What Happened to American Meritocracy?

I think in the modern day America, the idea of meritocracy and everything that goes with it should be questioned. Whether it be the ability to gain social status or economic class through only hard work and the quality of one's effort. I don't think it is possible for people to get to their desired social class and societal output without being privileged. The sheer amount of inequalities and injustices that occur in the United States of America do nothing but make it nearly impossible for certain groups to take advantage or even feel the effects of meritocracy. I would argue that the idea of meritocracy might only apply to the people who have experienced social ascension, purely because these people achieved that through privilege not pure meritocracy. I do know that many people do manage to rise through the social and economic ranks through hardwork and perserverance, but this simply is not a universal truth. Meritocracy, as described in the United States, postulates that everyone, meaning quite literally everyone, can achieve their goals through pure hard work and effort. This is not the case. The cognitive dissonance that exists when it comes to believing in meritocracy is astonishing. Many people, usually privileged white people, say that meritocracy exists while they participate in racist, discriminatory behaviors hindering the ability of others to live in a meritocracy. This leads to the idea of moral capitalism and if it is even possible for this to exist in the United States or anywhere. If moral capitalism and meritocracy were to exist, then large corporations wouldn't be able to participate in exploitive labor practices and people would have to be paid fair wages in all lines of work, housing prices and wages would have to equal to each other, companies would have to never profit off of minorities or racist practices, and they would have to be environmentally conscious. But even if all of these thing were true, meritocracy still wouldn't exist in a true form due to other things like University cost and admissions practices, person to person discrimination, and other factors. This is why I believe American Meritocracy shouldn't be an idea on which we base our national image and policies, and Americans should work hard to reverse the current course in order to actually achieve the American ideal.