A co-worker and I disagree on whether this is a racist comment...

[WillParkinson]

My co-worker said this to another co-worker and I last night (in regards to some Asian men who work at the hotel with us):

I don't know which one it was, they all look alike to me.

I looked at him and said I could not believe he said that. He said why? I said the comment was racist.

He disagreed.

Who is right?

[glowing]

1. It explains his mind-set in getting to know your co-workers.

But, a funny backwards.. some people think Americans white people all look alike...

[Dorian Gray]

42. When I first moved to Hong Kong

I was looking for an apartment with my two girlfriend. We were told by the realtor to tell the owner we were sisters (it would get more approval than three friends straight out of college looking for a place). We said: "Sister. We can't pass for sisters!" And the realtor told me that we all looked alike to her. I was taken aback as each one of us had different color hair: Blonde, Red and Brown. But, Shrug. Thought it was a funny anecdote to tell, especially when reactions from some are: "But THEY'RE the ones who all look alike."

Ignorance and sheltered existence exists in many cultures.

[ProgressiveFool]

51. lol in a conversation about IKEA recently I got Swedes and Norwegians mixed up

So I said they all looked alike to me. I'm white, of course.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It is, even though he may not consciously feel it that way.

It is racist in the sense that when he looks at people of other races all he sees is their race, without distinguishing their individual features. He sees an Asian guy who, to him, looks just like all other Asian guys only because they are all Asian.

[Karenina]

3. SO MUCH of white America's racism is UNCONSCIOUS.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Exactly.

[WillParkinson]

18. That would be fine, but....

The person in question is black.

And he didn't think the comment was racist.

I asked him if I said that all black people look the same to me would he feel the same?

[Karenina]

21. GOOD FOR YOU!!!

We ALL have to check ourselves. CONSTANTLY. You tell him Tante K. says he needs to really fucking check himself. He's drowning in the white supremacy pool. He may not hold any discernible animosity, HOWEVER he has co-opted the white language and references in order to conform to the dominant society in which he swims. It's often NOT CONSCIOUS until one take steps to BRING IT TO THE SURFACE.

WHAT was his answer to YOUR question? DO TELL!!!

[Cresent City Kid]

5. This is a classic stereotypical statement

Even if he is so perceptionally impaired that he physically can't tell the difference, he would have to be ignorant not to have heard of this kind of statement which has been around since World War II at least.

[abumbyanyothername]

6. "they" in reference to a whole race

ipso facto racist.

"they" in reference to 4 men, perhaps not.

Only the speaker can say for sure.

[thereismore]

17. I agree. That is the crux of the matter. nt

[City of Mills]

7. Heard that one before

Any comment on a group of individuals that includes "they all" kind of indicates to me an ignorant or intolerant person. But racist? I don't know about that...I don't think you're off-base though.

[Karenina]

12. It's a CLEAR INDICATION that they do not bother their beautiful minds

with ANY DETAIL that would distinguish one from the other. Check out http://www.alllooksame.com

I got 16 out of 18. some years ago :evilgrin: NO, they all DON'T LOOK SAME.

[XemaSab]

60. 8/18

I had real trouble with Korean/not Korean. x(

[Enrique]

8. have him ask the Asian coworkers

see if they think it's racist.

[tj2001]

10. It is a very offensive remark to many Asians. Dehumanizing.

Ignorant at best. So I've been told.

[annabanana]

35. Then ask them

if they have toruble telling their white coworkers apart?

[Iggo]

9. Yep. It's racist.

Not the overt evil kind. But racist nonetheless.

And unless he's been living under a rock, he knows it.

[angstlessk]

11. It is racist when calling their entire ethnic group into play...I cannot tell some white men

apart on teevee...when all the men on a show are dark haired, pale skinned, tallish, and thin, I can never tell who is who? But I never say I cannot tell white men apart (I am a white woman). The same thing happened on Boston Legal when they had a few blond women playing who looked a lot alike. But I can surely tell white women apart (for the most part). He can say he is not familiar enough to know which one he was talking about, but to say they all look alike IS RACIST!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. It's often true. People have trouble making identifications of people of another race.

It has been widely studied in terms of eyewitness testimony in criminal cases.

[pipi_k]

16. And some can't even tell between members of their own race

I mean, try getting a white person to describe the skin tone of another white person.

To them, all whites are "white". Or flesh toned...whatever.


I don't think I've ever heard a white person say that a white criminal had medium toned skin (as opposed to lighter skin).

