Hi Mandela — I’m a black(ish) male in tech and my direct boss tried to talk about it after Trayvon Martin, but he just didn’t realize what he was saying. I’m the highest ranking IT person at the company, and I employ the only other black person at the company. My employee is from Oakland, and I’m from Cleveland so we do share that bond. And we do talk about it. But it’s quite rare.

After Oscar Grant was executed at Fruitvale, I tried to not talk or think about it at work. One of my coworkers kept calling him a punk and all of this, real venom in his eyes. It took everything in me not to unload on him. It’s truly a difficult discussion to have because they have to really empathize with you, and look around to see that no one looks like you. I find that to be quite difficult.

After the Trayvon Martin verdict, I wrote a piece on Medium called Being Black(ish) in America to help explain life through my eyes. I shared it with a few coworkers and they started to understand. For anyone to understand, they need to see it or at the very least, read it.