Thread by @BuzzFeedNews

For many people of color, working remotely improved their mental health because they’ve avoided office racism. Now as offices around the country prepare to reopen, many are anxious about racist microaggressions when they return. buzzfeednews.com/article/veness…

Some people of color shared feelings of loneliness due to remote work and worried about becoming professionally invisible. But most said it provided relief from having to conform to white corporate culture, hearing colleagues make racist comments, or feeling othered.

“I didn't have to deal with a lot of the things that come with being brown, like [white colleagues] asking my opinions about how to make something culturally sensitive,” Amelia, a Latina attorney, said, noting that the last year has been the most productive of her career.

Employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News also said remote work also gave them the privacy to emotionally process the endless reports of violence against people of color without having to coddle white colleagues, some of whom may have only recently started thinking about inequality.

But while corporate America has made sweeping diversity and inclusion pledges over the last year, non-white employees said they wonder whether that flash of support will amount to any meaningful change or whether biases come back once public pressure dissipates.

“It almost feels like temporary empowerment, because it's only empowering as long as I'm able to stay in my cocoon. Once I have to go back out, then that peace is going to be ripped away from me,” Linnea, a Black woman who works in public policy, said. buzzfeednews.com/article/veness…