Mistaken for another Indian colleague

[GreenEggsAndShame]

Not the first time this has happened but I'm one of 2 Indian women in my office and there are colleagues who can't tell us apart. We look very different, I'm slight built she's not. Very different facial features and she has dyed brown hair. Im not sure how to react to this? Do I correct and shrug it off? What else can I do or say?

In my team there are several women of all ages . 2 of us are older and ... erm... generously sized. Otherwise we do not resemble each other in looks, dress sense or personality. We are, on a daily basis, called by each others names.

Its just folk who cant be bothered to concentrate before engaging their mouths.

edited to add the bit I meant to put in.
I just stop what Im doing and stare meaningfully at the offender. I might smile if I like them or give them a teachers stare if they regularly get it wrong. But its not worth getting really annoyed about.

When I lived in South Korea there were 3 Caucasian women, different ages, hair colour and sizes. The office workers were always getting their names mixed up because they were 'white' and any other details were secondary.

Happens every where op.

I’m constantly mixing up my DH, DS and dogs names! I’d have no hope in a big office.
Just politely keep correcting!!

I have red hair and once worked with a colleague with red hair. I was 7 inches taller than her but got called by her name ~50% of the time.

People can’t be bothered learning names. I once worked with someone who called every other woman, approx 60 people on my office floor, Polly. Nobody named Polly worked there.

There are academic studies about people perceiving others from the same race to look the same, even if they are physically very different. I can't remember why, but it's something neurological and not necessarily racist or 'lazy'. I'll see if I can find it.

Sadly this happens. My daughter is mixed race (half Indian, half white) and there is an Indian girl in her class. The teacher was constantly getting them mixed up despite the fact they're really not alike. DD is about two foot taller than the other girl and just has very different features.
I think some people struggle with facial recognition and if there are two Asian people they might get confused. It works the other way too. My Japanese friend claims she mixes up (very different looking) white people because to her white people all look similar and all have "pointy faces". I'm sorry if you're upset by this OP.

It's to do with exposure to facial features during critical and sensitive periods of brain development in childhood. We look for differentiating features, but in different races, the differentiating features are not the same ones. The fusiform face gyrus literally can't differentiate faces of the same race when it hasn't been exposed to that race as much. The brain has to activate different areas instead of facial recognition to look for differences, so please don't take it to mean your colleagues are racist or don't care. They are probably mortified when they realise. It's something you can improve on via exposure, but it's never as easy as when you grew up seeing a certain race's facial features.

I'm short and rather plump with very long very red hair, a nose piercing and tattoos. I work with a woman who is also quite short and round. However, I always wear the dress version of our uniform, she always wears the tunic and trousers, she has short blonde hair, no piercings and a totally different accent to me.

I am called by her name on a fairly regular basis.

Don't take it personally op, I think this is a fairly common occurrence

Oh god, I think I do this. Not specifically to South Asian people, or people of a particular ethnicity - I just mean that I am terrible at recognising people in general.

This means that when I meet someone I deliberately take note of something about them in order that I’ll be able to identify them next time (eg the man with red hair, or the woman with purple glasses, or the girl with the big nose, or the South Asian-looking man, or the woman with very pale skin, or whatever).

While this does help me identify people much of the time, I get into terrible trouble if it turns out there are two women with purple glasses in the office, or two South Asian-looking men, or whatever. I’m sure people might think it stems from racism where I confuse two people of the same ethnicity.

I really hope not - I would hate to be offending or upsetting people. I just really am DREADFUL at telling people apart and if I don’t latch on to a key characteristic of theirs, I wouldn’t be able to recognise them at all. In fact, I once mistook my own brother when I met him by accident at a bus stop, but that’s another story.

This to me is a micro agression. Depending on the rules and culture of your workplace, you may be able to raise it either informally or formally.

If it were me I would have to say something. You don't have to be confrontational, you could just act confused "who's X? Oooh you mean X from accounts? I'm Y".
Or even passive aggressive "Hi Dave. No, I know your name is really Mike, but you call me X all the time when my name is Y so I thought we were just coming up with nicknames?"

Ha! The post by brainexplorer helps me feel a little better about myself, at least.

I'm always being muddled with a colleague and we're both white. I wouldn't take it personally.

We had 4 new recruits in their early 20s. They all had long blonde hair. It took me months to work out which was which and remember their names.

There are pretty extensive studies that show recognising people from other races is harder. It happens between every race to every race. It's neurological.

If you think it's being done to be dismissive, then yes raise it. But otherwise just correct and move on.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7067904/&ved=2ahUKEwiDnI3Z17KCAxV5QkEAHdjkBjcQFnoECCsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1Aooj9MerQ88wq3r_-_g8E

Read this on the cross race bias studies.

i used to get some people were i worked mixed up, but i very rarely saw them

I think it's rude. Yes, many people struggle with matching names to faces (me included) but presumably these are people you are actually working with on a day to day basis?

My exhusband married an african-anerican woman who has trouble recognising her father in law because "all old white men look alike". I'm not sure if it's racist or if we have more trouble seeing discerning features in a people that are a minority to us.

Nah, I'm sorry, it's lazy mixing you and your colleague up and there are a lot of apologists on this thread. Once or twice, happens to most of us in work when we're new or have new people introduced to us. Beyond that it's rude at best.

I'm not saying it's racism but it feels lazy. It's hard enough being a minority is a predominantly white office - eg can't pronounce our names. Im not sure how to respond but thank you to some of the posters who have shared some potential replies.

I’m Asian and I constantly got mixed up with my best friend at secondary school - who is white! We both happened to be short arses so I think people just couldn’t see that far down to distinguish us

I'm elderly and blond in Mexico City and apparently the city is just full people who look like me.

But that being said, confusing you with a colleague is very poor

I can see why you are upset and I think it’s because you think it’s racist - the question is do you genuinely believe these people are being racist?

If you do then you should talk to management

However if you feel that they are lazy and only lazy then I would think twice about reporting them all as afterall you have to work with them day in day out.

I do hope that you feel reassured by the responses above though