neuromancer said:
You rainbow sticker example is an interesting one. I feel that it is a slightly different case, as the rainbow sticker (Although I haven't really paid attention, nor do I really care) is something used exclusively with the purpose of advertising one's sexual prefrence. An earing in the right ear does not, many people who are not gay have their right ear pierced. At anyrate >I< would not assume that someone is gay based on a sticker on their car, they may just have a fondness for rainbows? In fact I will say that I don't ponder others sexual prefrence at all.
I'm sure if you look at other population factors in a prison for example you might see other less popular trends based on race and the color of people's skin, that you shouldn't apply all people.
Jay
Sorry for the mostly off topic stuff.
See, that's where we disagree...I feel that wearing an earring in your just right ear is just as reserved for signaling that you're gay as a rainbow sticker on your car.
So if you saw someone with a rainbow in their car, you wouldn't assume that they were gay? That's just foolish. Probably 99% of people with rainbow stickers on their car are gay. If it's not 99%, it's gotta be damn close to it...as long as it's more than 50%, it will prove my point. Hell, for the sake of argument, let's say 51% of people with rainbow stickers on their car are gay (although we all know that the percentage is higher than that). If I see a random car with a rainbow sticker on it, CHANCES ARE...they're gay. Are they DEFINITELY gay? No...but PROBABLY.
As for your race comment...ok, let's make up some races...there's blue, green, and purple colored people on Mars. Mars is...let's say...60% blue, 30% green, and 10% purple. Mars has a fair justice system. However, of the prisoners in Mars' jails, 70% of them are purple, 20% are green, and 10% are blue.
Now...does that mean that if you are purple that you are a criminal? Hell no. But I'd keep my eye on you just in case. Why? Because there's less purple people on Mars than any other color, but they have (by far) the highest criminal rate among them.
Inversely...if you're blue, does that mean that you're not a criminal? Hell no. But chances are, you're not a criminal. But if you're purple...there's a good chance you ARE a criminal.
Now if you walk into a room and someone is found dead on the floor (a GREENie)...and there is a blue guy and a purple guy both standing there bloodied up, can you assume that the purple guy did it? Hell no. However, statistically (in my Mars) chances are that the blue guy is innocent and the purple guy is guilty. Luckily, that alone is not enough to convict the purple guy...no one should be convicted until they are proven guilty. But if I walked into that room on Mars, and someone was taking bets on who was guilty in that situation...I'd play the odds and bet on purple being guilty.
Sorry for my replies being long and broken up from your original reply, but I wanted to comment on one point at a time.