[mwb970]

22. It would happen between any two groups with different "looks".

I don't think it's something evil, unless someone thinks that the whole "us and them" thing we humans always do is inherently evil (original sin?).

[Karenina]

23. White people ESPECIALLY SO! Try THIS!!!

http://www,alllooksame.com

[ohheckyeah]

69. Your link doesn't work for me. n/t

[Karenina]

73. OOPSALA!!!

http://alllooksame.com

Corrected. Thanks.

[ohheckyeah]

80. Thank you! n/t

[Berry Cool]

14. It is a form of passive racism acquired from growing up in a mostly Caucasian society.

Caucasian people who grow up and live in a largely Caucasian society become used, as second nature, to telling people apart in easy ways--first, obviously, male vs. female, but after that, hair color and eye color. Only when it becomes necessary to differentiate amongst people with the same eye and hair color do they move on to other things.

Obviously, it's generally not useful to attempt to use eye or hair color (unless the hair is bleached or dyed) to tell Asians apart, so you have to move to the other characteristics right away. This may be second nature to people in an Asian society, but it requires many non-Asians (primarily Caucasians) to get out of a comfort zone they're used to--that lazy zone where it's enough to think of someone as "the really pretty blonde" or "the short dark-haired kid with the brown eyes"--and it's for this reason that, even if they don't voice it, their inner thoughts may be "It's hard to tell Asians apart because they look so much alike."

At least that's my view of it, as a Caucasian--I think it's a way in which all we Caucasians become lazy about visually differentiating people, and we don't even realize it. And it's not something one intends to do because one is actively racist. It just is. One has to make a concerted decision to fight it because one realizes it's racist and/or because it becomes necessary in order to function in a society in which one is surrounded by and dealing with large numbers of Asians, and to not be able to tell one from another would be both insulting to them AND embarrassing to you.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

34. All races have trouble identifying people of other races. So they must be passive racists also.

[Karenina]

36. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh, Dave, Dave, Dave... :rofl:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

37. We do what we can.

[kiva]

38. As you laugh, you might read the rest of what the OP said...

The person in question is black.

And he didn't think the comment was racist.

I asked him if I said that all black people look the same to me would he feel the same?

[Karenina]

40. My reading comprehension is quite fine, thank you for your concern.

Read my post again, this time s-l-o-w-l-y.

WillBowden wrote:

18. That would be fine, but....

The person in question is black.

And he didn't think the comment was racist.

I asked him if I said that all black people look the same to me would he feel the same?

I answered:

GOOD FOR YOU!!!

We ALL have to check ourselves. CONSTANTLY. You tell him Tante K. says he needs to really fucking check himself. He's drowning in the white supremacy pool. He may not hold any discernible animosity, HOWEVER he has co-opted the white language and references in order to conform to the dominant society in which he swims. It's often NOT CONSCIOUS until one take steps to BRING IT TO THE SURFACE.

WHAT was his answer to YOUR question? DO TELL!!!

I do wish Will had responded to my question. And I do wish you could understand my Englisch. :evilgrin:

[kiva]

41. So that's why you posted this?

"White people ESPECIALLY SO!"

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

43. If you read what they wrote in response to the OP pointing out he was African American....

....they are essentially blaming whites for a black man making a racist statement.

[kiva]

62. Because it fits what the poster wants to believe.

Studies show that our recognition is based on a variety of factors:

Is it racist? No, says this one:

ABSTRACT

Legal scholars and social scientists have long assumed that there is a racial bias in facial recognition and eyewitness identifications, with persons being much more accurate in identifying persons of their own race, but corroborative research evidence is scanty. In the present study, black and white college students attempted to identify which of a series of facial photos they had seen earlier. As predicted, a strong race of subject by race of picture interaction was found; both black and white subjects were significantly more accurate in identifying pictures of their own race than pictures of the other race. However, contrary to assumptions made by many legal and criminal justice personnel, neither racial attitude nor reported amount of quality of interracial experience were related to ability to recognize pictures. Implications for eyewitness identifications of these and related findings are discussed.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119613268/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Could gender be a factor?

People are biased in recognising faces of their own sex, a new study has found.

Dan Wright and his colleague at Sussex University's department of psychology found that women were much better at remembering female rather than male faces. And, likewise, men were better at identifying male rather than female faces.

"People are better at recognising faces of their own gender," Dr Wright told The THES. "This complements other research that has shown that people are better at identifying faces of their own race and age."

