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.
Exhaustion
I'm from Iraq in addition to being Arab. So that's the icing on the cake these days. Everybody wants to know my thoughts. Everyone wants to ask, "Aren't you happy Saddam was captured? Aren't you happy democracy has been instilled?" I know for me in the workplace, stuff comes up.
Stereotypes? Yeah. Constantly. Frequently I don't pay attention to how I look. My beard can grow long until one day I feel like shaving it off. I was in Iraq and came back to work and my manager called me into his office.
