here & now
12 █
“I was always excited to be greeted by the familiar 'Hola!' and the short back and forth that would follow. This was from the gentleman who collected the garbage from under our desks at the end of each workday; we had formed a warm comradery of sort during my time on coop. And while a fully Hispanic cleaning staff in an overwhelmingly white office was always deeply unsettling to me, our daily conversations were often the only moments of BIPOC solidarity I had during those four months.” 13 “We had a design charrette where another white █ male and I were the only interns during the session. I worked 2 weeks on the site model we were showing the options on, and the final design we decided to go with was based on my iteration. He was the one who got to present the whole proposal to the partners and the client, and was recognized as the 'young man with unbelievable potential'.”
“...our daily conversations were often the of BIPOC solidarity I had during those four months.” 14 █
“In early February I had come down to the lunch room to heat up my food, then a few colleagues sat down at the table to eat. I joined in on the usual small talk going around until it hit a mull. Trying to continue the conversation I openly asked, 'are you all joining the office dim-sum lunch next Friday to celebrate Chinese New Year?' Most of them were in favor of the free meal and social event, but one had spoken out. 'I think I’m going to pass - with this whole virus going around I’d like to avoid anywhere there’s gatherings of Chinese people'.” - Brandon Lim 19
