I guess this happens more in fields other than engineering. In my classes was one White American (me) and one Black American (a guy from the Mississippi delta). Everyone else was European or Asian.
We didn’t want foreigners to beat us Americans and studied a lot. We wound up with the best grades.
Was in Med School in the 80’s.
White kid flunks a class, he, she is out of there.
Black kid gets 2 more tries.
One of my med school friends who was black said “I would never go to a black doctor cuz you never know if they made it through school using their brains or affirmative action.”