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Being a woman, Asian, and petite, I have been subjected to all sorts of insults during my lifetime, and I am sure many have had similar experiences as I. The worst has been my neighborhood bank. Under new management, with new tellers, this bank first ignored my presence in line by waiting on persons in front of me or those behind me. It seems suddenly I had become invisible to them. Was it my height?

This same bank one day asked whether I had emptied my piggy bank as I tried depositing a large sum of money. They insisted on knowing where I had acquired my money. When I complained to the bank manager, I was told an amount past $1500 was considered questionable. The next time, I deposited $1000, and was then told any amount of that figure was questionable. What would happen if I deposited $500? Would the standard go down? Did they think all Asians were dishonest and that I was trying to launder money? My husband again called the bank manager to complain about discrimination.

Again at the same bank, I walked in one day asking a female teller for some paper coin wrappers so I could wrap up my coins and bring them back to deposit into my account. The teller replied with an " I'm sorry but we don't have any more wrappers. We don't even have enough for ourselves." After exiting, I sent my husband in to ask for wrappers. He quickly came out with a handful of them, teller smiling in the background who had previously served me. Moral of the story, I left this bank shortly thereafter and wrote a detailed letter of complaint to the company bank as to why I would no longer be banking with them, after a long relationship.

Is this article about discrimination or appearances? Both. They are infinitely linked because we are all judged by what we look like. It's no mystery. Everyone is on the same line about this. Rightly or wrongly.

I have often been ignored for service at high end stores. They take one look at me and deem me unworthy of their time and attention. I have even had one salesclerk look down at my sandaled feet and the look was so judgmental she automatically went back to talking to another without asking if I needed any help. Sometimes, I pass for the hired help in a large department store because I dress very casually. I have a friend who is a car salesman. He tells me whenever he waits on a customer who is dressed well and he thinks has money, he will automatically jack up the price of a car by a thousand to two thousand dollars. Well, maybe in this case, dressing

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