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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.
I was referred by someone they trusted
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- Arab/Arab-American
- Banking - Retail
- Considering Leaving
- Clients
- Double Standards
- Recruitment
- Social Networks
- Stereotyping
- Unwelcoming Environment
I was speaking to a few people at work and telling them that I had not felt discriminated in my workplace. They said my experience may be very different than others because I was referred by someone they trusted. Someone who had worked there a long time had referred me to the job. They said that if my application had come to them from an unknown source, my treatment would have been different and the level of trust would have been different. They said they see a lot of things about Muslim-Americans in the news and media and what changed those perceptions was that I came from a trusted source. If that hadn't been the case, they said they might not have let me deal with clients and deal with wire systems. They would have been inclined to be more cautious. They said if there was one time that I had acted in a fishy way, it would have ruined my reputation with a lot of people. You always start from a negative.