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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.
Divide and conquer
- Workplace Unfairness
- Male
- African-American
- Banking - Investment
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Mentors
- Personal Response
The few jobs that they let us have we're trying to beat out each other for it. By creating competition amongst us they discourage us to mentor one another. I wanted to create a financial literacy program to help other young business professionals and one black guy came up to me and asked why I was creating a program to help other minorities in the industry when they would end up taking my job. I hoped that other minorities would end up having jobs like mine.