Super nice, capable and smart...

and yet potentially discriminated against at Harvard.  NPR reported this morning that Desiree Goodwin, an assistant librarian at the Loeb Design Library at Harvard has filed a discrimination suit.  She states she's been passed over for 16 promotions and told that her race and her dress prevent her from succeeding.  I'm not surprised, given my own experiences in the work world.  The reality is that she is 40, exceptionally well educated and from my personal experience a fabulous resource at Harvard.  That she looks easily 15 years younger, dresses well, not inappropriately, and is of African descent are things that don't mesh well often in the work world's opinions of appropriate behavior for women and minorities.   Looking youthful, including being in healthy shape and in good spirits, are often declaimers for promotion of women; until they're then "old" and then they're too old for promotion.  I've found the people at Loeb Library to be nothing but kind and helpful to students, so please don't take my sympathy for Desiree as displeasure with the library as a whole.  But I recognize that there is a deep antipathy that runs counter to even so-called liberal ideals when a person of color is a good team player.  Another person I know was identified as a "non-promotable" by his supervisor: smart, capable, key to the business' success, youthful, deferential and congenial.  Given the quick promotions of less responsible, younger, inexperienced white men around him, it is very difficult to assume anything else except discrimination. 

My great hope is that Harvard will show itself to be a place that rectifies its wrongs: in the face of the scandals around Larry Summers, the environment is ripe for correcting an oversight as great as ignoring talent and making inappropriate remarks based upon race and gender.  Let there be a small haven of meritocracy some place in the United States under this evil administration.

Comments

[randy.f]

Hi Sarah, Celeste, everybody.

I am a door guard at Harvard. I am often supervised by a library assistant doing his/her first supervisory job. I know the pool. When I first met Desiree, within two sentences I knew she was very special. I went to court with her most days. Some highlights of the machinations are here:

http://www.openhuctw.org

and a commentable blog post here:

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/fensterm/

Both sides have rested their cases. Closing arguments Monday. We love to have anybody join us. Details at OpenHUCTW above.

-r

[Celeste Stuart]

Desiree is a good friend whom I've known for over a decade. I first met her at the Burns Library at BC. At the time, I was an undergrad and she was a graduate student employee working on her 1st master’s in English. She was very friendly and easy to work with, went out of her way to help patrons and she impressed me with being very knowledgeable. She later got a full time job at the law library at BC but then left it to work for Harvard. She went back to school at nights to get her MLS and garnered stellar performance reviews. . I recall on numerous occasions hearing from her about less qualified people with less experience on the job getting promoted over her. If Harvard were as competitive as they would have us believe then why would they choose a less qualified candidate repeatedly over Desiree? Something is wrong with this picture? I believe that Harvard is a nasty little clique and if you aren’t “in,” you’re out with nowhere to go. Desiree should be the textbook case in discrimination if we define that to mean that the decision to promote is based on anything other than education, employment performance and interpersonal skills all of which should have translated for Desiree into multiple promotions on the job. That she is an extremely well qualified black woman and was told by her supervisor that she would have no problem getting a job outside of Harvard makes me suspect that her race and gender were indeed a factor. Clearly it was not good enough for her to advance herself professionally while working at Harvard. As a black woman she had to be better not just as good as the rest. And even then she continues to be passed for a just and long overdue promotion. I hope the jury sees what I know to be true-that Desiree has been unjustly denied the ability to advance in her field at Harvard. It’s time for Harvard to be called to task and not continue to believe that they are above being fair.

[Celeste Stuart]

Desiree is a good friend whom I've known for over a decade. I first met her at the Burns Library at BC. At the time, I was an undergrad and she was a graduate student employee working on her 1st master’s in English. She was very friendly and easy to work with, went out of her way to help patrons and she impressed me with being very knowledgeable. She later got a full time job at the law library at BC but then left it to work for Harvard. She went back to school at nights to get her MLS and garnered stellar performance reviews. . I recall on numerous occasions hearing from her about less qualified people with less experience on the job getting promoted over her. If Harvard were as competitive as they would have us believe then why would they choose a less qualified candidate repeatedly over Desiree? Something is wrong with this picture? I believe that Harvard is a nasty little clique and if you aren’t “in,” you’re out with nowhere to go. Desiree should be the textbook case in discrimination if we define that to mean that the decision to promote is based on anything other than education, employment performance and interpersonal skills all of which should have translated for Desiree into multiple promotions on the job. That she is an extremely well qualified black woman and was told by her supervisor that she would have no problem getting a job outside of Harvard makes me suspect that her race and gender were indeed a factor. Clearly it was not good enough for her to advance herself professionally while working at Harvard. As a black woman she had to be better not just as good as the rest. And even then she continues to be passed for a just and long overdue promotion. I hope the jury sees what I know to be true-that Desiree has been unjustly denied the ability to advance in her field at Harvard. It’s time for Harvard to be called to task and not continue to believe that they are above being fair.

[CGHill]

My apologies for the second trackback; I was laboring under the delusion that this old version of Movable Type wouldn't duplicate them. Obviously I was in error. (Wouldn't be the first time.) Feel free to delete it, or both, should you so desire.