Mitchell went to the bank to seek a loan. However, things went awfully wrong when she was refused simply because of her skin color. What she did next is incredible. That afternoon, Mitchell walked under the hot sun, making her way through the busy streets of the city. When she got into the bank, she let out a sigh of relief as her body temperature immediately dropped, thanks to the cool atmosphere of the bank.
Mitchell made her way up the stairs and into the lobby before stopping at the desk of a staff member, Andy, who was tapping furiously at his keyboard. When he noticed Mitchell, his fingers paused over the keyboard, and he glanced up at her. Then he gave her the once-over with his eyes before returning to his typing as if he didn’t see her. Mitchell was perplexed by his behavior but decided not to think much of it. What she was at the bank for was too big for her to get mad at tiny annoyances. She asked if she could take the seat before him, and he nodded absently. When she sat down, he finally stopped typing on the keyboard and paid her full attention.
She told him the reason she had come to the bank: she was there for a loan. As she spoke, she dug into her bag and pulled out her documents and everything she had painstakingly gathered for her to be eligible for the loan. However, as she handed them over to the staff for his perusal, he simply rolled his eyes and told her to hold on. He said he would get back to her because he had a lot on his desk at the moment. He then told her to move a little to the side so she wouldn’t obstruct other customers who needed his assistance. To remain in his good graces, Mitchell did as asked. She didn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize her getting the loan. She knew just how important it was that she got it and was willing to put up with whatever the staff might do.
However, she had no idea just how much that particular staff member was looking to do to her. From where she sat, Mitchell had a clear view of his desk and could easily hear him since the bank was quiet. As she waited for him to call her back, she watched in shock as a white woman walked up to his desk and asked for a loan. Mitchell anticipated Andy asking her to wait, but to her horror, he promptly handed the woman a form as soon as she presented her documents.
Mitchell felt her blood boil as she watched them converse, and right before her eyes, he granted the woman the loan just like that. Although furious, Mitchell maintained her cool. She approached him gently and asked why he hadn’t called her yet to discuss the loan and why he had readily assisted someone else when he could have done the same for her.
However, Andy refused to look her in the eye. He told her to continue waiting and that he would call her soon. Once again, Mitchell did as she was told, and she watched as the staff promptly responded to others who came after her. By the time he answered the sixth person, Mitchell had had enough. As far as she was concerned, this staff member had no intention of looking into her issues. So she approached him and shared her concerns. For crying out loud, he hadn’t even bothered to check her documents—not even a glance.
Just then, Andy dropped a bombshell that rocked Mitchell’s world. He told her that she was not eligible. At that, Mitchell’s knees buckled underneath her, and she almost fell. She had gathered everything that was asked for, costing her a lot of time, money, and resources. She had done everything with the hope that once she’d got the loan, things would get better, especially with her plans. Now, Andy telling her she wasn’t eligible was severely heartbreaking. She asked him why she wasn’t eligible and how he could possibly know that without checking her documents out first. He responded by asserting that he was certain she wasn’t eligible, then instructed her to leave.
However, his vague explanation left Mitchell puzzled. She sensed something suspicious was happening. It was evident that Andy was reluctant to disclose the truth, fueling her curiosity further. She insisted that he explain why she wasn’t eligible, but he kept evading the question. She persisted, bombarding him with inquiries until he finally snapped and screamed that the bank couldn’t provide loans to people of color. It was against policy to grant loans to Black individuals, automatically disqualifying Mitchell.
The news shocked Mitchell to the core. She couldn’t believe that despite everything she had done to get this loan, she was going to lose it just because of her skin color. It didn’t make any sense to her, and she was immensely hurt. She told Andy just how discriminatory the policy was, but the staff didn’t care about all that. He told her that people like her were jobless and couldn’t get loans because they had no means to pay them back.
As Mitchell tried to argue that they had no right to treat her that way, Andy immediately called for security and asked them to kick her out. Right there, even before she could say another word, the security operatives appeared around her. She was restrained and then led out of the bank. She fought against them, telling them how much she needed the loan, but nobody paid her any mind. They went through the doors and pushed Mitchell out of the building.
