It happens all the time. I know because I had to sign off on it during my career. Here’s how it works. It’s disgusting but the norm.
Every dept had an unofficial “quota” or maybe the term is looser, let’s say “goal.” Let’s say we needed an African American in a department. Honestly, in some positions they are hard to find. “Joe”, an African American holds the position of “Assistant Director” and he resigns for whatever reason.
Whomever is the hiring manager and HR automatically hold this position open for another African American. Not the best candidate. Not the first available good candidate. Unless Hell freezes over, they will comb the earth of an African American. It could be a woman. A gay person, whatever. Only if a long time goes by and not one appears, can a person of the other type be hired.
The truth is most HR people and managers hate this. Many of us try to resist but that was never possible if you have a woke, DEI obsessed leadership.
I have left the workforce. I would HOPE that with the recent Harvard case which directly affected Admissions , that organizations would stop this discrimination. We will see.
way back in the early 80’s I applied for a job. The HR person said as long as a minority or woman didn’t apply for it, I had a shot. Never heard back.