The posts about telling various Asian nationalities apart by appearance reminded me of something I noticed myself a few years ago.
I am very good at guessing ages of white people, but have real problems with other races - this was hammered home when I was asked how old I thought a friend of a friend was (who was black) and I guessed 15 years too young. I’m guessing this is because I am white and I grew up in an area that was predominantly white, but it explains a phenomenon I have noticed - white people frequently comment on how well Asian or black women age. My father would point out black actresses and singers that were in their 40s, 50s, or even older who were still attractive.
I think that’s just because we learn how people age by watching our own families, and usually don’t have a good sample of long-term acquaintances of other races to learn from. In the instance above with the friend of a friend, I found out that none of my black friends would have thought she was in her late teens, she looked to be a woman in her early 30s, which she was.
Does Tina Turner look her age to black people? Is Julio Iglesias obviously nearly 60 to hispanics? Do people of other races have difficulty telling how old white people are? This could be pretty important in our society where there can be serious legal consequences for guessing somebodies age wrong.
The actress Rosalind Chao is a good example of this. When she was 34, she played a 19-year-old Korean on “MAS*H”. Then in “Star Trek: Deep Space 9”, although her age wasn’t mentioned, she was 51 years old, but easily looked 35.
A black man on my bowling team is 51, but looks 41 to me.
But white people I can usually judge within 3 years.
I grew up in a 98% WASP town, so my association with other ethnicities didn’t start until I was 21.
Part of it is the old “they all look the same” thing. When we see people who have generally different features than ourselves, we tend not to see the subtlies. I’m white, and Black people mistake me for a workmate all the time, while white people don’t.
Another factor is that I read somewhere that the sun ages white people much faster than Black people. Their faces wrinkle faster because of it. Also, maybe a light complexion just shows age faster in other ways.
I was going to post a drive-by about how y’all don’t have the good sense to get out of the sun (It ages you faster).
But galen post dow defuses that crack entirely.
[sub]I guess I’ll go back to reading my Irish Rose catalogue[/sub]
This is a phenomenom I’ve noticed before too! Even I have difficulties recognizing the age of some black people, and I was RAISED in an all black neighborhood, and of course my parents were black.
I think it’s probably the sun thing. I also noticed blacks don’t shrink as much as whites do, anyone elese notice that?
Recently I got carded as did my best friend Gerald while at Albertson’s. Just for the fun of it we asked the clerk how old she thought we were. She put us at maybe 22 & 23. I’m 33 and Geralds 35. Hey you take the compliments you get
Has anyone ever seen the comedian who did the bit about not knowing how old black people were, and the different ways old black, white, and hispanic people acted? Hilarious.
I used to work in a reidential facility where I was the only caucasian and the only male staff member. The rest were Filipino women.
I was very surprised to find out that I was one of the youngest staff members at 30; my immediate supervisor was 40 and could have passed for someone in their late twenties. One lady was still getting ID’d at the age of fifty and the oldest person there who I would have swore was only around 40 was 59. I didn’t base my guesses on physical stature as all my co-workers only came to my shoulder in height but the lack of wrinkles and grey hair sure messed me up. The lady who was the youngest I had guessed to be in her early twenties and was very surprised to find that she was two years older than me…
