I used to live in a run down neighborhood next to Phoenix Park in Dublin, close to a prison for sex offenders and a kinder garden with no windows and only one door. My neighborhood was populated by (according to my Irish friends) "knackers". If you're unaware, "knacker" is a derogatory term for travellers.    I'd been on a date with this guy I worked with, and he was walking me home. He lived close to me but had never walked through my neighborhood. Our road forked just at this huge parking lot, where the traveller kids would play. There was a bunch of them, ages 7-12, screaming and laughing. My date keept looking at them sideways, finally he spat out:    "Have you walked home this way before?"  "Yeah, all the time."  "And... you don't have any trouble?"  "Eh, no."  "Because you know, these kinds of kids can be trouble..."    The next day at work I retell this story to a co-worker, finishing with "That's such a middle class thing to say!". My co-worker gives me a strange look.    "Well, he's not middle class."  "Eh, yeah he is..."  "He can't be middle class! It's not possible!"  "Why not?"  "Well, he's from Pakistan, isn't he?!"    I stare at my co-worker in stunned silence for a good while.    "So you're saying that this guy whose family pays for his uni tuition and housing in Dublin, who only wears Tommy Hilfiger, who works extra so he can afford to party, is some kind of street urchin because he happens to be from Pakistan?"  "Yes."