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.
Impact/Effect
How dare he...
After working 3 or 4 full weekends I came in for a check-in with my boss. He hardly looked up, blurted out the response which was hardly helpful, waived his arm at me and then said, "Go do whatever it is you do..." Well, that sure did make me feel lousy for the rest of the day.
I left a month ago and I am going through this trauma. They were doing things to harass me and I didn't report it. I didn't have the energy to fight. I didn't want to make things more complicated for myself.
At work people took everything I said and took it out of context. I am a Christian, but it didn't matter to them. They saw me as a threat. One time I said, "You know, Jesus was a Palestinian. He was born 15 minutes away from where I was born." It didn't matter.
