# This OP has drawn flags very quickly for being offensive **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 22, 2022, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-op-has-drawn-flags-very-quickly-for-being-offensive/970110 "2022-08-22T20:02:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 26
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-op-has-drawn-flags-very-quickly-for-being-offensive/970110/26 "2022-08-22T23:36:20Z")
@HeyHomie, I wouldn’t have a problem with your OP if you had done the following things differently: - Made your OP an _inquiry_ of whether traveling communities commit more fraud than does the general population, _as opposed to declaring it as established fact._ We’ve all heard lots of anecdotes about such incidents by travelers. But as noted, that doesn’t prove they happen more with travelers than with non-travelers. - Placed more emphasis on the _itinerent nature of traveler communities_ as the (possible) source of higher rates of fraud, _as opposed to the cultures of those communities._ You did address this, which makes me think that you’re not prejudiced against these ethnic groups, but may have just stated some things clumsily. AIUI, the Irish travelers are pretty much the same ethnically as other Irish-Americans. It would indeed show prejudice if you were to declare that all Irish-Americans were more likely to be crooks due to the travelers alleged misdeeds (sort of like believing that all Italian-Americans are in the Mafia). This is not the same as asking about the Irish travelers specifically. IMO it’s not unreasonable to ask whether itinerent tradespeople are more likely to commit fraud than others, _regardless of their ethnicity._ It’s certainly easier to get away with fraud if customers can’t pick up the phone or walk over to your shop when things are in dispute. And this difference was even more pronounced before the telecommunications advancements of the last few decades shrunk the global community. This topic interests me because I posted a similar question almost twenty years ago: > [@Irish Travelers's Con-Artist Image: Fair or Foul](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-travelerss-con-artist-image-fair-or-foul/129611): > > The videotape of the mother beating her child has prompted a lot of interest in the Irish Travelers. Much of the attention focuses on their alleged illegal activities. I’m curious how prevalent these activities are. I understand that there is a great deal of prejudice against the Travelers. (Even more so against their counterparts in Britain and Ireland). I realize that the Travelers’ only publicity occurs when one of them is accused of conning someone, which would inevitably lead to biased… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-op-has-drawn-flags-very-quickly-for-being-offensive/970110)._