Since last summer’s protests, many companies have made pledges and started funds towards equity. This week, the situation with Rachel Nichols, ESPN and Maria Taylor points to confirming the suspicions a lot of Black people have had over the last year: A lot of the gestures are symbolic, people that support publicly feel very different in private and diversity is good up until it’s the position you want or have.

Nichols, who is white, suggested race was a factor in the promotion of Taylor, who is Black, to a prominent role at the global sports media network. Until the story broke this week, the only person punished was the Black producer that decided to not be a bystander and made Taylor aware of Nichols' comments. That producer has since left the company.

It relates to an issue that has come up in our reporting on the tech industry over the last year: retention. “No matter how many Black and Brown students I was able to get hired at Google, Black people were leaving Google at faster rates," April Curley, a former Google recruiter who herself left after discrimination disputes, told Technical.ly earlier this year.

Tell us: How do you navigate acts of racism in the workplace as a bystander? What do you do when you witness or see a bad actor that’s a detriment to the workplace culture and environment? Reply here or email us at baltimore@technical.ly.

—Donte Kirby, reporter, Technical.ly (donte@technical.ly)