Submitted by Bob Warfield, Lakewood.
Need help with these coupons please,” I telepath with gathering frustration trying to illuminate my presence to thaw the frozen scene between clerk and customer at self-check.
I’m in the neighborhood grocery store Monday, impatiently seeking attention from the clerk attending my self-check-out section to validate a couple of coupons. His attention is consumed by an attractive woman stylishly slacked over fashionable cork-soled pumps with Vogue tinted blond whisps, rainbow hued, fetching glamorous completion to her photo-ready presence. By her side are two girls, perhaps eight and ten, of varied race, well-attired, apparently of questionable relation.
The second hand slowed as she struggled to write a check for the half-dozen bunch of bananas resting on the payment scale. The check is torn from its pad, perforations popping with presumptive finality. She shows her ID to the stoic clerk. But no sale yet. “It’s Fred Meyer, he intones, … M E Y E R.” Her ball-point clicks to work, and she hands the check back. Out comes the ID, and the clerk begins dutifully entering confirmation inquiry on his keyboard.
A “there must be some mistake, and perhaps this will do,” exchange follows. By now it becomes obvious that all of this is to get a cash balance; the tendered amount less a few bananas. But no go! Alas, alert to the game with another sweep of the second-hand, the clerk returns the corrected check to cork-soled shoes. Failing verification of account, children in tow, and all business, she leaves, bananas unsold.
LOL! Very observant Bob………whose attention was ” consumed by an attractive woman stylishly slacked over fashionable cork-soled pumps with Vogue tinted blond whisps, rainbow hued, fetching glamorous completion to her photo-ready presence. By her side are two girls, perhaps eight and ten, of varied race, well-attired, apparently of questionable relation.”?
What a word picture! She/they obviously caught your eye! I would have thought that special moment of “eye candy” would have been just compensation for the loss of 2 minutes of your time.
“Essentially, implicit biases are unrealized or unconscious personal biases that can affect our decision-making. Beliefs you form due to societal attitudes, the way you were raised, and other factors might make you treat people differently without you even realizing it or meaning to.” Your description of the children and their relationship to the woman is an example of this. I wonder why you commented on race as a description of a child?
Um, maybe because that’s what he saw?
Thanks, Brian; precisely. And were I fishing for bias, I couldn’t have done better – two prize-winners: John and Shelly – Thank you. Fred Meyer has a branch of Chase Bank and an ATM, in case you missed the point. As for bias; let’s all be aware and forgiving. Be well; have a banana.
No bias on my part Bob. The description quoted is yours; I merely repeated it. The center of attention for me would have been a beautiful woman according to your description. She would have caught my eye, the accompaning children’s racial characteristics aside. Indeed I have been married for 42 years to a Korean woman with two bi-racial sons although when I look at them all I see are cherished family members………their racial characteristics aside.