"African American traders, except for the lowest positions of clerks, were underrepresented. It was a very racist and prejudiced place. But I experienced only a slightly higher level than I’d experience naturally. What I did observe, when you’re experiencing some form of discrimination, you are unaware of it, but what I was acutely aware of was the anti-woman perspective ... They would crumble up a girl's resume. They'd say, 'We don't hire girls because they cry.' On the floor, it’s a very sort of almost military barking back and forth that goes on. It’s not an Oprah Winfrey show...On top of that, they said girls are a distraction."
There was "this dismissive attitude that because there aren’t women here, then they aren’t good. The reason they are not here is because they’re not good at trading - that’s one lesser degree of it." [There was also an attitude of,] 'You fire them and then they sue you for sexual harassment.'"
"I was subject to racial slurs, the jokes, the inappropriate stuff, which you just deal with and you’ve dealt with your whole life … the floor is just a crass place ... People would stop me and say, 'Why are these n*****s doing such and such?' There’d be something in the news, a protest or something, racial tension. The worst thing for me was being in a position where I have to stand by a principle or duck and win by success."
"I was so arrogant and felt like I was going to make it that it didn’t bother me that much. And because you don't see the job you don’t get, the job offer you didn’t get, you’re not as upset. The girl’s resume that got crumpled up on the floor and got one thousand no’s, she didn’t hear, 'You’re a girl and you're going to cry and that's why we didn’t hire you.' So she’s not p***** off."