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=178958§ioncode=26

Is age a factor?

A recent study by Virginia Harrison and Graham J. Hole was able to address some of these questions. They showed faces of boys (age 8-11) and adult men to 66 university students. Half of these students were in a teacher-training program and had been working with kids this age for an average of more than a year. The other half had very limited contact with children.

Everyone saw 32 pictures of faces, 16 from each age group (either smiling or neutral), flashed for three seconds at a time. They were told to memorize the faces for a test. They were then distracted for three minutes, and tested on a new set of photos: 32 different people, plus 32 of the original group, but in a different pose (smiling or neutral). For each photo, the students had to say, as quickly and accurately as possible, whether they had seen that face before. Here are the results:


There was no difference in recognition of their own age group, but the teacher trainees were significantly better at recognizing kids' faces than the non-teachers. There were similar results for reaction time.

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/04/some_insight_into_why_its_hard.php

But it's simpler to apply one theory - racism - than to consider other factors, hence the poster's attitude.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

64. My only thought is.....

...there's a difference between being able to clearly identify someone you met briefly or saw in a hurry (such as a suspect in a criminal case) and one you work with. It seems like the person talked about in the OP doesn't want to bother to identify someone they should know, simply because they are "all alike".

My other point is that I don't think someone is always influenced in their discrimination by the "dominant" viewpoint.

[kiva]

66. Some of the articles stress the aspect of familiarity,

that people could more easily differentiate between members of their own age cohort, or that teachers could more readily identify children who were roughly the same age as the subjects they were asked to remember. Several of the articles I found were very critical of witness identification because of studies that mention these flaws.

[Karenina]

57. LAWSAMIGHTY CHILE!!!

;spray::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Ah be goin' back aways an' in mah pickeninny times the light ones, 'specially if dey had light eyes and "good" hair be runnin' down all kinds of scams, like dey be Puerto Rican or East Indian or some other exotic shit... :rofl: Da white folks dey had no clue as long as dat passer got far away as possible from anyone who might identify one drop in 'em.

Many people volunteered to help with clean-up after the WTC Towers were destroyed. I went to H.S. and conservatory there and watched them go up.
The reports I heard from family and friends were peppered with TOO MANY stories about how SURE the (mostly white) cops were that these MULTI-RACIAL kids were "Middle Eastern" and hassled them. SO FUCKING INSULTING!

[pipi_k]

15. I don't think it's necessarily racist, and here's why

some people honestly cannot tell the difference.

Many times the police get very frustrated with white people who, when claiming a black person has committed some crime, are totally unable to describe the skin tone of the perpetrator. For these people there are no dark, light, or medium shades. It's all the same to them. The same for whites. There are many skin tones even among white people. All it takes is a walk down any drugstore makeup aisle to see that.

There was an interesting online test some time ago where people were asked to look at photos of oriental people and tell what country these people were from. At the end, the test results said that many people cannot tell the difference between a Korean person and one from Japan. Or one from the Philippines and another from China. I knew a few people who appeared not to have a racist bone in their bodies and who prided themselves on what they thought was their ability to discriminate between different oriental faces...these people were dismayed....embarrassed...to find that they weren't as good as they thought they were. The faces all started to look the same to them. Is that racism?

I wish I could find the quiz and post it here. I think a lot of people might be taken down a peg or two when they found out they couldn't tell the difference.

[Karenina]

26. Here ya go!

http://alllooksame.com Go to: Faces.

[JI7]

33. it's one thing to not be able to tell exactly what country they are from

but it's another to look at individuals and just say they all look the same. it's one thing to look at a group of asians and not be able to tell which asian country they are from.

but if you really look at them you can see differences from one individual to the other.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. It's racist

[Fuzz]

20. My wife says all us white guys look alike.

;)

[timeforpeace]

24. Very stupid, not racist. Old as the hills, not racist.

[pipi_k]

25. Just wondering....

do people really know what the word "racism" means?

Rather than give my own definition, I'll quote from Merriam Websters...



Main Entry:
rac·ism Listen to the pronunciation of racism
Pronunciation:
\ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm also -ˌshi-\
Function:
noun
Date:
1933

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race 2 : racial prejudice or discrimination



1. Not being able to tell various members of a particular race apart from each other does not equal the act of judging them to be inferior to one's own race.

2. Not being able to tell members of a particular race apart from each other does not equal the act of prejudging them all with regards to stereotypical behaviors and then excluding them from society based on those prejudgments.



