The risks with socio-economic profiling are obvious.

You could be wrong. The person you assume to be poor might not be.

But I have developed a rule. If I am in downtown Spokane, I do not take for granted that someone wearing a Miami Dolphins hat or University of Michigan jacket has any connection to or interest in that team or school.

As I have learned partly from starting conversations that quickly went nowhere, a fair amount of the apparel in that category gets passed along through clothing-donations programs.

And saying "Go Blue!" to some guy standing in front of the bus station is apt to produce a mystified look.

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