"Going from the academy to a job at United should take about five years, the airline said."
That's a lot of time to weed out the bad pilots, retrain the mediocre pilots, and mentor and give valuable CFI and regional experience to the pilots who will succeed. I am pretty sure there will be a significant washout rate for going from zero to hero that doesn't care what color you skin is or what bathroom you use. They can hire whoever they want into Aviate to make it look good/inclusive/diversified from the outside. It doesn't mean that every Aviate cadet/cadre will make it through to a class date at DENTK. Checkrides, personal attitude, commitment, skill and training records don't care if you wipe front to back or just shake it out.
edit: Hummingbear said it better with much bigger words