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Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
That really knocked my confidence
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical
- Left & is now a Small Business Entrepreneur
- Engineering
- Education
- Low Expectations
- Stereotyping
I had taken a graduate level engineering course at an Ivy League school and I went in to ask the professor a question. Now, I have an undergraduate major in physics and a minor in math. It wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing. He assumed I didn't know basic algebra. He didn't give me the benefit of the doubt that I knew even basic math. That really knocked my confidence.