To think it's wrong to say all people from a certain race look the same?

[pregahes]

Someone said this to me recently, AIBU or are they?

It's lazy thinking and bordering on racism.

Stereotyping an entire race by claiming they all look the same is not just ignorant but harmful in my opinion.

I struggle with certain celebrities, but I often correct myself by saying they have different eye/lip shapes, facial structures, smiles etc. I used to get Hillary Swank and Jennifer Garner confused quite a bit when I was younger.

WTF

Finding a program hard to follow because you’re not good at distinguishing between multiple people all from the same country / race / ethnic background, isn’t because someone is racist. Saying “all X look the same” is. And saying “you can’t say anything these days without some twat screaming you are a racist” definitely sounds pretty racist to me.

It's a well known phenomenon that people find it easier to tell people of the same race etc apart. It's called the cross race effect. I don't think its 'wrong' or a person's problem to solve. It's just one of those things, and it's not racist.

But saying that 'they all look the same' rather than 'I can't distinguish' is racist, though I'm reality it's probably more clumsy wording.

It is absolutely racist.

I get Brian Conley, Lee Mack and Bradley Walsh confused all the time because they look the same to me (and I'm white)

People don’t all look the same but it is accepted that people from one race often have difficulty identifying individual faces in other races.

It is lazy and I wouldn't say it. I do a certain part of my work 5 days a month as part of a larger team and so do all others in my team - usually for separate days to my usual team members. Myself and another member of my usual team continually get mixed up despite being part of larger team for around 5 years. We don't look alike, but are both blonde, blue eyes and above average in height, so people are lazy and possibly uninterested but it doesn't necessary mean they are racist.

My Korean ex boss said the same thing when she came to the UK for the first time too.

I think this is true. People get used to looking at people of their own race if they grow up with just those people. Anyone who’s grown up in a multi ethnic area doesn’t have this problem.

Of course no race of people all actually look the same. I also think there’s an element of laziness at play - if you are subconsciously not looking at someone properly.

It’s really racist thing to say of course.

I have mild face blindness which means I can struggle to recognise people of all races - but I actually find white people hardest even though I am white, especially very pale people with small features, for some reason.

@garlictwist you don’t need to be scared or ashamed, like lots of people have said it’s actually fairly normal to find it harder to distinguish between people with similar features if you’ve not had a lot of exposure to them in real life. The thing that makes it problematic is not taking responsibility for it being something you need to be aware of or work on, rather than it being the problem of those people with features you find it hard to distinguish between.

Its kind of what you saw growing up. I’m Pakistani, I’m gilgit specifically, so I look very different to what other people might expect from a Pakistani. However as a Pakistani I can generally tell what part of Pakistani other Pakistanis are from, as there are quite a few distinctive groups. Where as a lot of people who aren’t south asian will often think Pakistanis, Indians and Sri Lakans generally look the same/very similar due to limited exposure.

Saying all x ethnicity look the same is different to saying that its normally to find it harder to distinguish different ethnicities, especially if they aren’t one you have grown up around. I moved to the UK when I was eight, I’d never seen a white person before, for a long time to me I couldn’t distinguish between classmates who had the same hair colour.

Of course it's racist.

I’m ethnic Chinese who lived a large amount of my youth in Asia. I would say some people are worse at telling faces apart. I struggle to tell actors apart in shows unless I have seen them in many shows. This applies to both Hollywood or Korean drama. For example in an ensemble cast like Marvel, I would know Benedict Cumberbatch is Dr Strange, Benedict Wong is Sorcerer Supreme etc. Too many unknown faces and I can’t tell who is who. I am watching shogun and it took me many episodes to tell both the main England lead and the Spanish/Portugese or the various Japanese men apart. It’s not racist in that I know I am not good at facial features. However I won’t say they all look the same. It is very much a me issue. I have to keep asking DH to tell me who is who.

Some people have similar features. For example somali people have a very distinctive ' look'...their bone structure is very distinctive.

