General Etiquette > Life...in general
dear abby letter
Ko-Ko:
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/
Now, I ready to admit that I might be biased, but I don't really agree with Abby's answer to the first letter. She basically implied that it was the girl's fault that people discriminated against her because she is a teen. It seems to me that if she was really the type of person who dresses and looks threatening and thing like that, she wouldn't be the type to write to Abby.
Not to mention, I've seen what she is describing firsthand. I've definitely been followed around in stores more than a few times. I've also seen waiters roll their eyes when they have to wait on my friends and I at restaurants. In the last thread I started, a man was mocking my friend who was on her cell phone, and saying that she thought she was so cool just because she had a phone. Abby seemed to brush aside the fact that this kind of discrimination does happen, and that it is just as bad as discriminating against someone for their religion, race, or other characteristic.
Besides, no matter what happens, nobody will ever convince me that teens are the worst behaved age group. It is the preteens you have to watch out for. At least by age 15, most teens realize that they are not as cool as they used to think they were. :) Thanks for reading.
Ko-Ko
Alida:
Once again, Dear Abby should be titled Dear Airhead.
jaxsue:
I'm 45, and I remember being treated with suspicion as a teenager. The thing is, I was real clean-cut and respectful. I was still watched when I went into a store. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and to not generalize - sometimes I succeed!
A perfect example of how looks can be deceiving is an experience I had awhile ago. In one situation, a middle-aged man who was dressed real nice let a door shut in my face, and in the other a teenage boy who was very "goth" (and whose appearance would have scared some people) politely held a door for me.
Ko-Ko:
--- Quote from: jaxsue on January 06, 2007, 11:41:58 AM ---I'm 45, and I remember being treated with suspicion as a teenager. The thing is, I was real clean-cut and respectful. I was still watched when I went into a store. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and to not generalize - sometimes I succeed!
A perfect example of how looks can be deceiving is an experience I had awhile ago. In one situation, a middle-aged man who was dressed real nice let a door shut in my face, and in the other a teenage boy who was very "goth" (and whose appearance would have scared some people) politely held a door for me.
--- End quote ---
Exactly! I imagine many people have had experiences like yours. But some people forget what it was like and then begin doing the same thing themselves. But sometimes I wonder, are those people so distrustful because they were the ones stuffing store merchandise in their pockets as teenagers? Hmmm...
Ko-Ko
FoxPaws:
When I read that letter my first thought was, "Gee thanks, Abby, for telling people that it's perfectly okay to discriminate against people based on the way they look or dress."
It's gotten to the point where I read her column just to see how she's going to screw up.
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