Predictive Profiling

Predictive profiling is one of the skills that I was trained in while in the Army. I was trained by Israeli GSS. I'm a pretty useful person to be with at the airport... or annoying, depending on your level of paranoia. I know that when I look at somebody now, I don't look at them the way that someone else probably does. Who knows though? Maybe I do. Actually, regardless of training, I'm sure that I do. To some degree I think that we all have our stereotypes and categories that, upon seeing or meeting someone we, at least initially, lump them into. Take this guy for example:

Is that a gilligan hat? I truly didn't know people still wore those. Obviously with this guy the first thing that I notice is his attire. Look at it - it's a little quirky. I would think that he tries too hard. He also probably still listens to Cypress Hill and goes to the same three bars that he's been going to since he was 18. Based on his posture and facial expression I also get the impression that he thinks he's kind of a tough guy. I think I'm gonna have to beat this guy up.
Or how bout this girl:

Wow. That's truly all I can say. I really don't want to go too in depth with this one because I'm afraid I'll find myself with those boots wrapped around my neck as this girl tries to drink my blood.

Sorry if this picture offends anyone. Observe this guy. I'm gonna assume he's poorly educated, drives a truck that's at least 30 years old, watches way too much Nascar, and is overtly racist. What is truly sad about this photo is that this is a candid shot. That means whoever took this photo had time to witness what was going on, PROCESS it, pull out their phone and snap this photo. God knows what he's at that pharmacy for.

Here we have the frat boys. These guys love having a good time. Nothing wrong with that. They will go onto graduate and contribute to society. Some will go on to do great things. Others will develop a cocaine habit.

Ah, alas we have the hipsters. These are the young people who live in small towns with nothing to offer so they make their pilgrimmage to the city. They wear oversized glasses, smoke cigarettes, and only drink coffee and microbrew.

Well, there you have it. Who knew stereotypes could be so much fun?! On a serious note though, I didn't realize how stereotypical I could be. Making judgements about the people in these pictures was way too easy for me. Maybe I should turn the camera on myself, put my pic out there and see what snap judements people would make about me.