Really? I thought substance might be something too. Neglecting it by hiring less capable people may not weaken a company's image much but it will surely weaken the company in time.
The sickening thing about this, is that the few black software and hardware engineers I’ve worked with told me that they had to live with their white co-workers assuming that they were inferior, because they “must have gotten there” pushed along through school or planted as window-dressing (they weren’t). If discrimination is ugly, this perverse type of discrimination is even uglier.