There have been loads of studies on this and apparently it’s not racism. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/to-our-brains-people-of-other-races-really-do-look-alike/

I suppose it is a short for "all people from a certain race look the same to me", which doesn't sound bad/racist (to me) .

It makes sense there is an evolutionary reason for people to feel like that about other races to their own.

We are biologically still tribal creatures (hence so much war globally). We have learned to travel the world more quickly than our brain have evolved so therefore we still see that people who look like ourselves are more likely to be part of our tribe.

We know logically that people are people whatever race they are from and everyone is an individual and therefore unique but the studies on our 'blindness' to nuances in features of other races makes sense biologically.

It isn't unreasonable to guard your words though. We are a multicultural community and people may not understand the context of such comments and be upset.

What exactly is racist about it? I can normally tell if someone is Slavic as they have quite a distinct look. Of course not all of them look the same but many groups have a majority of people who have similar features. Doesn't mean I dislike them or am prejudiced against them. Surely genetics means that within groups (where there is homogenous population that procreate within that group with little genetic mixing), that many common features will reappear? Isn't that just a fact? It would be racist if people were making fun of such features or denigrating racial features but if it is an observation, how is it racist?

@Cherryana I wouldn't be offended, but I'd be bemused.

I don't have very good facial recognition or memory, so it's ALL a bit difficult for me.

people of certain nationalities are more difficult for me because I don't see much 'to hang my hat on'. Whereas with 'white' people there's not a standard build. Hair colour, height, as much as there are in others.

i work closely with a few Chinese people & they are all very different, I wouldn't mix them up, but I find it harder to remember which one is which because it's not as easy as 'the tall blonde' or the 'short red head' etc

However, when I was in Hong Kong it was a very odd feeling, very very crowded, everyone my height (discombobulating to see many many faces (when I usually just see chests/necks/shoulders etc) and to be completely honest, everyone did look the same en masse.

a town near us has a high population of Nepalese people & until I have 'a connection' with any of them personally I can't tell them apart.

it's not a colour thing per se, it's more of a hair, height, build thing.

Not the same but they do share various features. White people to me seem to have a lot more variation of features, Indians also. I get very mixed up with black and oriental people unless I know them well. I’m not racist it’s just the way I am! I tried to watch a Japanese movie once but gave up as I couldn’t tell the difference with a lot of the characters.

Agreed it's not quite the same. I think it's often a clumsy way of verbalising that someone struggles to tell people from different races apart.

I do believe context is key in how it was said. Equally other cultures view extremely white populations in a very similar manner. That's just the reality of growing up in a particular culture.

And why is it wrong? Do we consider looking the same as a negative trait for a race? Is that why it is considered racist in our Western view? Like I say, context is incredibly important but we're getting very good at ignoring context and instantly stating something is offensive when we don't like hearing it.

I very strongly feel that this distinction is a highly important one, and anyone using the phrase without qualifying “to me” should think very carefully about what they are implying. Treating all people of a different race to your own as some sort of homogenous mass, identifiable only as a category and not as individual people as distinct as any others, is the root of a huge amount of racism globally.

Sure, someone might truly mean “to me” but they should damn well say so, because there are plenty of racists who actually seem to think people of other races aren’t proper distinct humans and are in fact a homogeneous mass who can be treated as such.

It’s totally understandable to find it hard to distinguish between people of a different race to yourself if you are not used to it - but this is not because “they are all the same”. Pretty sure “they” all look different enough to each other.

Well, it is and it isn’t…
If I were to declare that “all people from x Country look the same” then it’s racist, but if I were to declare that “all teenage girls from the local secondary school look the same”, because of the following:
“Croydon facelift” ponytailed long hair (blonde/bleached)
Fake orange tan legs
”Plastic-looking” Barbie-style facial makeup
Uniform skirts rolled up to micro-mini length
Flat black shoes with no socks Etc.
… then it’s just an observation!

I think you would have to be extraordinarily ignorant not to see the difference between a Somali woman and a Nigerian woman and a Kenyan women. As pp said, Africa is extremely diverse.