Antiblackness is a sickness. I worked in banking for almost 20 years. During my time in banking, I was a teller, personal banker, premier banker, and branch manager. I can assure anyone and everyone that Ryan Coogler did nothing out of the ordinary in attempting to complete this transaction. Customers writing down instructions on their withdrawal slips is not out of the ordinary.
Furthermore, this employee did not follow protocol and went out of her way to allege and assert that he was attempting to commit a robbery. The police also did not follow protocol in assessing the situation. They could have asked simple questions, checked his identification, as well as a number of other things (i.e., finding out where and when he opened the account, other accounts he has with the institution, etc.) before carting him out of the bank in handcuffs. They responded this way because he is Black. They would not have responded the same way if he was an older, elderly White man or woman, and I would be willing to wage my entire savings about this assertion.
As I say in my book, the antiblack American cultural orientation is inescapable.
This entire embarrassing, harassing, and antiblack racist situation could have been avoided. But no, #whentheyseeus all they see are criminals. #Whentheyseeus all they see is the enemy and/or someone attempting to do something wrong. This is absolutely horrifying, and I hope he sues the bank, and the police departments for not following protocol.
I also hope that all black people seeing this are reminded that this can be you, your child, parent, other family member, or friend. Please protect yourselves in every way - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually! Be compassionate to other Black people who you think are "doing too much" in reacting and responding to racism, or something they deem offensive. Please have, and act with compassion in loving, caring about, and supporting all Black people, regardless of the circumstances.
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