I have heard of some schools who do limit the number of students who go into honors classes (call it resource allocation). As space gets tight, they may start picking the known “squeaky wheels”, those whose parents are quick to be there for backup. You may have fallen in the quiet crowd. Bee, OTOH, may have been one of the squeaky wheels. Racism may or may not have anything to do with it. I am glad to hear you successfully advocated for yourself. It’s a useful skill that can take practice.