So, you are generalizing from one history department in who knows what university?
Having observed humanities departments and their hiring practices at several elite universities, including Harvard, it is absolutely accurate to say that getting hired as a white male is a major challenge...even more so if you aren’t a know postmodern/feminist almost-a-male.
Stanford, for example, has increased its “diversity” by telling departments with positions to fill that they can fill it with a white male...or they can fill it with a woman and get an extra 1/2 position (allows a joint appointment with another department) or they can fill it with a black and get an entire extra position.
Even engineering and physics departments are being force-fed females who, once they are on board, make sure that hiring standards continue to erode.
If anyone tried that at this school, people would be firing up their lawyers. I’ll admit it took me quite a long time to get where I am, but affirmative action had no part in it. I simply was slack about publishing. I was informaed that was why I was four/five years behind my peers. The problem has been dealt with.
Faculty does discuss these matters, and I’ve talked about AA with dozens of people from all over the country. A quick glance at any faculty listing at a school will inform whether one has simply been listening to too much slanted news, or whether the school has fair hiring practices.
AA is not a problem in the real, non-FR, world. Lazy individuals with no people skills are a serious problem everywhere. And they don’t make tenure.