# PSA: Don't tell your black female coworker that you remind her of the Democratic VP candidate **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 1, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518 "2020-09-01T13:02:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/61 "2020-09-04T02:35:50Z")
This kind of thing is way too common to be pathological. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/62 "2020-09-04T02:46:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > This is a Geico insurance ad featuring an attractive slender young black woman acted by 30 yo [Angel Parker](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1720134/). Ignore the white singer in the pink jacket; she’s not the point of this tale. They seem to run this a lot during streaming services. I’m always impressed how in a commercial where the acting is all facial expressions, Angel Parker absolutely _nails_ them, it’s amazing. Also, being in a household with two young girls, I find it funny to see Idini Menzel dismissed as the ‘white singer in the pink jacket.’ ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/63 "2020-09-04T18:15:45Z")
About 15 years ago the lady cutting my hair asked if I was the mayor (of Parma, Ohio). It happened again with a different stylists so I guess it might have been feasible. I have no idea what he looked like. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/64 "2020-09-04T18:23:00Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > I stumbled across a celebrity lookalike recognition app–one of those dealskie’s where you upload a photo of yourself and it tells you which celebrity looks the most like you. I just tried [vonvon.me](http://vonvon.me) and with a current photo I look like Eric Bana. I have no idea who he is but I do look like him! I tired starbyface and it gave me a bunch of choices. One of them was Michael Douglas so I’ll take that one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/65 "2020-09-04T21:33:25Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > This is a Geico insurance ad featuring an attractive slender young black woman acted by 30 yo [Angel Parker](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1720134/). Ignore the white singer in the pink jacket; she’s not the point of this tale. > > They seem to run this a lot during streaming services. I’m always impressed how in a commercial where the acting is all facial expressions, Angel Parker absolutely _nails_ them, it’s amazing. > > Also, being in a household with two young girls, I find it funny to see Idini Menzel dismissed as the ‘white singer in the pink jacket.’ Yeah. I first noticed that Geico ad while it played w the sound off. Angel’s face was so expressive it was real eye-catching. I only learned who the actress was when researching my post. The ad almost works better w/o the audio. As to the singer chick in the pink coat, I have no idea who she is. When I listened to the ad audio, she sang so badly and her acting was so over-the-top I figured she had to be a joke designed-to-be-annoying character, like Flo from Progressive. Now you’re telling me she’s a real entertainer? Color me mystified. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/66 "2020-09-04T22:08:43Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > As to the singer chick in the pink coat, I have no idea who she is. When I listened to the ad audio, she sang so badly and her acting was so over-the-top I figured she had to be a joke designed-to-be-annoying character, like Flo from Progressive. Now you’re telling me she’s a real entertainer? Color me mystified. Ha. She’s the voice of [Elsa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_(Frozen)). Also somewhat famously, the original Elphaba in Broadway’s Wicked. My older daughter has also been getting into Wicked lately. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/67 "2020-09-04T23:11:26Z")
I’ve been told I look like Stephen King, by so many people over so many years, that I’ve come to accept that it’s so. However, I was blown away by the - African-American, as it happened - lady to whom I had to show my driver’s licence to prove I wasn’t Gary Busey. Um, thanks? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/68 "2020-09-08T20:23:50Z")
The first time I saw a movie starring Ryan Reynolds, he reminded me so strongly of another actor, but I couldn’t put my finger on who. It bugged me for months, trying to figure out who Ryan Reynolds reminded me of. Turned out, he reminded me of Ryan Reynolds, from when he was starring in a sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/69 "2020-09-09T15:18:13Z")
I know, right? And Ted Danson inevitably reminds me of Ted Danson. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/70 "2020-09-09T19:10:58Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > To be fair, scientific studies show that, in general, humans tend to be very bad at telling people apart who are from a different race. So, it’s literally true that to a white person, black people tend to look more alike each other than white people look alike each other. And vice versa. That’s one of the things that makes eyewitness identification and things like police lineups very unreliable. > > This is one of the things that should assure us all that we aren’t immune from inherent bias and we should always be questioning ourselves. It shouldn’t be too hard to understand why either. The physical markers that distinguish white people are typically things like hair color and eye color. i.e., colors. So adding in skin color isn’t much of a stretch. Wasn’t it common practice to list eye color and hair color on IDs in the USA? In pretty much all non-white populations eye color and hair color are the same. If you grow up around East Asian people, you pick up on different things to distinguish faces. I wonder if they put eye color and hair color on IDs in non-white countries? I mean, why bother right? ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/71 "2020-10-09T14:11:07Z")
And in my case, add on a mild touch of face-blindness: “Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces.” (From “[medicinenet.com](http://medicinenet.com)”). ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/72 "2020-10-09T19:21:12Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > I wonder if they put eye color and hair color on IDs in non-white countries? My wife had eye color in her Cameroonian passport. I suppose many former colonies keep up their administrative procedures without much questioning. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/73 "2020-10-10T01:03:01Z")
In 1986 I worked at the Central Bakery at Michigan State University. We had a problem that requried a maintence worker to come in. I came around the corner and saw this guy and was so startled that I broke my personal rule not to ask a person “did anyone ever tell you that you look like…?” In this case it was Paul McCartney. The resemblance was so striling. So I started to ask “the questioon” and before I even go to the name he forcefully said “Yes”. He must have been so tired of answering. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/74 "2020-10-10T13:03:57Z")
Was it [Billy Campbell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_is_dead)? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/75 "2020-10-10T15:13:20Z")
Over the years I have been told by strangers that I look like Eric Clapton, Bruce Willis, John Heard, and Tim Allen. The only thing I have in common with all of them is that we’re all white males. It was a Black guy who said I looked like Tim Allen. He didn’t just say I looked like Tim Allen, he thought I _was_ Tim Allen. Once I convinced him I wasn’t we had a good laugh. But I wasn’t offended. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2020, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518/76 "2020-10-24T16:51:17Z")
I’ve never been mistaken for any celebrity, but I’ve got a friend who looks a lot like Sean Penn. I wouldn’t have noticed it myself, but when it was pointed out I was like “Oh, yeah.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psa-dont-tell-your-black-female-coworker-that-you-remind-her-of-the-democratic-vp-candidate/919518.md?page=3)