Madam, - Our young people are plagued by a a terrible culture of discrimination which assigns them, often unwillingly, to cultural groups which could affect their entire lives.
Teenagers across Ireland are placed in social groups by others because of where they live, the clothes they wear and the music they listen to, causing them to act differently, change their accents or buy expensive clothes they don't even like but feel they have to wear to get in with the "cool crowd".
There are numerous teenage and pre-teen social groups including Skangers, Poshers, Emos, Goths, Rockers and many more.
These groups put a lot of pressure on both teenagers and their parents as parents feel the pressure on to go out and buy these unnecessary clothes. I can imagine this is especially hard on families of lower income. A lot of the time they can be stereotyped and this could undoubtedly scar them for life.
Another matter that angers me a lot is the stereotyping of people - of all ages - because of the reputation of the area they live in.
The only solution to such problems are to lift people's ignorance by teaching children at an early age to respect people as individuals and not stereotype others because of where they live, how much money they have, and so on. - Yours, etc,
MANUS CARLISLE, Beresford Avenue, Dublin 9.