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.
Diverse Workforce
As a black money manager, I always felt like I had to be extra competent. I had to be better than the other money managers, not only to keep my job but for other younger minorities coming up behind me.
Out of 2,000 employees, I was the only Asian American engineering manager. There were a lot of bamboo ceiling issues that were hard to overcome.
The first and only time the organization had an Asian board member they made sure that the Asian board member saw the Asian employees before meetings.
My firm made isolated attempts to diversify but kept the sexist and racist managing partner
Some law firms I have been at make these isolated attempts to diversify. They bring in high profile people but they don't address the underlying culture.
I worked for a law firm two and a half months. I was the eighth person to leave within three months.
When I worked at the stock exchange, I noticed a not so subtle division of engineers into an "A" team and a "B" team.
I was a pioneer as the only black person in team "A" so everything I was involved with was a perceived risk for management.
When I was finally in a position to hire other employees, the first two people I happened to hire were black.
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 went through six interviews my first summer during business school and afterwards I compared notes with other students who interviewed with the same employers.
