Behind the diversity curtain
The City of Piedmont has spent years trying to erase the racist foundation it was built on—but beneath the surface, the same injustice remains. Behind polished diversity statements and public gestures like the Dearing family land contribution, people of color working within the city are still being treated like they don’t belong.
Employees are overworked, underpaid, and disrespected—many doing the jobs of three people without recognition or fair compensation. While the city attempts to fix its image, POC employees are handed the dirtiest work and pushed to the margins. It’s performative progress masking a painful truth: racism here has simply evolved.
Some residents still use the word “colored” and openly question whether Black and Brown staff “belong” in the city. These aren’t just isolated remarks—they’re symptoms of a deeper rot that’s never been dealt with, only swept under the rug.
If this city truly wants to move forward, it needs to do more than hire people of color—it needs to respect them, listen to them, and protect them. Until then, it’s just modern-day slavery in a cleaner uniform.
We see it. We feel it. We’re speaking up.