According to the survey, black millennials are more likely than the black professionals who came before them to feel they have a responsibility to represent their race, and they are more likely to feel they should bring their authentic selves to the office.

They are also more likely to be dreaming about leaving their current job if the one they have does not offer fair and ample opportunities for growth, creating the risk of a costly brain drain.

Hierarchies Among Black Employees

Black professionals do not want to be lumped under the umbrella of “people of color.” Not only does it flatten their experience within the wider pool of underrepresented groups, the study says, it assumes that all black people in the workplace experience it the same way.

The black immigrant population in the United States has increased fivefold since 1980, and black immigrants often have different perspectives than American-born black people on what it means to be black in America. According to the report, white people tend to prefer and give better opportunities to Afro-Caribbeans over African-Americans, and African-Americans are more likely than immigrants from Africa to say that colleagues have underestimated their intelligence.

Full-time professionals of Afro-Caribbean descent are more likely than those with African or African-American roots to have access to senior corporate leaders, the study found. “Heritage shapes black professionals’ experience of the workplace in profound ways,” the report says, contributing to hierarchies that are rarely discussed.

Talent Continues to Be Left Behind

A Pew Research Center survey this year found that half of white Americans agreed with the statement “There is too much attention paid to race and racial issues in our country these days.” The new study cites that finding repeatedly to reinforce one of its major points: that while most black professionals are keenly aware of inequities that slow their advancement, many of their white peers are largely ignorant of them.

Black professionals surveyed for the new study were more likely than white professionals to say that the primary beneficiaries of diversity and inclusion efforts have been white women. And “very few respondents — including white employees — think that white women are using their power to advocate for other underrepresented groups,” the report notes.