pre-judge...

I was on the bus this morning from Hackney to Whitechapel and stood beside me was a young lad. My initial impression was that he was a threatening looking character: skin-head, baseball cap and tracksuit. You know the look. I think they're referred to chavs here in the UK. But then I noticed his mobile which was hanging around his neck. It had a care bear cartoon on it with "I love you" above it. It made me smile and then set me thinking how I had, unfairly, pre-judged him.

It also reminded me of when a guy I met at a gig asked how I could be intimidated by the large person in front of me with an accent like mine. Apparently my northern Irish accent is scary. *smile* I was pretty amazed by this revelation. But there you go.

I think what I need to do is to increase my awareness and to watch out for this kind of reaction in future. The problem is that so much of it is sub-concious and in our everyday lives like our language. Did you know that here in the UK there is a slang term for Police vans which is Paddy Wagon? I wonder how many people think about where that term originates when they use it in speech?