That, I have come to believe, is a very true statement about Alaska and, sadly, a lot of airlines in general. And it bugs the heck out of me. I believe it's the reason that hiring has become heavily HR-driven with less pilot group input. It's the reason that the identity group annual meetings (WAI, NGPA, OBAP, and whatever else is out there) have become such big recruiting events. It's not that they expect to find the most qualified candidates there. It's because they need to show how committed they are to diversity and finding a new face for their next advertisement/PR event/web site/whatever.