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.
Assumptions
As an IT consultant, I am often on 9-12 month contracts. This means I search for a new position at least once a year.
I was stereotyped as a man hating lesbian, while serving as the manager of a corporate chain restaurant.
As a college graduate from a women's college, I was lucky to always feel like I was more than just my body but when I aced a review faster than my male colleagues, one of them nonchalantly told me that I was "smarter than you look.
Within six months of my new job, I found out I was pregnant. I told my boss, "I'm so happy. I'm pregnant." My boss quit talking to me for a week. It was very strange because we were so close. So I pulled him aside and asked, "What's wrong here? Why aren't you talking to me?" He said, "Well, you know, you were my walk-on-water.
I was working with a consultant, who was just hired. In the first couple of days, he said to me, "You have an accent, right? Where are you from?" The way he said it, the way he was trying to get to know where I was from...my accent isn't Middle-Eastern and my looks, I could look Spanish or Italian, so the first few days he asked me.
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.
I was taking a speaking class and my instructor asked the class a question. He said to me, "You look political. Why don't you answer the question?"
The FBI called my manager at work. My manager pulled me into his office and asked, "What have you done?" And then they started asking other friends as well and my friends told me about it. So finally they called me, I said, "Finally! You should have called me right away rather than going around like this." That created a lot of tension in the workplace.
Most of job tasks are related to clients. I go around and meet people all the time. I go around and have lunch with different people everyday. It's all about networking and it's all about very wealthy people.
My first three months on the job--I started in September--so after a few months the holidays started. I noticed a lot of movement between my managers. There was a lot of stuff going on and they won't talk about it in front of me for some reason.
