The line at the grocery store was quite long, but moving quickly. The whole process of check-out seemed quite animated – the clerk scanning the items, the customers sliding the credit card through the card reader, signing the digital pad, collecting the items along with receipt, and leaving. The clerk, his name-tag confirming his ethnicity of India, seemed quite efficient at his job.
At my turn, I stepped forward and followed the sequence. After the scan, I started collecting my items. I slid my American-Express through the card-reader, getting ready to leave as soon as the clerk hands me the receipt.
Then, out of nowhere, the clerk announced politely, “Sir, can I see your card and an ID?”
Ready to leave, I was caught a bit off-guard. I took out my driver’s license and handed it over, along with the American-Express. I was annoyed a little at the whole thing, I must admit. My credit cards are always in good standing.
“Something wrong with the card?” I asked, almost demanding…
“I am just doing my job, sir,” he said with a calm demeanor, handing back my license along with the card and the receipt. “Have a good day!” He added as I walked away.

Walking to the car in the parking lot, my brain was playing back the weird incident. Everybody in the line ahead of me was white, I thought. I wondered if the clerk was really doing his job; or if he had been watching his American colleagues too long, and followed the same pattern they follow. I wonder if he is consciously or unconsciously biased against his own race.
It is bad enough when we get discriminated against because of the skin color, but it is much worse when we get singled out by someone of our own race – with our own brown skin color.

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