In message , Mrs Redboots
writes

Paul Terry wrote to uk.transport.london on Sun, 3 Jul 2005:

Just as you can tell the criminals because they wear ear-rings and call
you "mate"?

What the smeg are you talking about?

I am referring to the fact that you made a loaded assumption about a
person on the slightest evidence (his accent).

How you can tell that he might have a good salary, own his own home,
send his kids to public school or whatever it is you mean by "middle
class", simply on the basis of an accent, I cannot tell.

In my book, this is tantamount to assuming that someone who is gay must
be promiscuous, that an Albanian is likely to be a criminal or that a
Christian is an extremely gullible person. One really should think
carefully before making unsubstantiated generalisations based on limited
personal experience.

The bottom line is that your comment was nothing like making a factual
observation such as saying that a person appears to be male, black or
well-dressed - it was simply pre-judging him on "accent".

Just as well, since you're being totally incomprehensible!

I am sorry that you don't understand. I enjoy your contributions to this
newsgroup, Annabel, but I don't like the idea of making assumptions
about people on the slightest of evidence, such as accent. Perhaps that
is your style, but it is not mine.

Anyway, I previously indicated that I would not continue this debate -
you have provoked me into doing so by your incomprehension. I would like
to think I have helped you understand the nature of prejudice (which is
rife in this land of ours) but that is now the end of my contributions
to this thread and I'm certainly not going to be drawn into a slanging
match. I'm sure you will wish to have the last word.

--
Paul Terry