I believe the insinuation per the CEO was that even if they where equally qualified that the overwhelming representation of white candidates would cancel out their chance. He is not a bad man, he is a caring and very compassionate man, who believed he was doing good for a fellow human. It was as eye opening to him, when we talked about it and he came to the realization that he was guilty of the same discrimination that he had endured. It's so subtle that it can easily slip by.

My take away was that it really, butt hurts you bad when it happens to you and we as white people rarely experience said butt hurt. It puts things into perspective and I am thankful for that perspective.

Point being, I don't think it was fair and I am not justifying his actions, but it helps me relate to the feeling that black Americans feel. A little empathy goes a long way and the perspective taught me empathy without pandering.

>if they where equally qualified that the overwhelming representation of white candidates would cancel out their chance //

I don't think you understand probability, they would each have equal chance. Isn't that the goal? If course there would be less chance of a "black American" occupying the role, but that would be for exactly the right reason, lower representation in the population from which one is selecting.

>we as white people rarely experience said butt hurt //

Is this perhaps simply down to expectation. The "it's because I is black" meme: if you're a minority in a particular physical characteristic and fail to achieve a role you assume discrimination. The corollary is that whilst discrimination might not be felt emotionally is still unfair to discriminate against a person based on the colour of their skin.

You're right about empathy, but empathy with those suffering racist discrimination is a strange place to decide to be racist.

Sorry you got down-voted your comment was very valid to the discussion. I agree, it was unfair but the value of the lesson was worth far more than the slight loss of opportunity for me. That is the thing, because I had built a name for myself, it was of little consequence that I lost this opportunity, but it was a life changer for the CTO that was selected because he had never been afforded the opportunities that I had.

For sure, other people are using nepotism to get ahead, that's great for that one guy. But, as a point of learning I don't see how this leads to anything but more racism and my opinion is that we can't stop racism/sexism by being racist and sexist in a different way. There is a problem that this leads to a slow change; hence questioning this to explore possibilities.