By Mandela Schumacher-Hodge, medium.com
I have never felt so Black at work as the day Eric Garner was killed on July 17, 2014, the day Michael Brown Jr. was killed on August 9, 2014, the day Tamir Rice was killed on November 22, 2014, the day Walter Scott was killed on April 4, 2015, the day Freddie Gray was killed on April 19, 2015.
No one at my job said anything. Through all those senseless and horrific deaths of Black men and children at the hands of White police officers, not one person at my job said anything about it. Not one person at my job was Black either.
A few years have passed since I’ve been at that company, but I have never forgotten that feeling; the feeling of being utterly distraught, yet so completely alone in my sadness.
Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up writing a piece about the first time a White person at work actually acknowledged our long-standing American tragedy of racism, bigotry, and injustice. That first time was this week.
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