Thomas told the news outlet that an assistant manager seemed suspicious and asked him where he got the money, and Thomas referenced his settlement. The manager stepped out of the room, telling Thomas she was going to verify the checks. But unbeknownst  to Thomas, she was actually calling the police. Four officers arrived, with two waiting outside while two proceeded to question Thomas. Officers even spoke to his attorney, Deborah Gordon, on the phone, who verified what Thomas explained about the settlement, but as the Free Press reports, the bank still filed a police report for check fraud.

On Thursday, TCF Bank spokesperson Tom Wennerberg said the checks were displayed with a watermark ‘VOID’ marker when scanned, and that race was not a “factor” in how the bank responded to Thomas, reports the Free Press. “We were looking at the behavior,” Wennerberg added, “the asks that he was making.”

The bank issued the following statement on Thursday: “TCF Bank is a diverse business serving a diverse community and we abhor racism in all forms. Mr. Thomas’ transaction was handled like any other transactions involving requests for large amounts of cash. We regret any inconvenience to Mr. Thomas.”

According to Thomas, however, those same checks cleared just fine at another bank. He told the Free Press he went to a Chase bank the same day, opened an account, deposited the checks, and the money cleared by the next day. That doesn’t mean the incident earlier in the day was easy to deal with, however.

“I feel very intimidated because I knew that if I would have gotten loud, they would have had me on the ground for disturbance of the peace. But I didn’t get loud. I didn’t get confrontation. I did nothing,” Thomas said, as reported by the Free Press.

“I didn’t give them any type of indication that I was getting upset,” he told Buzzfeed News in an interview. “I wanted to make sure 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.'”

Thomas was not arrested and no charges were filed against him. Still, the incident is at minimum humiliating, if not actually traumatic and potentially dangerous. Thomas now seeks unspecified damages in his lawsuit against the bank, alleging that “race was a factor” and that he was treated “less favorably” than other individuals.

“My client was very intimidated and upset. He kept his composure, though,” his attorney said in a statement as reported by Vice on Thursday. “He was afraid that with the police there the situation could quickly escalate and he would end up in handcuffs or worse. The irony is that the proceeds were from the settlement of a race discrimination case.”

“The checks were 100 percent legitimate. I talked to the bank and the police myself during all of this, but the bank continued to take the position that they could not complete the transaction. I find it shocking that they called the police. The only thing my client was guilty of was banking while black,” Gordon told Newsweek in a statement.

As Daily Kos has previously reported, people of color routinely experience racial profiling and discrimination. That’s especially true for black people, and particularly black men. For example, a black woman in Michigan says she was denied service and forced to give up her seat at a restaurant for a white man. A black patient recovering from pneumonia was literally arrested while following doctor’s orders to take a walk outside of the hospital. A white woman with a gun told a black couple to leave a Mississippi campground. A white woman went viral (and was eventually fired) for blocking a black man from entering his own home. One Ohio man ended up in handcuffs after trying to cash his paycheck.

Sadly, these stories are the tip of the iceberg. We could find more and more and more, and that’s a reminder that things have got to change.