The two have in common a context of implied contempt, based not on the bare statement but on the tone with which the term is levied. I'm recalling some old detective film in which the P.I. is hunting some liberal activist who's been missing for years. In one scene the PI encounters some rather hostile Latinos, and he vaguely tries to establish his own liberal credentials. A Latino female just says something like, "ohh, a LEEberal." Instant expression of contempt without any sort of direct criticism. Now when someone calls a person a 'DEI hire," as I did, the context is that the person named is not qualified, which is not what the promoters of DEI want others to believe. In my mind at least, it is possible for a DEI hire to BE competent, but in the context I used the word, the example given was not competent, and given that the "hire" was for a highly consequential position, it points some glaring problems with DEI standards.