After suffering racist abuse during her formative years, Angelica Ojinnaka spent most of her working life concealing part of her identity.

"I was called a multitude of different animalistic racial slurs — told to change my skin in different ways," she explains, but deliberately avoids repeating the exact words that were used or detailing the violence she experienced as she says it remains traumatic.

Ms Ojinnaka, 25, who was born in Australia to parents who migrated from Nigeria, says after that painful high school experience, she would try to behave less stereotypically "African", and appear "whiter".

She says she would do things such as straighten her hair and change the way she spoke.

"For years, African people have been called gangs, or [labelled as] having gang mentality, or not being in environments that are professional, even though we very much are [professionals]," she says.

"I used to think that 'oh, well, maybe I will have to take away the parts that are less of my cultural identity just to get a job or just to get in the door'.

"I had to be less 'African' to fit in — I feared my identity for a long time."

This is called "code-switching" — the way in which someone, consciously or unconsciously, adjusts their language, behaviour and/or appearance to fit into the dominant culture.

And according to a new report from the Diversity Council Australia (DCA), it is common in Australian workplaces.

DCA surveyed almost 400 self-identified "culturally and racially...

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