It's not racist to confuse two black people

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I keep reading 'so and so is racist because they called such and such by other black person's name' online as an argument.

There are many reasons for this.

One, the person might be racist. Might know who the person is but pretend not to so they can say 'they all look the same'.

But another reason is, the person might just be face blind.

There was this blond kid when I was at school & he used to mix w another blond kid. One day I called James 'Tom' and he said 'I'm not Tom'. I genuinely had thought he was.

That wasn't me having a prejudice against blond haired ppl.

It's just lucky they weren't black or he'd have called me racist over it

Fact is, two black people look more alike than a white person and a black person. Just like two white people look more alike than a white person and a black person.

Poor research could also be a reason for confusion

I am sure there are people who do pretend all black people look the same and it's a shame those with face blindness have to get caught up in it because of actual racists.

Have you tried to explain face blindness to people so they understand the situation. Like say something like "sorry I am face blind so I have troubles remembering faces."

We should avoid blowing up at people for innocent mistakes. None of us is perfect.

I find face blindness fascinating and how it affects peoples lives.

My GF has it to some extent and it makes watching some TV & Films confusing for her , I sometimes have to point out some aspect of the plot due to her not recognizing characters.

Calling someone "racist" is a trump card

Anyone accused of racism appears morally inferior

Reminds me:.

Last week, on the bus, the driver told a boy to put on a mask.

The boy correctly told the driver that she didn't tell me anything. And I was not wearing a mask.

The boy called me "that n***a"

The boy told the driver she was racist

But the boys seat was easier for the driver to see, than my seat (blind spot)

And the boy made it sound like racial profiling



The driver doesn't have to prove she is not racist

The only thing in question is if he was wearing a mask and if he should have worn a mask

There is no way to "prove" you are not racist

Telepathic

Racism is vague and subjective

Using the N word is racism and makes them a racist. Don't want to be accused of racism, don't use the N word and even try and split hairs with it. "I didn't say N***R, I said N**ga."

It's one of those "politically incorrect-sounding" things that's actually true (and doesn't just apply to faceblind people, it applies to everyone). This is because it has been proven statistically, that if you're dealing with a race that you're unfamiliar with (generally is not your own), you have a much lower ability to tell the difference between them. This is why when my brother lived in Korea doing TES (teaching english) some Korean people told him he looked just like Justin Timberlake (which he doesn't in particular). I recently watched a Chinese movie with my wife (who is Chinese). There were two main characters in it who I felt looked very much alike. I would often have trouble telling who was who from scene to scene. To her it was very easy, but to me sometimes it was quite hard and even impossible.

Yeah I understand why someone would say the n word as a 'reclaiming' thing but it can't be removed from racial contexts. And white people don't get 'n word passes'.

Some years ago someone on WP wrote about their faceblindness, and they told us how when they would watch the original Sixties Star Trek they couldnt tell Checkov, from Sulu.

To most of us...that would be scandalous! One of those two hands on the bridge of the Enterprise was a White guy (with an east European accent), and the other was an East Asian guy. Werent even the same race! How could you confuse them?

But the WP person pointed out how both were about the same age, both had dark hair, and both had similar hair cuts. It got me thinking, and I realized that the real mystery is how the rest of us can so readily tell those two characters APART, not that he confuses them. When scanning a scene with your eyes from a distance a human face is only TINY part of the scene. And yet it leaps out at you. Apparently most of us have a certain brain circuitry that hones in on faces. And the face blind lack all, or part of that circuitry. So they cant discern the little differences in facial features, and will even conflate two young men of different races. That one reason baldness is so feared. When you se e an old guy with a "comb over" walking down the street, and the wind changes direction and blows his hair facade away his head will look to you like its eight feet tall... because your brain hones on faces, and your brain reads his face as suddenly growing like Jack's beanstalk.

Well, I *do* have a very, very, very, very vague resemblance to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson... perhaps I should ask my boss for a similar $87.5 million dollar annual salary...

Anyway, as eyelessshiver mentioned above, this is actually a real phenomenon known as the Cross-race effect.

.. it's also one of the reasons why witness identification in criminal cases involving victims and perpetrators of different races are notoriously unreliable...

Faceblindness aside, it seems like a common sense brain thing to me. Surely there's been research done on it.

Let's say Alice is usually around people with a general appearance in the family of type X. When she sees someone of type Y, that person will stand out first for the most readily apparent difference of being type Y. It seems quite logical that her brain would not have the fine detail awareness to readily distinguish among type Ys, simply from lack of practice. The brain would just go, "Oh, big differences: categorize type Y." Only when faced with many type Ys would the brain start to hone in on the ways to differentiate among the type Ys.

Alice might even be a type Y herself, perhaps adopted by a type X family in a type X-prevalent area; she should still have a harder time differentiating other type Ys simply from unfamiliarity. I bet this has been studied, too.

AI/facial recognition does the exact same thing. Train an AI brain on a mostly type X data set and it's going to be inaccurate when asked to handle type Y.

Could there be racism or systemic racism to blame for the fact that someone's brain hasn't been trained on data set Y? Sure, in some cases. But to immediately jump to an accusation of such in any given circumstance, especially to blame the individual who may have had little or no say in their type X laden existence, is absurd, unhelpful, and alienating.

Yeah that is true.

I am face blind at times which i dont understand- only when im already in the 'srnsory overload and confusion' zone. So mainly outside of the house ..


At small gatherings or small parties or something if I'm NOT tense I can recognize anyone ..

Other times I can be out n about n not recognize anyone even my own sister.


It's happened the last couple of times that she came over- she was waving and talking to me but I was not sure it WAS her except logically (since she had the same type of clothes and knew my name).
I stayed quiet until I could ne sure and that took logic not recognition. Because i was already in my 'zone' of sensory.. Looking at trees, hearing too many sounds..etc..


i also walked past my brother in law even though it was within his building because I was tense. He evrn said hi but it didnt occur to me to respond as I was tense from having people around etc

He stopped and said my name loudly twice and said 'didnt you hear me?' I think he might have thought i was being snobby.

I also mistake ppl of the same skin colour IF they have the same hairstyle (or in one persons case..bald)
and height and similar clothes .


But it takes me a moment to recognize them if it really is that person ...
but usually am confused and unsure even after staring at them am not sure so I dont say anything.


Lots of times ppl thought i was angry at them because I just glanced at them and didnt respond to their 'hi'...

If someone changes their hair very often each time I don't recognize them except logically and by pulling together things I can notice that are the same (like voice, nose)
Forgot to add ome time I mistook my old L for my dad IN the moment though it was a meeting n discussion with XH n his laeyer.
I told my sister that our dad had said XYZ.
And he said, 'No I said it just now.'

Then after a while, I realized it was cuz he and my dad are both dark skinned...

And he was wearing tortoise shell glasses that day like my dad has worn all my life. They dont even share similar characteristics in anything just the dark skin and glasses (that day)

I can understand conflating Robert DeNiro with Al Pacino. But not Samuel L Jackson with David Fishburne.

And I am White!

I struggle when watching some tv programs to decipher similar people.

Got it wrong locally too when out socialising which was embarrassing (2 old white men with a moustatche both looked the same to me.)

One thing which helps me is the way people walk - I am good at that way of identification.

If you don't grow up with a lot of people of the same race, your brain becomes wired that you literally are unable to tell the differences of people of that race, that is where the stereotype of people all looking the same comes from. Sure there can be some effort that one might be expected to perform, but for some people with little exposure it really isn't that their fault.