Does being faceblind make you racist?

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I had to go pick up a package from FedEx today, but it wasn't there yet so I left and went back half an hour later. I asked the woman behind the counter if he was in yet (the driver) and she was all confused, so I look at her and her hair is straight to the shoulder like the first woman and of course they have identical clothes and cap on. I go, You aren't the woman who helped me earlier, are you? She looked really offended! But she turned out to be really nice, thankfully. I should have just said, I'm sorry I'm faceblind!

This happened to me at work not too long ago when a new woman started and I was trying to remember everything I could so I wouldn't forget I knew her when i saw her again. I must have only taken away Asian from my panicked attempt. The next time I saw her she said hi and I said hi and called her by another Asian woman's name. OY! I try so hard! I screw up every time. The other Asian woman is (as she pointed out to me in a huff), quite a bit shorter than herself too.

those people take themselves WAY too seriously

It doesn't make me racist,

It makes me rubbish at remembering ANYONE'S face, regardless of race.

It's not like you're taking more detail away from interactions with people of your own race, so I'd say no.

Not racist at all. I am sure you would give equal face blind treatment to all races.

I have equal-opportunity face blindness. Regardless of race.

If someone I know well changes his/her hairstyle, I might just forget who that person is.

I'm worse at remembering names.

without intending to, I have hurt people's feelings by not remembering who they were.

No wozeree, I don't think so. I wondered the same thing about myself, because I meet a lot of people of a different race/nationality in my job and I have trouble telling them apart. But when I thought about it I realized I have the exact same trouble with people of my own race. I just tend to categorize people according to really basic things like hair color and build.

Some faces stand out to me more than others, and I remember them, but I haven't figured out what makes the difference.

I make mistakes all the time, I introduce myself to people that I've already met before, or I assume I've already met them when they have no idea who I am. I am just guessing a lot of the time, and it's nerve wracking. I don't want to offend people but it happens and I really don't have a lot of control over it.

Faceblindness does not equal racism.
In fact you might be less aware of a person's race than a nonfaceblind person would be because of your lack of awareness of facial features.

But apparently it can cause you to appear racist because it makes you look like one of those people who think that all [fill in the blank, members of a race not their own] 'look alike'. When in fact, to you, EVERYONE looks alike even if they are your own race.

Frankly- if someone I just met couldnt tell me from Adam five minutes later I would find it disconcerting as well. Never heard of faceblindness untll I started to go to aspie websites a few years ago. And I never heard the term uttered in real life (or on TV, or anywhere offline). So if I encountered a faceblind person IRL Id be thrown as well. Might make wrong conclusions about the person ( that they were ret*d, psycho, racism might be the least of their problems).

Its a harsh thing to say. But life isnt fair. You gotta find some way around your quirks to survive.Seeming racist when you're not is just one more social landmine you have to avoid stepping on if you're faceblind(apparently). I wish I had advice for how to avoid stepping on it, but I dont.

No they don't. White people not being able to tell people of color apart is a racist trope:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA8Y_kGx7Ls[/youtube]

But being faceblind doesn't make anyone racist. It does, unfortunately, lead to situations that are very much like actually racist situations.

I was a child when I first realized that I had trouble identifying people by their faces.

My sister and I took a plane flight without our mom. When we returned a few weeks later, my mom came to pick us up from the airport, but I couldn't identify her. My sister did, and very quickly, and my mom obviously knew that we were her children, but I couldn't tell that she was my mom.

If it is so significant that I have trouble identifying my own family members I don't think it would be reasonable to expect that I'd be able to identify the faces of people I see less frequently. Their respective ethnicities and skin colors are is irrelevant to my difficulties recognizing faces.

it doesn't matter what race, I generally am not as good at recognizing faces as other people.

what if they were white or chinese or blonde haired or ginger haired or hearing aid wearer,or blind,or disabled?
coud that be considered prejudice towards them if forggot who they were because of prognosia [or whatever its called]?
the answer is most definitely a no,racism is alot more complex than its usualy labeled as,people will call anything racist these days-thats how the definition has got so confusing.

am unable to recognise race/colour at all as do not seem to visualy process it,perhaps because brain sees everyone as the same shapeless object,almost all people find it funny or nice to see,the odd time have had someone make an issue out of it-its always support staff as majority of people that know who are not native to this country are working with self.

Why is confusing people of color faces considered racist? People have different degrees of face recognition ability. I actually felt bad for that entertainment guy. I think it is natural to confuse kinds of people you are not familiar with. If you grow up only knowing white people than you are not used to black features. And I am not familiar to blondes so I easily confuse them (much more than brown skinned Brazilians) etc. So why is it racist?

I think if someone is offended that you thought that they, as a white person, was a black person then it is they who are racist and not you!

Don't worry about it is my advice.

I only notice my face-blindness with other ethnic groups, though I attribute this to a lack of practice when it comes to studying the facial features of black people, or Asian people, because there aren't many people of these different flavours where I live.

For example, watching a movie. I'm famously good at confusing Denzel Washington with Jamie Foxx, even if they're clearly quite different when you compare them side-by-side. It's like my brain scans the face for features that I recognise, encounters some kind of error, then files them both under 'Miscellaneous Negro Male Movie Stars'.