that has struggled with non-white voters.

At a retreat in late May, Buttigieg campaign manager Mike Schmuhl set a goal for the campaign staff to be composed of a minimum of 40% people of color. Today, according to the campaign, 40% of its senior advisers identify as people of color, 46% of its senior leadership and department heads identify as people of color, 40% of the overall campaign staff identify as people of color, 52% of the staff are women and 28% of staff identify as LGBTQ.

The campaign planned and held a second retreat in December. And at the request of campaign staff, the campaign organized "Building Belonging" sessions in December and early January focused on diversity and inclusion.

According to The New York Times, which obtained a recording ofthe January meeting, staffer Katrina Smith, who was on the vetting team, lamented the campaign's decision to initially green light the Patton fundraiser.

"The decisions that were made on those committees that ended up impacting everybody on the campaign, especially people of color, were hard ones and were not considered appropriately because of the makeup of the committees," Smith said, according to the recording reported by the Times.

Ahead of the January session, a staffer distributed a survey asking people of color to detail "microaggressions in the workplace." The survey instructed staffers to "only fill out this survey if you identify as a person of color." It noted it "will be used to inform our white colleagues about privilege and microaggressions."

A staffer of color who was also involved with the