Sometimes not being able to tell members of a particular race apart is only that...an inability to discern facial differences. Not everything that LOOKS like "racism" actually IS racism.

[Igel]

27. Why should it be racist?

It's not saying that everybody from a given racial or ethnic group actually looks alike. The "too me" is an essential part of the phrase.

You learn to discriminate facial features at an early age, and that typically means you discriminate those features in your family group. Usually that also means within your racial group, American (and world) society being what it is. That means you don't learn to discriminate facial features from other groups.

In a punny sort of way, they're saying that non-discrimination is racist, while fine-grained discrimination isn't racist. (Of course, that says nothing about discrimination for or against anybody.)

It's the same with phonemes and music. Most adults, for example, can't get their heads around the rhythmic foundations of some Balkan music (I'm one of them).

[Shrek]

28. Not racist

Unless he was claiming that his own inability to distinguish them somehow amounted to inferiority based on race, it's hard to see any racism.

[Touchdown]

29. It is. On a side note, I've got a co-worker who has this on his desk.

I think it's racist, but nobody has asked him to remove it. I won't for 2 reasons, it shows he's a prick (and a birther) to everyone who had doubts, and I'm the first one he will blame since I'm already known around the building as the resident flame throwing revolutionary, and I sit 3 cubes down from him. He already thinks I'm a commie who's bent on taking his freedoms, so I put this up on my desk to give him a coronary...



:P

[crispini]

48. Hahahah. That's awesome.

Too cute.

[teachableseconds]

70. Question about Cream of Wheat one: why do you find it racist?

Is there a figure on Cream of Wheat? I didn't think so...Just criticizing Obama isn't racist, per se. Hell, it happens here all the time. Watch--someone here may co-opt that image as their avatar!:rofl:

[Hannah Bell]

72. yes, there's a figure on cream of wheat.

[BlooInBloo]

30. lololol! That's not new. The only people who are individuals are white folks - everybody knows that.

:rofl:

[anigbrowl]

31. He is right, and you are wrong

Saying that everyone of a certain group looks alike to you is a statement about your experience and perceptions. It's neither good nor bad as it regards the people you're talking about. It is a fact that some people have difficulty distinguishing and/or remembering faces of other ethnic groups. To me this is little different from a basketball player observing that everyone else looks short to him.

[Iris]

32. It's the kind of comment where I shake my head & wonder HOW admitting you are unworldy

came to be considered a good thing. In my mind, that's just like saying "I don't know anyone outside of my own culture, I've never been anywhere and I'm dumb as a box of rocks."

Seriously, I've never even been out of the country but have lived in worked in a city of immigrants. It is amazing what opening you mind and expanding your horizons can glean.

[Obamanaut]

39. I've heard it said ABOUT white people, by other than white. I don't

think that simple statement is racist at all, merely that most people of a similar race look the same to people of another race.

[Karenina]

46. It's a basic misunderstanding about small r prejudices.

People confuse institutional and systemic with the personal and whatever motives it might have. Sometimes they're less malicious and more just "givens."

"They all look alike" is a clear statement that one feels he needn't differentiate between individuals and any "group" they come from. IT IS UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT. ANYONE of ANY STRIPE would, at the very least, get Tante K.'s withering glare upon uttering such stupidity.

[Obamanaut]

63. Well then by all means take it upon yourself to eliminate all the

UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT that exists in races other than white, because it is there. White people have flaws, but by the gods, so does every other race. Accept it.

[Karenina]

67. Obamanut, what kind of response is that?

Methinks you may don' lossyo' mind... :shrug::crazy:

[LeftishBrit]

44. It's not necessarily racist....

There has been a lot of research on influences on face recognition, and the 'own race effect' is well-known. People are much better at recognizing faces of a race with which they are familiar than one with which they are less familiar. My Chinese immigrant friend had a lot of trouble recognizing white people when she first moved to England. It didn't mean that she thought we were really all the same; just that she was lacking in a certain type of visual experience.

Of course, racism *could* be a factor. If someone never bothers to mix with people of another race, or actively avoids them, then they will continue to have trouble distinguishing them. But it's not racist to have the difficulty at first; and it's better to be aware of it - serious miscarriages of justice have occurred when people honestly, but mistakenly, misidentified someone of a race with which they were relatively unfamiliar, without realizing that their recognition was likely to be impaired. (Indeed, most people overestimate their ability to recognize people whom they've only seen briefly, whatever the race, and this does cause miscarriages of justice - but that's another matter.)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. No Matter How Many People Reply Otherwise, It Still Isn't Racism.

