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.
Health Care
I worked for a major health insurance provider when one of the Asian directors of a small research unit was hiring multiple Asian employees.
I had been with this particular company for almost eight years when I was told that the director of the department was planning to retire and I was next in line.
Another employee who had had been with the company for 18 years applied for a different position within the company but didn't get it so she started working for me.
When I was working on Wall Street, I actually had a boss say to me, "You know, you are the best on the floor but we can only give you a 2% raise.
In one of my first jobs as an accountant, I was the only black woman in accounting. It was during an office celebration for a holiday or something that one of the vice presidents started telling a story about a taxi ride.
Audit time came and the records of the white man I was replacing were all disorganized. Numbers didn't balance. Thing didn't add up. Because I replaced him, my boss was coming to me to find information for the auditors.
I put in my notice when I was going to move and I groomed a white man for two months to take my job. They split my job in two and gave him $20,000 more than what I was making. But he wouldn't take the job.
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 the only African-American in their management team and their fund accounting department. I was doing a wonderful job until a survey was sent out to rate our superiors. It was supposed to be confidential.
