“It was the first time I realized what racism felt like in the modern world. I felt like I was being bullied every day at work.”

Photo: Seth Herald/Getty Images

Layllen Sawyerr, a former compliance analyst for the cryptocurrency startup Coinbase, was one of 15 Black employees — about three-fourths of Coinbase’s total Black employees — to leave the company between late 2018 and early 2019, according to new reporting by the New York Times. Most of the 15 who left as well as some current Black employees have cited racist or discriminatory treatment from managers and co-workers. This news comes just two months after Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, wrote a September blog post arguing that despite the “difficult” social and political developments of the past year (including “social unrest” and “widespread protests and riots”), Coinbase would avoid being “an activist company” — engaging in discussion over politics or broader societal issues — in favor of focusing on cryptocurrency. To help Coinbase stay a “mission focused company,” Armstrong asked employees to put “the company’s goals ahead of any particular team or individual goals” and “assume positive intent amongst our teammates.”

But as Laszlo Bock wrote for Marker in October, the concept of a “politics-free office” is a fallacy. With the widespread devastation felt by so many in 2020, “Everyone is processing social and economic turmoil,”…