Sucking the Blood of the Sufferers

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NATION OF IMMIGRANTS, MEET LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. This is a combination that has sometimes resulted in amazing happenings. Behold the United States of America, itself! Although to tell the true story of “America,” we’d have to talk about a whole lot of exploitation of brown people, wouldn’t we? The kind of stories that are not dwelled upon in high school, what with all the platitudes and paeans to Patriots.

But you know what? We don’t need to go that far back to tell those stories, either. Because exploitation and abuse of brown people is, sadly, The Neverending Story upinhyeah.

Bank of America is accused of exploiting Latino immigrant customers is the title of this chapter:

Gabby Ornelas, a former teller at the giant Bank of America Corp Ornelas was instructed to use her Spanish language skills and Latina heritage to sign up customers for as many kinds of banking services as possible, she said — services that led to lucrative fees for the bank and financial entanglement for many customers.

“We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn’t understand how to use them,” said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.

In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account.

Ornelas and eight of her colleagues leveled the accusations in recent interviews. They are being backed in their whistle-blowing by the Service Employees International Union, which is trying to organize BofA, the nation’s largest bank.

Bank of America officials flatly rejected the allegations, saying their policies are legal, adhere to industry standards and are helpful to customers, including immigrants seeking a toehold in the United States.

Yeah, a toehold, all right. That’s what they’re giving immigrants. They are giving them a blue sky, and deed on a cliff. Oh, and a toehold. Bank of America. Say it again. Bank of AMÉRICA.

Ornelas and three other former BofA tellers, all Latina women, said they and their co-workers were repeatedly instructed to seek potential new Spanish-speaking customers outside the bank. Some were instructed to go to embassies where recent emigres often wait in queue for visa and passport services.

—Bank of America is accused of exploiting Latino immigrant customers

Stay classy, elitist structures of exploitation and greed.

(Title of post taken from Bob Marley song Babylon System)