have the best?
First, there is zero indication that the cause of the crash was at the ATC end and a lot of evidence that it was pilot error in the information we do have. Obviously the jury is still out until the NTSB report comes back, but there is no indication that there was a problem at ATC.
If there evidence does come out that (a) there was a problem at ATC and that (b) the problem at ATC was caused by the fact that we have not "sought the best," then we can talk.
DEI in the FAA is not about hiring quotas, it is about recruiting and casting a wide net to increase the pool of qualified applicants. The problems with ATC are that the job is incredibly stressful (probably underpaid), the department is underfunded, and that there is a lot of turnover. These have been problems for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
I would flip the question back "Is it important for you that the department made every effort to find all of the qualified candidates, even those who are not white men?"