re: Birmingham Mayor Threatens to Steer Athletes from UA and Auburn if Bill Passes

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I'm not confused at all. With the history of Alabama, the south, and the country as a whole, many black men and women were passed over for jobs and promotions that were more than qualified because the person making the decision on said job or promotion preferred to have a white person in the position. Let's not forget that history of redlining, underfunding to HBCUs, lending discrimination, etc. There is a laundry list of unjust practices against the black community. Familiar with the Tuskegee Experiments. We aren't 70 years removed from George Wallace standing in the door way making his passionate speech of upholding segregation. Hell, while I was with an investment bank in Atlanta just last year (2023), I saw a licensed (Series 7 and 66) young black guy with 5 years of industry experience get passed over for an analyst position for a white kid straight out of college with not even an SIE to his name, let alone work experience. So yeah, we get passed over while more qualified all the damn time.

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It's 2024. You're not going to make up for historic racism with current racism. It doesn't work that way. Companies like yours (assuming your anecdote has no other extraneous factors) that hire based on race rather than meritocracy will suffer for doing so, just as companies hiring less qualified "diverse" candidates over more qualified "non-diverse" candidates will suffer similarly. The latter scenario is inarguably occurring at a much higher rate in 2024 than the situation you described.