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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.
When I made a typo is was an "English problem"
When I had errors on my work, even it was really minor, the partner would say, "There is an English problem here" instead just calling it a typo. Even stupid things like when I capitalized a term she didn't think should be capitalized she would call it an "English problem." It was really offensive. Everyone made typos but when I made them it was different. I felt singled out. But when we had an Asian client, they were more than happy to have me speak Chinese. My bilingual background only hurt me, it didn't help me when it benefited the firm.