Out in the hot sun again, Mitchell couldn’t believe what was happening to her. She stood in the middle of the crowded street as people walked past her. She wondered just how she could possibly have sunk to such levels. She had never been so embarrassed before. Mitchell had a rough childhood. She and her brother had grown up in one of the roughest parts of town.
Their parents had tried their best to take care of them, but the earnings that came into the family were way too meager and could only see them from day to day. Sadly, that wasn’t the worst to hit them. When Mitchell was 22 and her younger brother was 18, they lost their parents in a ghastly accident, rendering them all alone because they had no other family. However, they had each other, and that was all they needed.
Mitchell wanted a better life for herself and her brother. She wanted them to leave the neighborhood and go somewhere safer, where they didn’t have to be scared for their lives all the time. But moving to such places was expensive, and such money didn’t come from doing small jobs. She tried everything she could lay her hands on, but she quickly saw that if she relied on such jobs, she would be just like her parents, making barely enough to see them from day to day.
That was when she began to think long and hard about opening up her own business. She went around the city trying to figure out the one thing that was needed but was also lacking. She compiled a list of potential ventures, confident that pursuing any of them could lead to significant profits. That was how she decided on her choice: a business. She decided to open up an online delivery service.
Their job was simple: to connect the manufacturers of goods directly to their customers through a fast and reliable means of transport. She delivered the goods for a fee, and in the end, everyone was happy. She knew this was a good plan. She had hired the services of a professional who ran a more detailed survey and projected just how much it would cost and how profitable it would be. She was certain that it was going to work, and she was willing to put her all into making it work.
Sadly, though, she had no money. She didn’t allow her lack of money to stop her, though. She began the hunt for investors. She went around to the people she was sure could afford to help her dream, but they all turned her down. They said that her plan was too ambitious and that it was going to fail. None of them were willing to invest in something that they didn’t fully believe in. After a while, Mitchell began to wonder if it wasn’t actually her fault.
She wondered if it was the plan she was giving them that was causing all her troubles or how she was presenting her case. She couldn’t believe the fact that every single one of the people she’d approached for help had turned her down. But she still didn’t give up. She knew that there was still one way she could get the funding she needed: she decided to get a loan.
Sadly, this was almost like looking for investors all over again. She went from bank to bank, and they all told her different stories. Many said they couldn’t give loans at the time and asked that she return after a few months, and the rest told her that they were not giving loans at all. This was a big blow to her, and it even caused her to give up. She saw that there was no way she was going to raise such an amount of money, and with the banks unable to give it to her, her dreams were as good as over.
However, Mitchell felt a surge of hope and renewed energy when she learned from her friend about a particular bank that was known for giving loans to business startups. This was the very thing she was looking for, and she didn’t waste any time at all. She decided to try her luck at the bank, and sadly, it was where everything went awry for her. They had the money to loan to her, but they refused to give it to her and instead chose to kick her out of the establishment.
Now, as Mitchell stood outside the building, she thought about everything she had gone through just to get her hands on this money. Tears burned her eyelids, and she could barely control herself. She turned and began to run as she wept profusely. She could barely see where she was going, but all that she knew was that she wanted as much space as possible between her and the bank. She was so engrossed in getting away that she didn’t see the cop in front of her until she ran into him. Unable to stop herself from crying, she apologized
to the cop, who assisted her to a street-side bench. He could see that she was in a lot of distress and wanted to do the little that he could to alleviate it. He waited patiently while Mitchell cried her eyes out, and when she was done, he asked her the reason for her condition. She couldn’t hold back and simply told him everything. It was as if the stress of everything she’d been going through had all accumulated at that moment and snapped inside her. She told him everything about how she’d been trying to get investors, and when that didn’t work, she had tried to get a loan. She had everything for her to be eligible for the loan, but she was refused the loan simply because she was Black. That was something she couldn’t change, and the fact that it was what cost her the loan was what made it so painful.
Her story shocked the cop to his bones. He couldn’t believe that the bank could do such a thing. It was preposterous that there was even such a policy to begin with. The world had advanced so much, and humans were way smarter now. It was certain that the entire bank wasn’t the same. He was sure that only Andy felt that way, and if someone else attended to Mitchell, she would get the loan. He decided to take her back to the bank. This time around, he followed her closely, and the presence of a uniformed man gave everyone a sense of urgency. However, only Andy was in charge of loans, and it didn’t matter that Mitchell returned with a cop—his answer remained the same. The cop didn’t like that at all and told Andy his mind at once. He threatened to take up the matter if they refused to grant Mitchell the loan. It was horrible that modern institutions were taking such a stance against the Black community; it was appalling.
