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.
The Vice President of Diversity avoided us
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Lesbian
- Retail
- Arts/Entertainment/Media
- Diversity Policy
- Exclusion
- Manager
When the new Vice President of Diversity was brought on I was hopeful that she would be supportive of the LGBT community. It turned out that she was exclusive and refused to speak to us. When we had scheduled meetings with her she kept delaying the meetings. Once, when we finally were able to meet with her she verbally attacked a gay colleague and later in the meeting tried to apologize. The place was totally exclusive not inclusive.