I served as chair or a member of many hiring committees over forty years. One thing I learned is that there is no "best person" for the job. Sometimes every committee member voted for a different candidate. Also, we sometimes passed over more highly qualified or experienced individuals because we did not think they would take a job with our institution because they could get more money somewhere else. We would be wasting one of our choices to interview a candidate who would never take the job.
Sometimes that person we passed over might be a minority, but there was no discrimination based on race. In fact, it made them more valuable and more sought after by other schools. We would have loved to have hired them, but we knew there was little chance.