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.
Amir Zayadi's Experience
Should Amir Zayadi stay or go?
I try to be as open as possible and share as much information [about my background] as I can. Sometimes I avoid sharing information or getting into certain subjects just because I am tired and I have too much on my plate.
My previous job was with a consulting firm. I was there for about six years. I left because the company I was consulting for was going through reductions and consultants were going to be the first cut.
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.
I was taking a speaking class and my instructor asked the class a question. He said to me, "You look political. Why don't you answer the question?"
The FBI called my manager at work. My manager pulled me into his office and asked, "What have you done?" And then they started asking other friends as well and my friends told me about it. So finally they called me, I said, "Finally! You should have called me right away rather than going around like this." That created a lot of tension in the workplace.
If I have a political conversation with my co-workers on Monday, they will ask me the same stupid question again on Wednesday because they'll have seen something on Fox. It's like I'm playing tennis with Fox.