1. Many companies have a low interview bar. Anyone with a CS BS degree can get an interview at at least a few good companies. If not, you can spend time creating interesting Github projects to boost your chances.
2. Your performance in the interview usually depends on the amount of time you spend studying algorithms.
3. Most knowledge and skills in the industry can be found one click away. General software engineering jobs are self-learnable as long as you have an internet service and a web browsing device.
Additionally, networking plays a huge role in who hears about a job opportunity, who gets interviewed and who gets hired.
Tech's not perfect, but I think they do it better than most (all?).
None of them are, but tech isn't any better.
This does seem to be changing for the better thanks to the Internet, but there's still a very long way to go.
One thing for sure is that no industry in the world is all that meritocratic. But Music and Sports (even with the mainstream whitewash) for sure has a better social and racial distribution than any other industry I can think of.
I'm not trying to be negative towards your experience --- I'm glad you have a happy perception of the industry --- I just want to reinforce how important it is for us to improve diversity in all its forms before we start congratulating ourselves.