Oppression??

Last June one of my friends and I walked to the bank down the street, which is where EDS banks. We both had reimbursement checks and wanted to cash them. In the bank, the cashier started with my friend, who is a person of color. The cashier talked to her manager who then spoke to my friend about the check. The manager explained that he needed to call the school to be sure everything was okay with the check. My friend started getting upset and expressing her views loudly. To her, the bank personnel was being racist and that was why they were taking so long and giving her problems. To me, I thought that the manager and cashier were doing what was expected of them.

Now jump to today, I have another reimbursement check and go to the same bank. I spent twenty minutes cashing this check. Again a manager needed to call the school to confirm that the check was legal. She and the cashier kept explaining that the bank's policy for certain size checks was to contact the business where it had been written.

I know that sometimes people/businesses are oppressive. I'm saddened that the first thought of my friend was that the people were being racist. Unfortunately my friend has probably experienced a great deal of judgement based solely on the color of her skin or on her gender. To her, she reacted appropriately considering her background.

When I am met with what I think is discrimination, I try to look around me and see how others are being treated. During the first incident one reason I didn't think they were acting racially was because they didn't automatically accept my check while hassling my friend. They didn't suddenly say, "Oh, you two are together. Well, never mind, ma'am, your check is good with us."

I also look to see how others are reacting. Does anyone else look awkward with what is happening? Both times, no other customers were in the bank. However the personnel appeared as uncomfortable as my friend. Both times they explained over and over that this was their policy.

Unfortunately when one has experienced oppression many times, one doesn't expect to be treated in a just manner. People don't necessarily want to decide to be fair to others when they don't experience fairness for themselves. AND I am amazed by the people who can come from a place of oppression and treat others with the respect that they often did not receive.

The chains of oppression will be broken when we don't have to consider if how we are being treated fairly or not. My prayer for the world is that these chains no longer have power of anyone.