They used to call this affirmative action. Business owners took advantage of it by selling a piece of ownership to people who were minorities. Then the company would qualify for all the goodies the govt was handing out.
Ya do what you gotta do to win.
An aquantance of mine worked for a commercial kitchen design and supply business. When he went on his own he set up his wife as President to get the WMB designation.
remember the clinton era and the gov’t sale of the airwaves for cell phones?? The hiring as a token black guy to be the CEO of a company, or something similar, in order to get one of the contracts for cell phones, was omni-present.