Here's a thought: maybe affirmative action in college admissions and hiring doesn't yield candidates who can succeed on merit?

People of color at 'New York Times' get lower ratings in job reviews, union says

Admittedly, it’s hard to believe that the Times still has any standards of performance or competency, but if it does, then it’s a least possible that selecting some candidates on the basis of race will include in the pool of applicants some people who are have been raised to feel that they are entitled, and have no need to work hard: after all, they have been taught that believing that hard work will lead to success” is a vestige of white supremacy.

According to no less an institution than the Smithsonian, values like “hard work,” “self-reliance,” “be[ing] polite,” timeliness and the scientific method and its emphasis on “objective, rational linear thinking” are all proprietary to “white culture.” Using the racist tool of logic, what would you expect from hiring people who hold these beliefs and values?

Which is not to say that there aren’t “people of color” who are as talented and capable as their paler-skinned cousins, I’m just pointing out that if the hiring process for POCs focuses on race, not merit, you’ll end up with some untalented, incompetent people in your ranks. It’d be like hiring Harvard graduates simply because they matriculated in Cambridge; bad move.