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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.
Same Words, Different Meaning
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- African-American
- Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical
- Being Yourself
- Communication Styles
- Double Life
- Double Standards
- Stereotyping
If a white person in the corporate word uses language that you mostly associate with hip-hoppers, it's typically seen as urban and cool. But if blacks use that same language we are seen as ghetto and inappropriate. We have to shift our words between our different worlds. If you talk to your girlfriends the way you talk at work your girlfriends act kind of shocked, as if you are speaking a different language.