"Listen, I'm no bigot. I'm just tired of not being heard because I'm white," said 24 year old advertising assistant Kelsey Brumfield. "I don't think its fair that my stuff isn't acknowledged as much as somebody else because of my race, or whatever. I'm all for equality, but it's tough for me too."

Her statements were a response to recent claims against her employer, Boulder&Rice Ad Agency, for not staffing enough people of color or integrating diverse perspectives.

"I'm not prejudice, but I feel like no one pays attention to caucasian women in the workplace. If you're black or Latino, everybody listens now. Not in a racist way or anything, but it isn't fair," Brumfield said.

The state of race relations in the workplace has been at the forefront of American dialogue, with diversity and inclusion programs picking ups steam across the country. "I swear I'm not racist," continued Brumfield, "I'm just saying it can be uncomfortable for me as a white person."

When asked if she has had sustained dialogue with minority co-workers about their experiences, Brumfield said she had, and that she has "many, many black friends." She added, "And my cousin married a black guy, and they have black kids, so I'm obviously not racist."

Boulder&Rice emailed us a response to the recent controversy:

"Boulder&Rice does not condone racism, bigotry, or any sort of discrimination. We ourselves are not racist, and are weighing the issues carefully in attempts to improve the workplace experience for all employees. Additionally, we have black and Latino clients, so we clearly are not racists."

Whistleblower Angela Nichols, former employee of Boulder&Rice who brought these diversity problems to the forefront this year, was concise in her response to Kelsey Brumfield: "She's not racist like Taylor Swift isn't racist. Work isn't hard for her, when she decides to do it. I can't even dignify that."

When we relayed Angela's message to Kelsey, she seemed visibly hurt: "I'm not racist, but I guess that's what I'm talking about," she responded. "That's a bummer, for sure. I always complimented her on her hair, and I called her 'girlfriend.'"