February 14, 2025
Black People Don’t Get Jobs We Don’t Qualify For, But White Men Do
Daniel Penny’s New Job And Darren Beattie’s Return To Power Prove DEI Is Hella Necessary
Written by Dr. Dionne Mahaffey
America has made it clear: If you are a mediocre white man, there is no limit to what you can fail upward into. The rest of us, not so much. We have to be twice as good to get half as much.
Daniel Penny, the white man who made national headlines for killing an unarmed Black man, Jordan Neely, on a New York City subway. Penny, who faced 20 years in prison, has now landed a prestigious job at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the country’s most elite venture capital firms.
Let’s be clear: Penny has no investment experience, finance background, or business education—not even a college degree. Yet somehow, he has waltzed into a job that countless qualified Black candidates, including MBAs and experienced professionals, could never dream of being handed to them.
If that weren’t enough, we now see Darren Beattie—a known white nationalist—being given a top position at the U.S. State Department. Beattie was fired from Trump’s first administration in 2018 after it was revealed he had spoken at a white nationalist conference. He has openly stated that “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work” and that the entire system is built to coddle women and minorities. Beattie has even praised a so-called “scientist” who suggested Black people are less intelligent than whites. And yet—this man has been rewarded with a high-ranking government job.
Sit with that for a second. A man who believes Black people are inferior, who thinks Black lawmakers should “learn their place,” has been given power over public diplomacy in the United States government. And if it weren’t for the fearless Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has never been afraid to call out this racist hypocrisy, many would have overlooked this latest insult. Crockett nailed it when she said:
“I am tired of the white tears. Listen, if you are competent, you are not concerned.”
The truth is, this is exactly why affirmative action and DEI initiatives existed in the first place. To combat a system where white men like Penny and Beattie get opportunity after opportunity—no qualifications necessary—while Black professionals have to work twice as hard even to be considered.
The Lie That Black People Aren’t Qualified
One of the biggest lies Black people have been told is that affirmative actions and DEI policies allow unqualified Black people to take jobs from better-qualified white candidates. It’s laughable because Black people don’t apply for jobs we aren’t qualified for. We don’t have the audacity. We don’t have the privilege of failing upward.
But white men? They don’t even need to be competent to be given leadership roles.
I’ve seen it firsthand. As an executive, every time I hired a Black professional, I was questioned:
“How do you know they have the experience?”
But when a white man was hired? No one asked those questions.
I’ve seen entire departments of Black women passed over for promotions, only to be forced to train the unqualified white man placed over them. I once watched as a white man, hired by his neighbor, was given a high-paying director role in a tech company—despite having no degree and no relevant experience. Before this job? He worked at a car dealership service department—literally, the guy who greeted you when you pulled in for an oil change. And yet, Black women with MBAs and years of experience had to teach him how to do his job.
This is the reality Black professionals face often. That’s why the attacks on DEI and affirmative action aren’t about “fairness” or “merit.” They are about maintaining a system where white men can continue to fail upward, unchecked, while keeping Black professionals locked out and hitting a ceiling in their careers.
Black professionals have had to be twice as good just to get half as much. We are scrutinized, over-credentialed, and yet still overlooked. The numbers speak for themselves—Black women are the most educated demographic in America. We hold more degrees per capita than any other group, yet we continue to be underpaid, under-promoted, and underrepresented in executive leadership. Meanwhile, white men like Penny—who have never even stepped foot in a business class—are ushered into elite spaces with a pat on the back and a ‘you’ll learn on the job’ motivation.
Protecting White Mediocrity
When Obama won the presidency, I understood Black people were going to pay for that win tenfold—and here we are. White unqualified people never got over the fact that an educated Black man ascended to the highest office on his own merit.
The backlash is unrelenting: rewriting history, banning books, gutting affirmative action, attacking DEI, and defunding HBCUs. These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re part of a calculated effort to dismantle anything that allows Black people even a fraction of the advantages white mediocrity has long enjoyed.
For centuries and for some, whiteness alone was the job qualification—no credentials, no experience, just access. White men didn’t have to be twice as good; they just had to be present. Affirmative action and DEI weren’t about “handouts” for Black people, but about leveling a playing field that had been rigged for white men since this country’s founding. These policies were necessary precisely because the default hire was always the white man, regardless of competence.
Yet, instead of acknowledging this, they’ve twisted the narrative—painting Black professionals as undeserving, as if we haven’t worked twice as hard for half as much. As if we aren’t the most educated demographic in the country. As if we haven’t been overqualified for roles we’re still denied.
The fight against DEI and affirmative action isn’t about fairness. It’s about preserving a system where whiteness is the default setting for power and opportunity. They don’t want to compete—they want to keep doing what Andreessen Horowitz did for Daniel Penny: just hand him a lucrative job, no experience required.
It’s the same reason Darren Beattie—a white nationalist who openly claims Black people are inferior—was given a high-ranking government job, while HBCUs are being underfunded and attacked.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett laid it out plainly:
“This is why they don’t want us to have an education. This is why they are trying to literally say we won’t fund the HBCUs because they know that they’ve already gone after affirmative action.”
Make no mistake, this is all connected. The rollback of DEI, the elimination of affirmative action, the underfunding of HBCUs, and the corporate retreat from diversity efforts—it’s all a coordinated effort to keep white mediocrity thriving while Black excellence is systematically undermined.
Sick and Tired of Being Sick
I am so damn tired of watching white men fail upward while Black professionals are told we have to prove ourselves, over and over again, just for a chance to compete.
I am so damn tired of watching white supremacists like Beattie be given jobs in government while Black professionals are accused of taking “unearned” opportunities.
I am so damn tired of being told that DEI is “racist” when the real racism has always been the unchecked nepotism and mediocrity that lets white men take whatever job they want—experience or qualifications be damned.
Black people don’t apply for jobs we aren’t qualified for. But maybe if we did, we could finally start failing upward, too.
Dionne Mahaffey, Psy.D. is a business psychologist, psychotherapist, professor, writer and award-winning tech entrepreneur.