Random Baloney at a Publix Supermarket.

PUBLIX SUPERMARKET, 2031 Bay St., Sarasota, 9th September 2019.

In the 12 items or fewer check out line.

Ahead of me two young Hispanic men purchasing food for their lunches.

Young man #1 proffers a $10 bill.   The clerk/cashier marks the bill with the "magic pen", then holds it up to the light.

Young man #2 proffers a $10 bill.  Once again the clerk/cashier marks the bill with the "magic pen",then holds it up to the light.

Both bills were verified as "sound".

Then came my turn.  My purchases cost $27, so I proffered an $10 and an $20.    As my  bills were being deposited  directly into the till I asked the clerk "aren't you going to check them?".  

The clerk said "no, why did you ask?"

I reminded him that he had checked the two $10 bills which the young Hispanic men had offered,  so why was he not checking mine.

"Purely random" he said.  

"Purely random",  I replied, "it seems strange that you checked the $10 bills which the Hispanic men offered, but you did not check my $10 and $20  bills".

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THREE NOTES

1)  It's next to impossible for  human agents to make purely random choices.  We are formed by our background, our education, our experience, the prevailing culture or counter culture, etc, etc.  No human mind is a tabula rosa.

2) I have never before seen a $10 bill being checked for forgery.  Clerks/Cashiers may sometimes check a $20.  $50 bills are invariably checked.  (For obvious reasons forgers are most likely to create higher value bills).

3)  Random racism?  Maybe.  Unconscious racism? Almost certainly.

Be reminded that there are ample supplies of baloney in all supermarkets.

Tongue in cheek post script.  Every $20 bill with its portrait of President Andrew Jackson should be automatically checked for racism!