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.
Low Expectations
I had taken a graduate level engineering course at an Ivy League school and I went in to ask the professor a question. Now, I have an undergraduate major in physics and a minor in math. It wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing.
In Corporate America, it was a little surprising to people that I was smart. The way I know I'm not welcome is that I'm extremely welcomed (they bend over backwards to make it look like I'm welcome, but it is awkward, and I know they are uncomfortable.) As long as I'm talking about how to cook black beans and dance salsa, I'm okay.
I was fortunate. I had an ally in my boss. While the board president was a woman who didn't always trust my abilities, my boss, a man, knew what I could do. We didn't have a managing director for a year, so he let me do it.
I got $2 million dollars to start a company, two months after 9-11. The capitalists asked, "Can you run a company?" People think of you as a technology entrepreneur, but technology entrepreneurs are not thought of as being good at running companies.
I started at the phone company in 1965. I got hired as a service representative, which was a good job. I was just going to go for work for a while because we needed extra money for a refrigerator. When I was in the class, the training for becoming a service representative, my instructor-I remember her vividly-- said to me, "If you try really really hard, you could be a good service rep." So of course, when I was promoted within two months, I said to her, "I tried really, really hard." At that time, I just shook it off.
I joined the technology company in the mid-80s. They wanted to be become a market-driven company, rather than an engineering-driven company. They recruited me because I had been at a large competitor and had been quite successful.
