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.
Vanessa Geller's Experience
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.
All this was going on while my mother's health was in decline. I was also mentally preparing for surgery. Then there was a snafu with the insurance and they declined my surgery. It turned out there was some paperwork that wasn't submitted.
It got to the point where they were tagging some of my staff and asking me to write them up because they were thought of as below-average employees. It was a legal issue. The only reason they were writing this one woman up was because she was an older female who was content in her position.
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.
One of the reasons I left involved an ethics issue. Something had happened in the morning and they wanted me to process one account a certain way in the morning. Then in the afternoon, the policy was completely reversed and "mum" was the word.