Sadly, the cop’s help didn’t have the effect they expected. Andy didn’t care at all and even went on to issue threats of his own. He warned the cop to get off the case and leave at once. He told them that the bank had customers and friends in high places of government—people who agreed with the policies of the bank—and he warned the cop that if he didn’t stop what he was doing, he could lose his job and find himself out on the streets if care was not taken. In that instant, Mitchell knew that she had to step in. The cop was only helping her out, and she knew it wouldn’t be fair at all if he suffered on her account. She told him to stop, that she was going to handle it on her own. Andy had the protection of the bank; that’s why he could be so blatantly discriminatory without fear of repercussion, and she decided that she was not going to let that slide. They were all going to pay for what they did to her.
She went home, and two days later, she returned to the bank with her lawyer in tow. They were suing the bank. She sued them for their discrimination towards her for being Black, for treating her like a common thief when they kicked her out of the bank, and then for the emotional damage it did to her. But she didn’t just stop there. She made the case popular by leaking it to the press and blogs. Almost overnight, news of the suit was buzzing all over the internet. People were talking about the brave woman who had decided to go up against the bank. Mitchell’s plan had been to make the suit popular so the bank wouldn’t use corruption to sway the suit in their favor. She knew that if the eyes of the public were on the case, everyone would sit up and do the right thing.
And she was right. Everyone did have their eyes on the case, but it also had a huge benefit that she hadn’t considered. People began coming out of the woodwork, lending their voices to her cause. They spoke about how the bank had always treated them differently because they were Black, and that was always terrible for them. Many Black people who tried to open up accounts were refused, those who wanted loans were refused, and even those who tried to get jobs were refused as well. And when it was finally given, the reason was always the same: the color of their skin. These touching stories broke the internet as more and more of them kept coming up. Things looked more and more bleak for the bank. Their stock prices began to drop because everyone was pulling out as fast as they possibly could. This was something that their friends in the government couldn’t help them overcome.
Things only got worse for the bank, though, as the judge ruled the case in favor of Mitchell. The bank was fined heavily and ordered to pay Mitchell over $300,000 for the emotional and psychological damage that had been done to her when they refused to give her a loan and kicked her out. In a bid to save face, they paid the fine almost immediately and then set up a press conference where they issued an apology to Mitchell and their customers. They begged for forgiveness and promised to do better in the future.
This was a huge win for Mitchell. Thanks to the ruling, she had a lot of money sitting in her account, more than double what she had wanted as a loan to begin with. After paying her lawyer, she immediately went to work setting up her business. She didn’t mince when it came to money. She knew just what she wanted, and she went all out, spending as much of it as she could. Within three months, she was fully operational and making profits. She had finally done it, and it was all hers. She didn’t have to pay back any loan. Later on, she used what was left of the money to buy a house in an upscale neighborhood, one where her younger brother would be safer. This had been one of her major goals, and she had finally achieved it. She was so happy as she watched him run excitedly through the house. She was excited as well. She knew now that she could go to sleep and not have to worry about someone breaking into the house in the middle of the night.
While things were going great for Mitchell, things only got worse for the bank. It kept on losing its customers. Everyone who had money with them kept on withdrawing, and soon it became unsustainable. When the value had plummeted to its lowest, it was bought out by a much bigger bank.
Mitchell was happy with her life. She knew that luck had shone on her, and as a result, she knew that she couldn’t hoard all the blessings to herself. She decided to give back to the community, especially as a way to thank them for standing up for her and for the people who had spoken up to tell their stories. Every last week of the month, she gave everyone in the community a 50% discount on all deliveries. This was not isolated to Black people; it was for people of all colors. This was her way of reminding people to always be kind to each other because there was simply no reason not to be. Mitchell’s company kept growing from strength to strength, and she promised herself that no matter what, she would never discriminate and everyone would be welcomed to their services. She also promised to fight injustice when she saw it, especially the one that was a direct result of skin color.
