Girl Gets Kicked Out of Bank Because She’s Black. What She Does Next Is Very Surprising
“When a visually impaired girl asks for help at the bank, she’s constantly ignored and eventually kicked out of the bank because she’s black. But what she does next is very surprising.
Josie’s day was going from bad to worse. She’d been humiliated in front of the entire bank, and now the cops had been called. All she’d wanted to do was gain some independence, and this was what happened. The young girl sat on the bench with the security guard from the bank and began to cry. She hadn’t even done anything wrong, but by the time the bank staff had finished telling lies to the police, she would probably get arrested.
The young woman wiped the tears from her cheeks and tried to stop crying. Her eyes were already hurting without this added stress. It had taken a long time for her to build up the confidence to start doing things without her mother’s help, but maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea. When Josie saw the cop car approaching, she hung her head in shame, and the tears started flowing again. She’d been kicked out of the bank because she was black, and somehow she was the one getting into trouble. But what she would do next is very surprising.
Josie was born with a rare visual impairment. As a young child, glasses helped, but as she got older, her eyesight kept deteriorating. The worse her vision got, the less confident Josie became. Being out in the world when you couldn’t see properly was scary, and she never went anywhere without her mom. Her mom was happy to help and would always be there when her daughter needed her, but it upset her to see Josie’s independence slip away with her vision. As such, the young girl didn’t really have any friends. No one wanted to hang out with her if her mom was tagging along too. Her mom tried to teach her not to be so fearful of the world and that there would always be people out there willing to help if she got stuck, but it was no good. Josie had spent so long relying on her mother that she couldn’t adjust to anything else.
But when Josie turned 20, a shift occurred. The young woman hated that she’d spent her entire teenage years being scared and anxious. She was determined not to lose her 20s to those feelings too. So one evening, she told her mom she wanted to start doing more things by herself. For the next few months, Josie and her mom spent time practicing certain bus routes, going into shops, and generally just building her confidence up to a point where the young woman felt ready to go out without her mom. The first trip into town alone terrified Josie, but she was determined to do it.
If she didn’t do it now, she never would. It was time to get her life back. She went to the bus stop and calmly explained that she had a visual impairment and could the other people waiting let her know when the bus was approaching. She was terrified of asking for help and worried that people would judge her, but in that interaction, she was met with nothing but kindness. Josie returned home from her first trip out alone beaming. Her mother had been right. All she needed to do was ask for help if she needed it. That first trip out alone lit a fire inside Josie. There was no stopping her. She was finally going to have a life like everyone else her age. She made a list of all the places she wanted to visit alone, and her mom helped her plan everything out. But there was one place Josie hadn’t thought about tackling alone: the bank.
The young woman had planned a weekend of activities for herself, but she needed to take some money out of the bank first. Due to her poor vision, it was easier for her to get help from one of the bank tellers rather than using an ATM. Josie had gained so much independence recently that the thought of asking for help in the bank no longer bothered her. She couldn’t foresee any problems due to the fact that the bank tellers were there to help their customers anyway. It’s not like she was going to bother random passersby or workers.
So on Friday morning, Josie headed into town, her head swimming with all the plans she had for the weekend. When she stepped inside the bank, though, she could sense how busy it was. The fuzzy figures of all the people waiting to be seen surrounded her. She hadn’t been anywhere this busy on her own yet, but it was just a new problem to tackle, so she wasn’t going to get flustered. The young woman joined the queue of people and patiently waited, thinking of all the things she had to look forward to that weekend to pass the time.
Finally, Josie reached the front of the queue and requested the withdrawal from her account. But the young woman had been so busy daydreaming that she’d forgotten to get her ID ready beforehand. Josie set her handbag down on the counter and began to search inside her bag, but after a few minutes, she couldn’t find it. The bank teller was now impatiently tapping her pen on the desk, and Josie could hear the people behind her tutting and sighing. She could feel herself getting more frustrated. She began to search more frantically for her ID, but now she could feel the sweat dripping down her back as everyone around her grew more irritated with her holding up the queue.
Eventually, the bank teller snapped at Josie and told her she would need to step to one side to look for her ID and then rejoin the queue if she wanted her money. The young woman could feel tears pricking at her eyes, but she did as the teller asked. She had no idea where her ID was. She normally asked her mom to check her handbag for her before she went out to make sure she had everything she needed, but today she didn’t. There was only one thing left to do. Josie would have to explain to one of the tellers about her visual impairment and ask them to help her search for the ID. If they couldn’t find it, then she’d just return home and look for it there and head back out.
