Think Like a White Man. Dr Boulé Whytelaw III

not to aggravate the situation further. This could serve to further ingratiate you, i.e. help you acquire power for yourself. However, make sure you keep a record – written and oral – of what happened. Yes, it’s the equivalent of wearing a wire, but you never know when this might become useful in the future.

      3. Consult a legal professional for expert advice and make them, the company, pay (financially) for the distress caused to you. Given the risk of potential reputational damage to the firm as a result of you suing, they may want to pay you to fuck off. But if they don’t, then tread carefully. This could quickly spiral out of your control.

      A working relationship is just that: a relationship. In order for it to work, sometimes you will have to create the impression that all is forgiven and forgotten.⁴ Sometimes you’re going to go through a bitter divorce and move on. And other times you’re going to have to go all Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez⁵ or Elin Nordegren⁶ up in there.

      Whatever you do, you must think with your head and not your heart: keep your eye on the prize.

      Barack Obama, the quintessential black professional, is a perfect example of a black professional retaining their cool in the face of shock (and awe). Whenever he was debating opponents, whether Hillary Clinton, John McCain or Mitt Romney (or even Bobby Rush, the former Black Panther who handed Obama his own backside in the 2000 Illinois congressional race), or having what turned out to be highly expensive playground tiffs with the likes of Donald Trump, his opponents could all demonstrate a degree of assertiveness that Obama simply could not. For him to respond to their combativeness in a similar manner would see him labelled ‘angry’, ‘aggressive’ or ‘thuggish’. Or ‘Muslim’. It would have been a campaign killer. A career killer. An aggressive form of exclusively anti-black cancer.