I'm a white woman w a diverse set of family, friends and students. I will have totally normal experiences in a business when alone. On another visit to the same location, with a tan, brown or black companion, we're treated w suspicion, derision and disdain. I've had to speak to branch managers about rude/prejudiced tellers, using precise examples. It's easy for a white person to say that reports of racism are exaggerated when they haven't had to negotiate life with a darker than white complexion. A bank has protocols, of course, but the word choice and body language when double checking information reveals the employee's bias. First paychecks are frequently in paper, before direct deposit gets set up. processed.aadvised folks w

When in doubt, you do a standard checkup, calling the company and see if the deposit is legit. You don`t give the customer the third degree.

In recent weeks I've lunched with a black woman I have started working with at city hall. I've never seen the bizarre behavior she has endured in my life and I am 60, certainly lunched with black women before. In one situation, after many small incidents, the man who was supposed to serve her literally walked out of the eating area, off to some other job responsibility. She had to chase him down to get her food. She has so much grace and poise, I was stunned. And yet, it was so close to that line that if I'd said something, he'd have insisted he was just forgetful. So yeah, this stuff is happening MORE, not less. That's why *I* kneel too.

I think we are crying "Racism" a little early here. I know prejudice is very much alive, but this story takes a big leap assuming that her difficulty had to do with her skin.

i have received insurance checks/irs checks that were for more than i had in my account and they put a 5 day hold on my check. no interrogation. just "i'm sorry Ms. Haskins but we are going to have to put a five day hold on this check because you don't have the funds in your account to cover it." "but we can release $XXX.XX of the check to you if you need us to" but 9 nine days? it doesn't take 9 days to verify funds. it might take a day or two. and then to call her into an office and interrogate her? i don't know if it was because she was a black female architect or not. all i can say is I'm a white female receptionist and i've never been questioned as to the validity of any check I've ever given my bank.

This happened 1 year ago. Seems like BP is getting desperate for clicks.

They followrd policy.

Caucasity should have been the word of the year sadly White Privilege is alive and in effect! Caucasity in a sentence? The sheer caucasity of white people refusing to do their job because they cannot conceive of a successful black person, they should all be fired!!

I worked in banking for 20 years, but that was at least 20 years ago. It used to be SOP with a new account and a large check. They will usually make a small amount available, with the rest coming available in increments over the next 7-10 days. It's a safety measure against check kiting. While I'm sure the system is a lot faster than it was when I was a banker, the check still has to go from the bank it is deposited at, to the local clearing house, to its home clearing house, to the bank it was drawn on, and then back to the customer. Then the customer must have time to dispute the validity of the check, and if the check is fraudulent, the process then proceeds in reverse to return it to the bank that accepted it. If she must deposit another paper check, there should be no issue, but most likely, she'll be on direct deposit by then.

Pretty awful story! But what is also awful is they still use checks in the US! They sent people to the moon almost 50 years ago, but still aren't able to do banking like they were living in 2017. A system like this facilitates groundless suspicion, bad customer treatment and even racism when the teller is a horrible person.

race related or not, how can you just "hold onto" someone else's money?! isn't calling to the company enough? people have to pay bills and eat for f**k's sake...

Managers have BOSSES and I would have had his down there in a heartbeat and reamed them both.

is sad this still happens but it does im scared for some of my friends children out there driving

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Who the hell pays in Cheques these days , Not even social services , EFT that's the only way ,, if it was a cash cheque the info of the bank account should come up , standard procedure stuff .. Don't understand people having to wait for a Cash cheque if non negotiable then you would wait.. This all sounds relatively rude treatment of her.. He would have to use defamatory racial slurs at her to be racist in the eyes of the law , but we all now racism is only skin deep .. It lays quite shallow just beneath the surface not too deep and peoples attitudes towards each others races are pretty condescending at times.. Pretty much the whole planet is racist to a large degree ,, Now don't deny it !!

