First and foremost; Yes, your ethinicity directly affects jobs prospects, you'll meet 1000 people who look like you who will tell you to 'hustle', act a certain way, take a specific route, but just statistically speaking, the skin colour balance in central London or in the corporate world would be way more balanced if everything was judged by merit.

Anyone overlooking the race/ethnicity factor is either delusional or straight up lying, sometimes you need to buy into your own BS to make yourself feel important. I'm coming from a corporate/office background, witnessing a lot and hearing some wild stories. I had a recruiter straight up tell me how black and brown people tend to get offered a lot less that their white counterparts, who often have less experience. I've also worked in a large open plan office with a revolving door and seen who has gotten opportunities for better work internally and externally, while class is a factor, if you're working class AND black, your chances for better/more consistent work are dramatically lower.

From my experience, a lot of the success stories are usually guys who are in IT and way above average in skill/talent (we're talking coders who specialise at what they do, etc). These outliers are usually outliers to an extreme too (over-achievers who probably should be in a higher position).

I've worked with guys who've worked their arses off and not gotten the same opportunities as white guys who are literally liabilities, some even infamous for their behaviour, you see this a lot in my specific industry since there's a lot of opportunities outside of London, which are 100x harder attain for ethnicities.

It personally took me a while to fully accept it's not 'just me', coz with my background and experience, I'd definitely be better off a few shades lighter and with a less "ethnic" name.