Often, when someone is promoted within weeks of being hired, they were really hired for the promoted position, but it could not be done directly because of e.g. a budget or headcount issue. Given whatever you know about Francis' qualifications, would you have felt the same way if he had been hired directly into the research team?

hi and welcome! I added TL;DR section, please feel free to edit as needed. The body text has a lot of details

"And by quitting, it might just look like I'm admitting I did something wrong." - Wait, you're still convinced you are in the right here? You made a racist remark because they hired somebody else for a job spot you wanted, but somehow you're not in the wrong? How would you feel if somebody said "Well they only hired Gohn in this company because he/she is black/asian/hispanic and they needed to tick a diversity box"? You have zero clue on this person's work experience or skills, and judged them entirely on their skin color. This is called racism.

@dan-klasson For me it's just a paper they write his dismissal on.

Sounds like your friends ratted you out?

How would you feel if someone said you got your job because the company "needed to fill diversity quotas"? You would feel dismissed, and certainly would find the remark racist, wouldn't you? Saying someone got the job because of white privilege is in the exact same ballpark.

Can you explain what you mean by white privilege? Did you imply the process was racist or did you mean the process was unfair from the beginning, because you had different starting positions due to white privilege? Because one is calling your boss a racist and one is calling the general system you live in racist. That is a huge difference.

There are more appropriate channels to address your concerns about racial discrimination that gossip at lunch in the cafeteria. Your conversations with co-workers need to be within the bounds of professional behaviour. I make no judgement on whether or not a complaint is valid or not. Your way of handling this issue is unprofessional and was destined to be counter-productive. If you actually feel this is a case of racial discrimination, then this is a serious issue and a serious accusation. Either take it up with HR or an employment court. Do not gossip about it in the cafeteria.

Is it only my feeling that 12 weeks (so ~3 months) seems like a standard "test period" when entering a job? This does make it seem like what @PatriciaShanahan said is likely to be true (that he was hired specifically for that position). Still, casually making racist remarks about company with unbased (unless there are some arguments OP has and hasn't shared here) accusations about things that can have serious repercusions about said company... well, I guess OP is a really valued employee to not be kicked out immediately.

@johnyu That seems extremely likely. This Francis person was probably hired by the company with the idea of putting him in the research team already - the OP just wasn't privy to that information.

To the OP - we don't fight Racism - or any sort of prejudice, really - by doing exactly the same things that bother us. Don't judge others by their skin color if you don't want them to do the same to you. Don't judge others by their genitals if you don't want them to do the same to you. Don't judge others by their religion, sexual orientation, fourth favorite salad type, etc. If you want to judge if someone is fit for their job or not, look at their personality, skills, and experience - nothing else is relevant.

OP, I just want to add: when you feel that it is appropriate to attribute someone's success to their race (which by the way is not proven in any modern Western country, or even close to it), of course you won't be promoted to a leadership position. It is very likely that you will racially discriminate against your subordinates. No one who is as racist as you are should have power over other people's careers or work life. Congratulations, you played this game in the wrong place and this could very well follow you the rest of your career. At least, I hope it does.

One of the sad realities of white privilege is that many white people think talking about it is a personal attack on their character. It isn't. But people don't know that. Talking about white privilege is very uncomfortable for white people though.

@O.Jones - The OP made an accusation of racial discrimination to a co-worker in an informal chat. If the OP has a serious grievance, and actually wants to achieve something, then OP should have brought this issue up through the proper channels - HR, employment court etc. Gossip in the cafeteria - not such an appropriate channel, definitely counts as un-professional behaviour. Is this behaviour really appropriate for someone in a lead role?

@O.Jones I hope you meant that as a generic statement and are not defending OP's actions in anyway. OP was not "talking about white privilege", OP was using white privilege as a racist reason to dismiss the new colleagues experience , knowledge and qualifications.

@Gohn, I feel horrible for the advice I've given you! Please let us know what the lawyer says.