I Was The Black Woman In A Mostly White Office. Now I Fear White Liberals More Than Overt Racists.

"She had only been with the company for eight weeks. We hadn't yet established a strong working relationship. It wasn't our first one-on-one, but it was the first that showed me what was coming. It marked the beginning of a tense dynamic that chipped away at me until, a year and a half later, I found myself at my desk, wondering if I had to completely break to have someone recognize the harm I was carrying."

""As a woman," she said, "I will no longer let my voice go unheard." For me, it was a moment of tone deafness and a clear signal that she would make everything about her. I am a Black woman. Both my race and gender are silenced in these spaces, and her words erased that reality. My voice isn't often welcome in rooms like this, so her opening felt less like solidarity and more like a monologue."

"She then told me she was frustrated that I had kept my back to her during a recent meeting with our director. I remembered the moment: She and the director stood behind me while I read dates off the calendar on my screen to keep us on track. My desk faced the wall, so turning to her would have meant moving my entire computer setup. It wasn't personal. It wasn't even memorable. But here we were."

A sudden, vaguely titled meeting set a tense tone between a recently hired supervisor and a Black woman employee. The supervisor's opening claim of refusing to let her voice be unheard felt tone deaf and self-centered to the employee, who already experienced racial and gender silencing. A minor logistical critique about the employee facing away during a meeting escalated into control and interruption, triggering tears and shutdown. The interaction marked the start of a year-and-a-half-long dynamic that gradually eroded the employee's emotional well-being and left her questioning how much she would have to break to have harm recognized.

Read at BuzzFeed