With a plan in mind, Josie began to calm down. So far, people working in shops or even just other members of the public had been more than happy to help her when she explained about her visual impairment, so she couldn’t think of any reason why the bank would be any different. Sadly, she was wrong. Josie approached the customer service desk and began to ask for help, but was quickly cut off by the bank teller who said they needed to help someone else. So the young woman patiently waited, trying to ignore the fact that the teller had been quite rude in her response.
But soon, Josie began to get angry. Every time she tried to ask for help, the bank teller would assist someone else. Josie had been at the bank almost an hour now, and in sheer frustration, she banged her handbag down on the desk and asked the teller, ‘Why won’t you even listen to me? I’ve been waiting longer than all of these people, but you’re helping them before me.’ What the rude bank teller did next shocked Josie to her core.
‘Oh honey, you’re just not the right color,’ the teller smirked. ‘All these other folk are far more important than you.’ Josie couldn’t believe what she just heard. All this time, she’d been worried about people not helping her because of her visual impairment. She never imagined the bank would refuse to help her because she was black. The young woman was not a confrontational person at all, but she couldn’t just stand back and let the woman speak to her that way. But when Josie challenged what the woman had said to her, it only made things worse.
In anger, Josie began to raise her voice just to try and get a response from the woman. The bank teller had no interest in dealing with Josie though and simply waved over the security guard and asked him to escort Josie out of the bank and wait with her until the cops came. Humiliation washed over Josie. She found herself being marched out of the bank. Was she really getting kicked out of the bank because she was black? She couldn’t see their faces properly, but she could tell people were staring at her. It had been a huge mistake to think she could do things by herself, and now she was in a mess.
The young woman sat outside the bank waiting for the cops to arrive, and she couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Her eyes often ached when she was stressed or she’d been out for a long time, and crying was only making it worse. But she couldn’t hold back the tears. When the cops arrived, one went inside the bank while the other came over to Josie. He introduced himself as Officer Dave Clark and told the security guard that he was fine to go back inside. But when he tried to question Josie over what had happened, the young woman was too distraught to speak.
A few moments later, the second cop emerged from the bank and called his partner over. Little did Josie know that the cops were talking about how arrogant the bank teller was and that several witnesses had come forward to say that she’d made racist remarks towards Josie. Officer Clark came back over to Josie and explained that she wasn’t in any trouble at all, but due to how upset she was, they’d prefer it if she came to the station to give her statement away from everyone staring.
The young woman was still deeply upset, but something about Officer Clark’s manner told her she could trust him. When the cops first arrived, she was terrified that she was going to get arrested. There was no way they would believe her over the bank teller. But Officer Clark and his partners seemed like they just wanted to help. And at the station, Josie explained everything about her visual impairment and how she’d been unable to find her ID. She told them she’d just been asking for help when the bank teller repeatedly ignored her, then refused to help her because she was black.
Officer Clark informed Josie that several witnesses had confirmed that this had happened and the bank teller had been arrested for racial discrimination. But what Officer Clark did next went above and beyond the call of duty. The kind cop told Josie he didn’t want her missing out on all her weekend plans, so if she was happy for him to do so, he would help her look for her ID in her handbag so she could get her money from the bank. It was all Josie had wanted: someone to help. She felt overwhelmed with emotion again.
After a few moments, Officer Clark found her ID and handed it over. It had been buried deep in the bottom of her handbag. But when Officer Clark looked at the young woman, he had another offer for her. ‘Come on, I’ll go to the bank with you and make sure that you get what you need,’ he offered. Josie couldn’t believe how kind he was being. This one went beyond his duty as a police officer, but Josie accepted the offer of help. She wasn’t ready to face the bank alone again just yet.
After getting her money from the bank, she turned to Officer Clark and asked what would happen to the bank teller. He told her she’d been fired from her job immediately, but if Josie wanted to, she could press charges against her and even look at suing the bank. The young woman thought about what the cop had just told her, then looked at Officer Clark and told him she didn’t want to press charges. The woman had lost her job, and that was punishment enough.
The cop was surprised. He wasn’t sure he’d have the same attitude in Josie’s position. The young woman explained that Officer Clark had shown her that there were more good people in the world than bad, and she didn’t want to be responsible for ruining the woman’s life, even though she could quite easily do so. She told him the woman had to live with the consequences of being fired, whereas she could move on from the incident knowing that people like him would always be willing to help her out.
Officer Clark was amazed at her kind and mature attitude. As he waved Josie goodbye and wished her well, he knew the story of the surprising young woman would stay with him for a long time. But thanks to what he’d done for her, Josie didn’t let the bank incident overshadow all the progress she’d made in recent months. Officer Clark’s kindness would also stay with her for a long time.
