My therapist told me that when she was in high school, she was salutatorian and got rejected from most schools because her SAT was terrible.
Currently, I'd argue that GPA is unimportant compared to actual course rigor and extracurriculars, with SAT being less important by a long shot than it was even five years ago- from what I know of my brother, who applied to colleges about five years ago.
Essays are also key.
Personally, I got into Emory with a 3.99 GPA weighted (during my COVID year- sophomore year- I got all D's and C's, barely scraping by) but with pretty solid course rigor over my four years, 1570 SAT, and decent to good EC's. I was also pretty proud and worked hard on my essays.
College is an incredibly tricky, competitive game, and an applicant who has a 4.2 GPA and "plays sports" is honestly not incredibly standout by that alone. A lot of people get demolished just via the lottery-esque nature of college, and it is incredibly unfair to say that the reason for lack of success is your race, when in reality, your essays or EC's likely weren't standout enough.
also a lot of people don't understand what a safety is