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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.
Double standards were an obstacle to being a good mentor to another Asian lawyer
One thing that makes it hard if you are a mentor is that if you are in a position to mentor someone you have to make sure that the person you are mentoring is good enough to mentor. Otherwise, it is going to be a reflection of you as an Asian mentoring someone else who is also Asian. So you end up being hard on the person you are mentoring. You are more selective of who you will mentor because it will be a reflection of whether or not you have good judgment. It's a bit harder for an Asian mentor to just pick someone. If you are a white guy no one is gong to judge him for mentoring a white guy. If it doesn't work out, okay, it just didn't work out. It won't be a reflection of his judgment.