"They all look alike": Understanding the "other race effect"

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Prime example of what the study this thread is based on is talking about.

That actually isn't what the study and this thread are talking about. What she and I are talking about isn't just "they all look alike/look similar." Instead it is a dominant group ideology and it doesn't boil down to what that NEW and unreplicated study by psychologist researchers found.

I have been the only Black person or one of few Black people in settings all of my life and I have been called by someone else's name--someone who looks absolutely NOTHING like me to the point of having a different complexion and different body shape and everything--all of my life. I have had white people say "you look like this actress" not because I look anything like the actress and white folks can't tell the difference when it comes to nonwhites but because that actress is THE Black woman that those white people can think of/have seen. Even sharing a complexion or a hairstyle is different than looking like someone. That is what "othering" really means.

The most recent time that I was mistaken for another Black woman was by a colleague a month ago and he later apologized profusely because he knew what was embedded in that mistake. I just laughed it off with him and said "I have a difficult time remembering people, too" but I know that my difficult time remembering names and faces spans across race and ethnicity. I don't remember Black folks, white folks, etc. He just called me "the other Black woman's name" because he was used to there being only ONE Black woman in his colleague circle. Since I replaced that ONE Black woman on that particular day and he wanted to introduce HER to his wife, I became HER in his mind.

As for my mistaking white folks, I used to do that to two men all the time because most of the people in my nonfamilial settings were whites. I mistaked my teachers in college and they were different heights but had the same hairstyles, same voices, and style of dress. Years later, they don't look as much alike but I have a difficult time remembering faces, in general. It used to be funny when I walked up to one person talking about something that I should be talking about with the other person and the one person would always say "uh...I'm not Paul." Embarassing yet doesn't hold the same potential weight and outcomes as when coming from the majority in power.

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

That actually isn't what the study and this thread are talking about. What she and I are talking about isn't just "they all look alike/look similar." Instead it is a dominant group ideology and it doesn't boil down to what that NEW and unreplicated study by psychologist researchers found.

I have been the only Black person or one of few Black people in settings all of my life and I have been called by someone else's name--someone who looks absolutely NOTHING like me to the point of having a different complexion and different body shape and everything--all of my life. I have had white people say "you look like this actress" not because I look anything like the actress and white folks can't tell the difference when it comes to nonwhites but because that actress is THE Black woman that those white people can think of/have seen. Even sharing a complexion or a hairstyle is different than looking like someone. That is what "othering" really means.

The most recent time that I was mistaken for another Black woman was by a colleague a month ago and he later apologized profusely because he knew what was embedded in that mistake. I just laughed it off with him and said "I have a difficult time remembering people, too" but I know that my difficult time remembering names and faces spans across race and ethnicity. I don't remember Black folks, white folks, etc. He just called me "the other Black woman's name" because he was used to there being only ONE Black woman in his colleague circle. Since I replaced that ONE Black woman on that particular day and he wanted to introduce HER to his wife, I became HER in his mind.

As for my mistaking white folks, I used to do that to two men all the time because most of the people in my nonfamilial settings were whites. I mistaked my teachers in college and they were different heights but had the same hairstyles, same voices, and style of dress. Years later, they don't look as much alike but I have a difficult time remembering faces, in general. It used to be funny when I walked up to one person talking about something that I should be talking about with the other person and the one person would always say "uh...I'm not Paul." Embarassing yet doesn't hold the same potential weight and outcomes as when coming from the majority in power.

I have done this too but with white folks that have similar features (slender long nose and thin lips for example), not when one person has a slender long nose and the other has a wide bigger nose and thin lips vs. full lips. That's because I REALLY LOOK at people to distinguish between them.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by rhoyaltempest

I have done this too but with white folks that have similar features (slender long nose and thin lips for example), not when one person has a slender long nose and the other has a wide bigger nose and thin lips vs. full lips. That's because I REALLY LOOK at people to distinguish between them.

Yeah well most people aren't that observant and that lack of observation does not operate the same for every group of people.

But what's really important is that this topic isn't so much about distinguishing Chinese vs. Japanese (that was a great martial arts movie) because that requires a general knowledge of the physical differences between ethnicities and cultures that the average person across societies does not have. DUH. Instead, it's about being able to distinguish diasporas of people and knowing that THIS Chinese person is not the same person as THAT Chinese person (or THAT Japanese person if people want to go inter-ethnically).