[nisuni]

That’s not about Michael, we both agree on his outstanding qualifications and on the fact that he fully deserved the job.

That’s about hirings based (also) on skin color rather than merit alone.

[digitaltrees]

BS. the passive aggressive argument used to undermine efforts to build more representative colleges, companies, and institutions is just a subtle form of racism that doesn't get applied to white people. I don't really see people make the same argument about hiring legacy applicants, college friends, or former coworkers, all of which tend to be similar people demographics. Sure maybe it isn't explicit racial bias but if the decision maker is selecting from a pool of already racially filtered candidates the effect is the same.

So yes, it is about Michael because he has to deal with this crap of people "just asking the question".