asians look alike?

Question

I work at this place and once or twice my cousin came inside the store, suddenly after she left the employees said how she and I looked as if we were sisters. This came as a sudden shock because no one has ever said we looked similair facial wise. I began to think this was something denigrating. The causasians and african american employees were being extremely stereotypical .First of all, my cousin and my face shapes, eye size and shape, nose shape, mouth, hair style, body type are vastly different. What do you think about this?

Answer 1

People's perception isn't going to be able make fine differentiations on thigns they haven't had a chance to form a base on. If someone only sees someone of a specific race in passing, and only sees a limited number everyone of that race is going to look alike to them. It isn't racism, it isn't ignorance, but is that really bad? That just means they don't know. What do you expect them to do? Look at Asian magazines all the time?

In American when we describe someone else we describe things like eye/hair color, race and height. But in China where everyone has the same color hair, eyes, and is almost the same height, they describe people on facial features that the English language doesn't even have words for. They describe people based on things like the how far apart their eyes are, and the shape of the nose.

In fact, you just said some of those things yourself, nose/mouth shape? How many White Americans have you ever heard described by someone else based on their mouth shape?

Think of it like this. If I gave you two oranges, would you be able to describe the differences to my quickly and in a meaningful manner? If I told you remember one orange, and put them in a bag for three days, then told you to tell me which one you chose, would be able to pick it out for sure? How many times in your life have you thought to think about the physical characteristics or oranges? If you spent a lot of time working in the produce department, you might be able to tell a difference, but for everyone else they just don't have the visual perceptive ability. If they said she looked like your sister, they were probably just trying to be nice and make small talk, because to their perception you two do actually look alike.

Answer 2

i think i remember reading/ learning about this in psych class. what happens is when people just aren't exposed to a certain ethnic group the people in that 'new' group look similar because they have the same generic features. most groups have certain ethnic features that set them apart from other groups, and when your first exposed those are the more pronounced features. as you become more familiar you can start to pick out the more minute details that set people in the 'new' group apart from each other. try it, find some pics online of a population of people that you dont have contact with in your history, at first glance they might all look the same, but as you study it youll learn to pick up on the differences. that's kind of a simple explanation. there are some just ignorant people out there, I'm Indian I've experienced both people, those who I'm just new to and the stupid, luckily most people are in the first category.

Answer 3

Naw only mexicans and black people lol maybe asains look similar ya know cuz they are from asia but i dont think they all look the same god i shudder when i think of the last time i confused a vietnamese girl for korean lol last time i did that of course maybe you could look more similar than you think

Answer 4

I doubt they meant anything negative about it. I think it's natural for one race (no matter what the race) to think people of other races look alike. Of course, you look at other people in your race and don't think you all look alike just as people from other races might say the same thing.

Answer 5

some would imagine all caucasian look alike to asians, and africans. So don't get mad, some people are just ignorant

Answer 6

I think people make comments like that because it has happened to them with someone they know they don't look much like.

Answer 7

they don't know many asian people
so all asians look pretty alike to them.
it's just lack of familiarity with many individuals
of that ethnicity. blacks often think all whites look alike.
whites think all blacks look alike.
non ranchers think all cows look similar.
non fishers think all fish look alike.
non-zookeepers think all bears look alike.
with experience you can tell the differences.

Answer 8

CHING CHONG CHANGALANG

People are ignorant.