Sauntore Thomas shouldn’t have had any problems. After winning a workplace discrimination lawsuit, he went to his bank to cash his checks ... and then the bank started acting funny. He told them he was willing to wait as long as it took, until the police showed up.
Sauntore was at a TCF Bank branch, where he was a customer in disbelief as police came to investigate him for FRAUD. That’s right. Instead of simply verifying the checks, the bank thought a Black man making large deposits was suspicious enough to warrant police intervention.
Thomas remained calm, but he was upset.
In a statement Thomas said, “I stayed as level-headed as possible, because I wasn’t going to be the next person on the ground saying, 'I can’t breathe.'” He chose instead to close his account and go to another bank where he opened a new account and deposited his big checks without incident. Now he’s got a plan.
Sauntore is suing the bank, where he tried to deposit his discrimination lawsuit settlement, for … you guessed it, DISCRIMINATION. The irony! And the lawsuit calls it just what it was: “banking while Black.”
Thomas’ lawyer, Deborah Gordon, may have said it best: “Why could you not verify [the checks]? You're a bank, after all - it's your job to verify checks.” She said the issue was because Sauntore is Black. He paid the price because of his race. Now the bank should have to pay, too!