I can understand why they'd want to lean that way, but that doesn't make it accurate. To determine racism, one must simply look at the definition itself:

rac⋅ism
  /ˈreɪsɪzəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation Show IPA
Use racist in a Sentence
–noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.


Your example in no way fits the criteria whatsoever. Case closed.

[crispini]

49. Define "intolerance"

I myself think the phrase that "they all look alike" could potentially indicate an intolerant mindset. At best, in indicates a lazy unfamiliarity; at worst it indicates a willingness to reduce the other to the lowest common denominator, a mass group of "them," of "Not-Us" rather than human individuals. Certainly such an attitude, if it's not "intolerance," is right next door to it.

[joshcryer]

52. I prefer Merriam Webster:

Main Entry:
rac·ism
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

---

It is certainly prejudicial to state that all people of a given race look the same.

[joshcryer]

47. Only after the race of the person in question was revealed did the tune of responses change here.

This is actually quite amazing.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

50. It's racist

If he clearly can't take the time or concern to actually look at people he works with and facially recognize them, he's got to have some problem and has already made up his mind it isn't worth the effort. He's not being asked to tell whether they are Japanese, Korean, Laotian, etc......just whether they are John, Kuhn, Ryuhei or Joe.

[Xithras]

53. Not racist, but a bigoted stereotype

Racism implies that the speaker infers an inferior status to the people, and the statement doesn't do that. It does indicate that the speaker doesn't have any care or interest in learning about another race, and falls back on stupid stereotypes to fill in for a lack of knowledge.

It's like saying "All black people have big lips". It's not racist, but it's an unfounded stereotype often grounded in bigotry that some find offensive.

[cbdo2007]

55. You're correct...and talking in stereotypes is too often confused with racism.

People are too quick to throw out the "racist" or "racism" accusation these days when someone is stereotyping. I don't know anyone of any color who doesn't stereotype nor have I ever met or will ever meet anyone who doesn't stereotype, but that doesn't make them racists.

[MellowDem]

58. Exactly nt

[ismnotwasm]

54. You are

I live in a neighborhood with a large pan-Asian population. I suppose if one is not exposed to a large community you wouldn't notice that Koreans look nothing like Japanese, Laotian's and Cambodians look nothing like Chinese, (they don't even really look like one another although there is a stronger structural similarity) Vietnamese look nothing like Filipino's. So not only do they not "all look alike" individually, you're talking about a very large and extremely diverse population both physically and culturally.

I understand honest confusion, but not an asshole comment like that.

[MellowDem]

56. It is not racist...

It would be racist if he thought that Asians were beneath him somehow. But to say that all Asians look the same is a prejudiced view, not the most damaging one you could have, I suppose, but still somewhat ignorant in its own right.

To try to lump any huge group such as Asians in this case together based on physical features alone is obviously an overgeneralization usually based on little experience of the actual subject.

Also, it's an old joke that has been made on many types of media and is a well-known steryotype. He may have just been joking or making reference to that widely known joke.

[DireStrike]

59. How is it possibly racist

What would you like your coworker to do, suddenly develop the capacity to distinguish people of other races?

If he or she cannot, it is simply the truth. The truth is not racist.

Of course he or she could tell people apart if they were people they knew or met more than a few times, but it is possible that it's hard to tell strangers apart, especially from memory.

[tblue37]

61. When my grandmother told me long ago not to say we were Italian, because we were really Sicilian,

I told her, "I don't know, Grandma. We all look alike to me!"

(I am secind generation American, but my father's parents came over from Sicily.)

[Romulox]

65. Not really racist. BTW, I am developing an online test to determine

how many Asians can distinguish a Scot from an Irishman! :rofl:

[smirkymonkey]

74. Or how many can distinguish a Dane from a Swede from a

Norwegian from a Finn? I'm white and I can't tell the difference. Same with the English, Irish, Scots (until I hear their accent). Is that racist? People from certain parts of the world tend to have similar facial features - Spanish, Italian, Greek; Czech, Pole, Slovakian; German, Dutch, Austrian. You just can always identify ethnicity by looking at someone.

[Karenina]

78. Bunch of us were headed to the Irish Pub for some libations.

50 meters away we saw some boys who appeared to have the same destination. David muttered, "They're Protestant." When Dave muttered ANYTHING all ears perked up as getting him to do more than smile wryly or giggle was like pulling hen's teeth. "Are you SURE? They look like Brits to me." I asked knowing that HE KNEW. Otherwise he would have never said. He winked. "Go ask 'em." So I did.

