Go re-read @MWolf’s post. PhD admissions are a different animal from UG admissions and while diversity matters, there are field- and degree- specific metrics that also matter.
A PhD is first and foremost a research degree. If you haven’t done any primary research- through your own undergraduate work, or working in a policy position- you are starting on the back foot.
The people who select PhD candidates are definitionally academics, so your academic history matters: your relevant coursework, academic record and LoRs from faculty and researchers.
You are anxious that you not get an extra boost because of your ethnicity, which is admirable. But based on what you have posted here, your CV is pretty thin for a PhD program. That combined with your off-handedness in why you are considering doing a PhD at all is going to run head-long into applicants who are more experienced, more qualified and more dedicated. When universities are figuring out who they are going to support for 5 years, that will matter.