In my first job on a construction site as a young civil engineer, my boss didn’t think the Confederate flag draping the wall behind his desk was a problem. Systemic racism and unconscious biases were common in architecture, engineering and construction in the 1980s. I really got along well with this man despite his despicable views. He put me in a different category than the Black craft workers on our projects, who my former boss treated as second-class citizens. He would berate them, as if they were lazy, for taking naps on their lunch break. In truth, many of them struggled to balance a tough work day while attending night school as well.

Years later we can’t deny that racism persists. In 2018, the Associated General Contractors founded the Culture of Care project in Seattle after two Black workers discovered a noose in their work area and their foreman and supervisor made light of it. Threatening incidents are still too common; sexism is a problem, too. I know contractors that have had to pay damages for hostile jobsite environments.