This story is so common for professional black people who do well for themselves it is sad. When people talk about institutional racism this is another example of what they are talking about.
WhoisSugar who I religiously followed on youtube and on social media shared a story about her friend Trish Cole Doolin a black architect who tried to deposit her check at KeyBank and received gross opposition from the bank.
They went as far as wanting to verify the woman’s employment.
This is what Sug shared on Twitter:
Read this from Atlanta BlackStar:
A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Doolin told BuzzFeed News she moved to Seattle recently. Since beginning at Nelson Connections, the company had not yet activated the direct deposit system. On Wednesday morning, she dropped by the bank to cash her paycheck and left.
Fifteen minutes later, the 37-year-old received a call from a bank teller BuzzFeed identified as Thor Loberg. A look on Loberg’s LinkedIn page reveals he is a personal banker at KeyBank in Totem Lake, Washington.
Loberg asked Doolin to return to the financial institution. He said there had been an issue with the check.
Upon Doolin’s arrival, she found that a white teller had looked up her firm’s website. After questioning the architect about her career and why Nelson Connections was headquartered in Philadelphia, Doolin said he wanted to know if human resources could confirm her employment with the company.
Then, the banker tried unsuccessfully to call Nelson Connections. In the process, Doolin remembered, he “kept saying it was for the bank’s safety.” However, he never asked for her identification.
Ultimately, the teller decided to place a nine-day hold on Doolin’s account since it had not been open for at least 30 days. He told her the action was to prove the monies were valid.
“When I realized that I was defending who I was, trying to prove to someone I didn’t know who I was, I knew I was being discriminated against,” Doolin told BuzzFeed. “It was just completely demeaning.”
In her Facebook post, she described feeling like she wanted to “jump on his desk and scream” before “just wanting to cry.”
Doolin left the office and called back around 4:30. When a female employee answered, Doolin described her ordeal. The woman simply informed Doolin that the banker who questioned her “is far from racist.” And she added he would have treated “any other customer” the same way.
An update from Sugar’s Twitter account revealed Doolin’s funds were released and she planned to transfer to another bank. Sugar also shared that Doolin received an apologetic phone call from KeyBank’s executive office.
Still, Doolin recognized she will always face discrimination and racism because she is Black.
“I live in a world where, no matter what’s in my brain or purse,” she told BuzzFeed. “No matter how I wear my hair, no matter how fabulous I look when I walk out the door, I’m still Black. People still clutch their purses when I walk past.”
Keybank has told BuzzFeed that they are unable to address the case specifically but that they do not discriminate and that they are big on diversity.
Apparently, the so-called diverse culture ideals that they have did not trickle down to some of their key employees especially the ones that have to deal with customers face to face without implicit bias!
