In the corporate world, race is always a touchy subject. You should almost never mention race without an HR rep in the room. (A good rule of thumb is to always pretend there is an HR rep in the room.)
The one exception is if there is something extremely and obviously off.
For instance, take a look here, a good long look...
http://www.nbcuni.com/...
There are 18 executives running NBC. Two of them are of color. One of those with a little extra melanin also happens to be the executive vice president in charge of diversity.
And now go to and count the faces of color at...
http://www.nbc.com/
And now un-count Jamie Fox or any other a guests on The Tonight Show last week.
Isn’t it nice that we are living in post-racial America?
And sure, this observation might be a little unfair, and no, I don't think NBC is a racist organization.
But if you are a middle manager with stellar performance reviews at NBC, and you see the make up of its controlling officers, how are you feeling about your chances of cracking into that top floor of the Ivory Tower?