We are all so quick to accept this story as being 100% truthful, when in fact a ton of stories from the past 2-3 years have been proven false in nature. Stories made up just ot get donations or attention. Who verified this account of actions by the bank before they printed this story ?

Yes, the US seems to have a very old-fashioned banking system. Sending cheques around is pre-historic. But it seems the US is getting direct payment, something most Europeans countries already have for decades. Now, if they make their banks safe and stable enough, they could even use IBAN numbers for their bank accounts. With those you can make direct payments to all countries in the world that also use IBAN numbers, like all EU countries and many Arab nations, but also Brazil. It would make banking a lot cheaper and safer.

I am surprised at people getting paid by check, what's wrong with online deposit system ? Sounds backwards to me. I live in the UK and wages have been paid straight to bank for over 30 years.

I knew I had read about this story some time ago. Its from 2016 but still so maddening!

To me, there is too little information to make a call about the bank's agenda. The way the architect described her experience was in prose form. Just give me the facts and correct details of the conversation and let me decide. I know this happens; I know people are profiled like this every day and there is a reason she felt as she did. Whether her feelings are from her life experience or THIS experience I cannot say without further information. We are so quick to jump to conclusions about these things- but ultimately she wins because she IS a woman with means and she DID have a valid check. So maybe the bank rep will think twice next time.

Soooooo this happened a year ago 🤔. Granted- the bank manager was an a*s for putting her through the Inquisition but a hold on an out of state business check is far from outrageous. The bank issued an apology for the way this way handled on October 11, 2016 but the climate is right so let's all fight about it NOW👌

That "when" thing got old really fast, huh? Kind of, just KIND OF loses it's weight when overused to that ridiculous amount.

Snowflakes/SJWs are at again honestly it could happen to anybody regardless of their skin colour.

Sounds like b******t

Not a banking while black story. It was a new bank account. With an out of town company and a large check. Bank has laws they need to follow. She needs to go sit down

Accounts like these are why I have a hard time believing that racism exists to the level people say. I'm a pasty white guy and banks hold almost every check I deposit, and I've been their customer for years, that's why you do direct deposit. Banks can't just verify checks at the push of a button, if they could there would be none of this Nigeria fraud where people cash a check, send money back, and then realize the check was a fraud. Rather than immediately claiming it's racism, why not ask if it happens to others? In this case it does, to almost everyone.

One of the first things HR does is ask you to fill out a direct deposit form, Everyone! even purple people!

In 1980 I accepted a job to work in Miami, FL from a manpower supplier in Kansas City, MO. I had to move from Maryland in order to accept the position, which I did. I am a white 40 year old man and upon arriving in the Miami area, opened up a bank account so that I could cash checks and pay bills, such as rent and electricity. ALL my checks were issued from a bank in Kansas and as such, were subject to a 10 day hold. The person in this story may feel that discrimination was at play here, and it may well have been, however they need to know that when you open up a new account and start depositing out of state checks, questions will arise. Florida is particularly cruel on this but they have good reason. Florida experiences many snowbirds and tourists and dealing with checks from out of state banks is dangerous as you cannot always determine on the spot if the funds exist in the bank from which the checks have been drawn.

i am not black but have same thing happen to me...bank closed my account.....I know of a person that printed fake checks and had them cashed...the technology today is amazing..you can print off fake coupons that work at stores

Wow. The banker is lame!!! I'm sorry the employer HR wldnt identify their own employees.

Outrageous

I live in the Seattle area and I will tell all of my friends to boycott key Bank for this!

I don't think this was race related. Seems more because it was a new bank account

I'm willing to go along with the non-racial-related explanations for this, because they're also plausible. It's hard to fathom nowadays, with all the anti-racism campaigns being shoved down our throats on a daily basis, that someone would go risk their business reputation by being racist to someone.

I guess by now this bank is punished. I mean who will open en account with a bank who treats poeple like that.

Maybe I missed the part about it being a brand new account? Everyone is upset that it's all because it's a new account, but not once does she say she just opened it. It's been her bank for some time is what I'm understanding.... and that treatment was a bit over the top, no matter who she was.