I think it's out there, not something that I have thought about in my daily life, but somehow, I just feel like it is there...
As a white person... does this mean that subconsciously I believe Whites are superior somehow, I don't think so? I think all people (and animals) tend to be more comfortable and safer with people (or creatures) that look like the people we grew up with as very young children....there was a documentary on this on the Discovery channel not long ago that was interesting regarding this....
So, if you are using skin tone as the criteria... and a majority of a certain skin tone of people in the workforce are managers, store owners, CEO's, Directors, etc and doing most of the hiring, I can see how...in a subconscious way, that with 2 equal candidates to hire, of two different skin tones, they would hire the candidate they feel most comfortable with, the one with the same skin tone in most cases....
without a single racist thought or intentional malice.
And also, as a white person, interviewing with another white person, it could make me more at ease in the interview than a person of color would be, which also could give me a silent edge, again, without even being aware of it.
So, especially after watching that science experiment / documentary, I think there could be something called "white privilege", that's real, but not necessarily done with any kind of malice.