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.
Quotas
When I first got the job, I was filling out the forms. I was like, what should I do? Being Middle-Eastern, technically, I'm white. Being Egyptian and Egypt is in Africa, do I choose African-American? I was being friendly to the HR person so I asked what I should do. She said, could you pick the minority? I said, yeah, sure. I am an African, I am a minority. Why not pick African-American?
My company has 1000 people now. When I started I was the only Arab-American in the whole company. I was the only Muslim in the whole company. They used to call me the "Trophy Arab." Which is probably true.
