You All Look Alike! : International Blog Against Racism

[fickle]

So, shameful confession time.

I can't tell the difference between Chinese, South Korean, North Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese just by looking at people. I know the difference if I'm looking at a map, obviously, but people? No.

Likewise, I don't really expect white people to be able to tell the difference between Bengali, Indian, and Sri Lankan people. Not unless they've spent a significant amount of time in one of those countries.

See, I have a friend from Bangladesh who was insulted when someone mistook her for being from India. I get asked if I'm from India all the time, and I usually just laugh and say "No, Sri Lanka" because hey, at least they were on the right continent and that's something. But when I think about it, I wonder if maybe I should take it a little more seriously because the sentence "Oh, but they all look alike" sounds so ignorant to me.

At the same time, though, I think the idea of thinking everyone of a particular ethnicity looks alike is more insulting if you're failing to distinguish between individuals as opposed to knowing what country they come from. Consider the two scenarios:

Person A: Hi, Chamithri!
Person B: ...I'm not Chamithri. I'm Dilkushi.
Person A: Oh, sorry. It's just that you all look alike to me.

versus

Person A: Hi! Listen, I was wondering, I was thinking about going to India for the summer and do you know any good places to visit?
Person B: No, sorry, never been there.
Person A: But aren't you Indian?
Person B: No, I'm from Pakistan.
Person A: Oh, I'm sorry. Everyone from thereabouts just looks alike to me.

To me, the second one is a lot less offensive because the differences are subtle enough that I wouldn't expect them to be able to judge people's origins by their faces or skin color. The first one, however, is just plain rude because it means that not only are you not paying attention to the people you meet but you're also trying to brush it off by lumping everyone into a big mass of brown or black or yellow or whatever color.

If anyone ever said "All white people look the same to me", they'd be considered an idiot. If they said that they can't tell the difference between people from France, Germany and Italy based on appearance, it would probably be allowed to slide.

Moral of the post? Appearances can be deceptive, and of everyone on my flist, I know the ethnicities of only very few of you. If you want me to try to guess yours, leave me a comment daring me to guess, and I'll have a try. No getting offended if I get it wrong! XD

Comments

[yukirien.livejournal.com]

In France, the Korean students were very upset that everywhere they went, people kept thinking they were Chinese just because they are Asian. And I know lots of Chinese who would be upset if anyone thought they were Japanese. In the first situation, it's being proud of their ethnicity and upset that people don't give it as much general notice as other cultures. Personally, I don't like how Chinese is the default Asian culture. In the second situation, it's lingering animosity from WWII. For both situations, I think the reason why people cared about misjudging their ethnicity is because people judge people they see based on these physical cues. Race's relation to racism, I think, is that people take these racial markers and relate that person to generalities and the history of a certain race. I think it's this (mis)association that people react against.

While general education would help, it would be nice in some regards to separate people from their ethnicities, because I don't think ethnicity equals culture, which does play a strong influence on a person's character development. As others have mentioned above, just being Chinese doesn't mean one feels very well in-tune with Chinese culture. And there are ethnic Canadian who grew up in Japan who feel more in touch with Japanese culture than Canadian culture. Ethnicity is easier to pick on because it's something physical unlike someone's cultural background.

Going back to you very first point, I can sort of tell Chinese, Japanese, and Korean apart; I look for subtleties in eye shape, nose shape, and bone structure, but even then, it's largely a guess, because really, none of us, be it South Korean, Quebecois, Sri Lankan, or Rhwandian. I think 1994 Rwanda showed us just how little the difference based on these physical structures is, but how big of a deal we could make it.

As for your question, feel free to guess, but I'm pretty sure you know it. :)

[yukirien.livejournal.com]

D'oh, I never finished my sentence. I meant to say that none of us are that different, but thinking of Rwanda, which I happily misspelled, because it reminded me of the Rh factor in blood, made me forget to finish my sentence. And the Rh factor just reinforces my point, but it exists across all races. A surgical procedure that works for a person of one ethnicity works for one of another, and so do drugs. Absent-mi
nded am I? Yes!

Anyways, back to the response:
I think I completely missed your point. I see your point in that differences are much more subtle regionally than in general, but they both don't sound that much different. It's still brushing off differences by lumping them into a group, granted in the second one it's a smaller group. It's just with the smaller group, I think you run into more historical tensions. But I can't think of any positive way to respond to misjudging someone's race. I guess it's just finding the lesser of two offenses.

[yukirien.livejournal.com]

But I can tell you this (http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/Asian/Secret_Asian_Man/strips/SAMIndian2.asp) is not what you should do.