ancient civilisations and empires in history

let's list 'em.
off the top of my head, there's ancient greece (philosophy! sculpture! tragedy!), rome (gladiators), the byzantine empire/constantinople (mosaics, awesome architecture), ancient india (uh.. elephants?), ancient egypt (pyramids and papyrus!) .. ancient china (vases, funny hats and robes), feudal japan (ninjas)

am I missing any? add please.

Again, you're not getting it. You and I may consider race an
"irrelevant demographic" but how do we keep those who consider race (an irrelevant deomgraphic) as a merit from disabling a meritocracy?

Present-day "Scientific statistics" would be numbers based on the cultural disparities and the re-enforced white privalege-based social gap >>135 mentions. Coldly taking that approach while ingoring history is building the framework for a meritocracy doomed for failure.