Once we were all seated I bust a gut, grabbing his arm and trying to pump a word or two out. "David just ID'ed those guys at 50 fucking paces! DA-A-V-I-ID, you're all pasty, you're all white! YOU TALK NOW!" My approach was less than effective as by this time boyfriend was in convulsive giggles and COULDN'T talk... He'd nailed da id.

The encounter launched an hourS-long, Guinness-fueled discussion about perception, language (a pub staple), our diverse backrounds and points of reference. A good time was had by all.

[Paladin]

75. And Did You Grow Up, Repeatedly Hearing People Say:

"Those Irishmen and Scots---they all look alike to me."

No, of course you didn't. The "All Orientals look alike" comment has been around for years---it's been my experience that people who use that expression prove themselves to be racists in other unpleasant ways. Usage and custom play a big role in situations like this; seemingly harmless phrases (and objects, like the Confederate flag)can be tainted by the trashy, harmful ways in which they are employed. If you don't want to be associated with the KKK or FreiRepublik, don't let your choice of words betray you.....

[Romulox]

76. As someone who has rather close bonds with several Asian people,

I've heard the same and worse said about we gwailo. Asian people are human in exactly the same way you, I and everyone else is; that means some of them are prejudiced, some will laugh at an off colored joke. And some (many?) have trouble discerning a Korean from a Japanese (the horror!).

[teachableseconds]

68. Why is it racist? There are people in homogenous cultures

who may have the same color eyes, hair, around the same height...You see them in a sea of people and it probably would be difficult. For me, I kind of have that syndrome where it's difficult to recognize people. And it doesn't just refer to people with the same basic features but anyone whom I know, whether just meeting or known for awhile. It was so embarrassing when I ran into someone I know quite well (but hadn't seen for awhile) and she was going on and on and I didn't have any idea of who she was. I think it really offended her. I told her that she looked different with her hair dyed but I am sure she still was peeved.

[downeyr]

71. I don't know....

It's an interesting problem for me, because I hear many people talk about how black people look alike. For example, I said that the person in "Rush Hour" was Chris Tucker and someone had called him Chris Rock. They said that they all looked the same to him. Now, I don't know if that's racism or the inability of a person to notice specific traits that identify a certain person. It could be cultural racism, personal racism, or just the inability to tell individuals of a different ethnicity apart because of a lack of time around a certain ethnicity. Are there different kinds of racism? What constitutes racism? Who decides what racism is? When does politically incorrect turn into racism. And when does political correctness turn into reverse racism by showing how un-racist we are?

[ecstatic]

77. Only in the sense that he's not taking the time to get to know his own co-workers

and might be just viewing them as Asian and nothing more. I can see getting confused by strangers but these are his co-workers, right? If you view them as human beings, you will recognize their faces!

As others have pointed out, it is difficult to recognize faces of people in other racial groups--but on a PERSONAL basis that should not be the case.

[Karenina]

79. It is NOT "difficult" to recognize the "other," it's a helluva lotta fun

to discover who they ARE!!! In the Altstadt on any given day, one with ears will hear no less than 50 languages. I'm working on differentiating Slavic languages, so if I find myself in a crowd or store or something, I just ask. People just light up like Christmas trees whether I get it right or wrong. They'll explain the linguistic connexions, laugh at my attempts, but MOST OF ALL feel validated that I would even CARE!

[Vidar]

81. You're right.

[dugaresa]

82. without thinking about it much, I would say you, but

if all the people in the hotel wear the same uniform and wear their hair in the same manner and let's say the coworker was asking, "who left the cart out in the parking lot" and the other co-worker honestly didn't see well and due to everyone wearing the same dress said the comment, then I would say it was not racist.


I have seen racism rear its ugly head in customer interactions though and it is ugly. I worked with a guy who was a white american male and he was so subliminally racist as well as extrovertly racist that when he had a prospective client call and if that client had any sort of accent, he couldn't understand them. He would be so rude, "didn't understand that", "repeat that slowly", and in 90% of the cases these people spoke english better than he did.

It was as if his racism and hatred for anyone different affected his hearing. I can't say he did it intentionally though because there were times I thought he really tried to understand but his racist behavior just made him deaf and more stupid than normal. Luckily he went to work for one of our competitors after we let him go. I was so happy to see him gone.