If a well-qualified minority candidate for a job isn't hired, is it racism?

This particular story is local to Mid-Michigan, but brings up questions that can occur anywhere.

The president of the teacher's union in East Lansing, Mich., has voiced discontent about the fact that a minority candidate for a middle-school principal position didn't get the job. Edwina Marshall "raised concerns" that because the one black candidate didn't get the job (he has since been hired as principal of an elementary school in the district), that the decision was racist.

I'm sure the decision could have been influenced by race, but there is nothing in the newspaper account to suggest it. Ms. Marshall seems to be reacting to an incident in which she was asked by the district human resources director, also black, to "balance the color in the room" by not sitting next to another black teacher during group interviews for the middle-school principal position. This was where we discovered that Ms. Marshall is black, or at least it is implied.

The union president had her lawyer write a letter to the school board about the "apparent racial discrimination."

What makes it apparent? The news account subtly makes it seem as if Ms. Marshall is expressing sour grapes that her preferred candidate didn't get the job. Is Ms. Marshall telling all she knows? If not, why not? If there was no racism involved, how can the East Lansing School Board prove it?

What do you think?

More later,
Russ