I had a lot of apprehension before writing this piece. Aside from the fear of being blacklisted and never working in Canadian media again, I was worried I would look ungrateful. I was worried my stories were too small, or not racist enough. After all, workplace racism is insidious and slow, and we’re conditioned to take it silently and fear authority. Plus, these people gave me opportunities. After I left The Social, I was hired to work part-time on a show for the Bell Media streaming service, Crave. I was so grateful for the opportunity (and worried I wouldn’t get another like it), I took the gig in spite of and because of my past experiences at the company. I had all my career bests and worsts in the same building. I can’t count how many times the words, Think of how many people would kill for this job! have run through my head throughout my career. I have never reported a racist incident to HR. I have stayed quiet in moments I should have spoken up. I am speaking up now because I know Bell Media has committed to hiring more Black and Indigenous people . (Bell Media did not respond to a request for comment on this story.) They have promoted their one Black executive. The Social has promised its team that their next producer will be Black. I’ve heard that they are working on their pitch process and taking steps to implement changes to the culture. I’m glad, but I couldn’t let someone else walk into that environment without doing everything I could to make sure it’s a safer space than when I was there. And to let the executives at that company know that hiring one Black person isn’t enough, especially since every person in a senior position on The Social is white. “Workplaces that are all white except for one Black person are violent spaces for us,” comedian Robin Thede tweeted . “We have to wear emotional armor every day. We have to deal with microaggressions that chip away at us… The sooner you understand this, the sooner you can dismantle systemic racism.”