“The managers are told that, not in blunt words necessarily. We have hiring goals. We want more diversity. More women. More minorities. We put these first before white males.”
Not true. There are already plenty of women and minorities in the federal gov’t—look up the stats. I don’t hire by race or gender. I hire by excellence. The last 10 hires I’ve made were mostly white males (I’m a white woman, if that matters), but two of them were black females and a few Asians as well. For the younger ones without a lot of experience, I look carefully at their college, their major, and their college GPA. It’s easy to pick out the most excellent candidates by resume and interview. I’ve been happy with all of my hires. (It’s the staff assigned to me who OTHERS have hired who are the low performers.)
Your personal example does not invalidate the general trend it is overwhelmingly occurring across government. More so in jobs that do not require excellence, a crime free background, and high intelligence.