I agree with everything, EXCEPT the above statement. I wouldn't say 'invisible', I'd say 'equal'.
Coworker was singled out a diversity training session because he was black, and happened to be the only black person in the room. He was LIVID....his point was thus... "Did you notice that I was the only black man in the room before they pointed me out?" (No)
"Did you notice that I was the only black man in the room after they pointed me out?" (Yes)
"I've worked here for years, and specifically built a reputation up to be a great network engineer." (he had) "And from now on, I'll be the 'black network engineer', instead."
He retired, not long after this. Huge loss for the company, as he designed Cisco networks for a hobby, and loved the fact that he could travel for free and get paid for his hobby as well. What a waste, and the HR wonk had absolutely no clue what she had done.
Wow. I'm surprised that was done. One of the first things they tell us in 'teaching for diversity' is that you don't single out people due to race, disability, whatever. jeez.
I turned down a doctoral fellowship at a school that wanted me to attend a summer program for new minority grad students. I hold a JD and 2 masters. I don't need anyone to teach me about the wonders of grad school, but because they saw the race on the application, they immediately thought I needed some kind of remediation.
I actually told the admissions committee why I was turning them down. I felt that if I went to this session, then classmates and faculty would always suspect my work - maybe I wasn't that great if I needed a summer course. I would have been handicapped before I began. Even if I did not attend the session, I didn't want to go to a place that ignored my accomplishments and saw me as a race.
An excellent illustration of how talking about race too much makes a big thing out of it and divides people.
Ticks me off, frankly.