Browse Stories
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.
But there is a meaning behind the joke
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- Arab/Arab-American
- Telecommunications
- Considering Leaving
- Beards
- Exhaustion
- Stereotyping
- Unwelcoming Environment
Stereotypes? Yeah. Constantly. Frequently I don't pay attention to how I look. My beard can grow long until one day I feel like shaving it off. I was in Iraq and came back to work and my manager called me into his office. He says to me, "What have you been doing over there?" Then he emailed me a link to a picture of young Zarqawi. I thought, "Yeah, that looks close. I could see the resemblance." But that is why he thought I was going home. This is in a joking manner. We would joke very openly. But I would never pick on him about his culture, his Indian background or something like that, the way he would pick on me. But there is a meaning behind the joke. So when someone is joking with you, they are trying to get a sense of something. Or is that his way of befriending me? It gets blurry.