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This paper is a work in progress (WIP) assessing how engineers view aspects of the workplace culture affecting the extent to which they can authentically be themselves. Our conceptual framework includes Faulkner’s [1] concept of in/authenticity and Kendi’s [2] history of racist ideas in the U.S. In this paper we present experiences of three engineers working at the same company, which were collected as pilot data for an NSF-funded study. We found that the two White engineers saw no distinction between their personal and work identities. They saw the company’s values aligning with their personal values, and the workplace as being open and comfortable. In contrast, the Black engineer described taking on different identities in business settings and one-on-one interactions. Several instances of structural racism were identified including lack of attention to racial diversity while hiring, lack of diversity in the workplace, and colorblind attitudes. All participants saw the advantage of diversity, yet little action was taken to improve diversity in their company. With this project we intend to illuminate the experiences of Black engineers, and to make industry stakeholders more explicitly aware of diversity issues.