No hierarchy or society will ever be based purely on merit (after all, who decides what is meritable, is that also based on merit?). Clout is incredibly arbitrary regardless of what is going on or who is running things. White guys get a lot of unearned clout, for sure, but I've been part of a couple of orgs where the Asian-American new guys had familial clout and used that clout to push out both white and black members who did nothing but bust ass for those community orgs. It's a bigger problem than just white dudes.