I haven’t read every single response below, but thusfar I haven’t seen a single mention of HR.

Very simply — most whites are scared to discuss race at work. Most males are scared to discuss gender. There is no protection for a white male who wishes to engage in either or both conversations. If you want to bait your boss to get them fired, show them this article and then record the subsequent conversation.

Sadly, we all like to believe we encourage dialogue but lawsuit after lawsuit after firing after firing tells a different story.

White, male management can’t have an opinion on anything race- or gender- related. It’s not allowed and while you might genuinely appreciate it, it only takes one misinterpreted comment, one half-heard statement taken out of context, or, in my case, simply being in the room with a black coworker who, while making a positive statement about the future of race relations and engaging in a mutually respectful and growth-focused discussion, used the word ‘lynch’ as it is defined. I was white and within 50 feet so I was the one who ended up sitting in HR the next day. No one else got the call.

Until we have laws protecting, not preventing, free speech in the workplace, I do not recommend anyone take this article too much to heart, well-intentioned and important as it may be. You’ll end up out of a job for it, which isn’t likely to make you a very effective, nor helpful, ally. Real dialogue requires some mutual trust, and the HR firing squads are quite often more than happy to take sides based on image. White boss + black employee + race-related complaint = white boss loses. Against those odds and risks, why should you expect your former co-workers to speak a word beyond ‘did you see the monthly reports’ and ‘they got a new fridge in the break room’?