I don’t think I’m being racist to say that I have trouble telling people apart who are not the same race as me. Maybe it’s because I grew up in an incredibly white community. Now I am going to be working at a summer camp for refugee children from places like Burma and Pakistan and I want to be able to tell the kids apart. I know that in other cultures different features than hair and eyes are used to distinguish people. What should I be looking for so I can really get to know these kids and make them feel welcome?
Probably. It’s my understanding that the area of the brain that recognizes faces distinguishes between them by learning to ignore the parts that don’t vary, while noting the parts that do. Since these are different for different ethnic groups, if you haven’t seen much of them they really do “look all alike” because your brain is ignoring the parts of their faces that vary and steadfastly paying attention to the parts that look alike.
With enough exposure though the facial recognition system learns to adapt.
don’t worry too much. you’ll learn from experience. i gather you’ll be dealing with different people. you’ll be more and more familiar with them as time goes. sooner you’ll be able to distinguish people. through the way the talk or the manner they handle themselves. different ethnicity also seem to give different impressions upon the person observing.
Trick #1: Stop looking for physical features. Ethnicity is culture, so you’ll be better served in paying attention to how people dress, talk, carry themselves, etc., especially if they’re groups from the same part of the world.
And “Burmese” is both an ethnic group, not all of whom live in Burma, and a nationality, not all of whom are ethnically Burmese. List_of_ethnic_groups_in_Burma. “Ethnicity” isn’t just a polite word for race, it’s a different and much more useful concept. “Race” is a broad-brush category that lumps millions of people together who have little in common. “Ethnicity” refers to a group with (usually) a common language, culture, religion, and values. “Nationality” refers to who’s issuing their passport.
That’s not to say that ethnic groups don’t have distinguishing physical features, of course. It’s just that after a while working with Group X, you learn their “look,” and that includes both physical and cultural features.
Guess you think you’re entitled to define the words that we use? Okay - I’ll have a grand time telling about 80% of the people I know that they are not ethnically whatever it is they claim to be because they dress, talk and “carry themselves?” like Americans.
Got it!
Burmese people are essentially “Burmans”. There are certainly other ethnicities in Burma but they would represent small and politically unempowered minorities who probably consider themselves ethnically closer to one of Burma’s neighbors, e.g. Thailand, India, China
I’m just following conventional definitions. And yes, I’d say that a person who dresses, talks, and carries themselves like an American is ethnically American. Ethnicity isn’t a zero-sum game, and it isn’t genetic. You can be American and something else, like a heritage ethnicity. My best friend growing up was ethnically American, but his parents were ethnically Han Chinese. That’s the simple version. The more complicated version is that the parents were both American and Chinese, but Chinese was primary; their kids were both American and Chinese, but American was primary. At work and school, American identity was dominant. At home, Chinese was.
I’m glad you’re so well-informed about Burma. The cite I provided suggested the largest ethnicity is only just over two-thirds of the population, but I’m sure you know better.
You’re the one using a definition that is different from what’s commonly accepted. Ethnicity is a construct of social science which describes a person’s heritage, and general connotes shared language, customs, etc. Race is sometimes a component of that, but usually in a tangential way.
Dr Drake is right on point, by saying that physical characteristics aren’t likely to help him tell which kids are from Burma and which are from Pakistan.
Just for the record, they haven’t called it Burma for more than 30 years. The majority in Myanamr refer to themselves a “Bamar,” and about 35 percent of the people who live there are members of other ethnic groups. The Shan are about 10-12 percent of the population, roughly the same as the percentage of African-American in the US.
Yeah - but from an ethnicity perspective almost everybody in Burma would consider themselves to be either Burmese or the ethnicity of the neighboring country. It’s a major cross-roads of Asia, so you’re likely to see people from all over.
I see no point to denying that people in Burma are Burmans.
The people who live there who are ethnically Chinese consider themselves to be ethnically Chinese just like they are considered to be by the Burmans… just like the ethnically Chinese people here consider themselves to be ethnically Chinese even if they eat with a fork and talk with an American accent.
There’s more to ethnicity than how you dress and how you talk…
I could tell in 2 seconds based on the fact that Pakistanis don’t look like Bumese
The Shan are also in China, Laos and Thailand, iinm.
Myanmar v. Burma is really only transliteration adn so is “Bamar” v. “Burman”. It doesn’t really matter. They write with a different alphabet and you probably won’t say it right no matter how they write it.
Try “M’yanma” - rhymes roughly with “grandma”… That might help.
I never heard a Burmese here ever call it Mee-an-mar. They say Burma and they say they’re Burmese. I think the way that they figure it is tha “Myanmar” is the name assigned to it by the illegitimate military junta that has destroyed the country over the last 20 years… not to be overly political about it. I bet that if Aung San Suu Kyi is given her rightful seat as head of government and she calls it “Myanmar” then maybe they’ll start calling it Myanmar too.
If Burmese and Pakistanis are the two groups you need to distinguish between, then you’ll learn to do that in about 2 days. They don’t look much like each other.
Other than that, I think the beast advice is to not worry about it too much, as has already been said. Pay attention to everything about the person, and not just facial features unless the ethnicities are very dissimilar (like Burmese and Pakistanis).
Hello? Anyone want to help me with my problem? Anyone?
Asking them their name and where they are from would be the first step in getting to know them and making them feel welcome. Why do you think a method of visually sorting kids into different ethnic groups will help you?
Yes, in northern Thailand. In fact, Mae Hong Son, the northwesternmost province in Thailand and bordering Burma, is majority Shan. The Thai term for them is Thai Yai, which literally means “Big Thais.” They’re originally from Yunnan, in China.
Looking at lots of pictures in Google images might be a good a way as any to get an idea of what the different groups look like. Maybe also Google some basic cultural/politness tips to help your interactions go smoothly.
Because if I can’t put a name to a face then I might as well call the kids “hey you”. I’m already bad at names and I can’t make them wear name tags the entire summer. I don’t want to sort them into different ethnic groups. I want to tell them apart so I can understand their different personalities. For example, to me all little black boys with short haircuts look the same. I’m not trying to be racist it’s just how my brain works and I’m trying to fix that so I think that counts for something. If I don’t know who’s who then everything else is just pointless.
Can you be more specific? I don’t even know what to look for when looking at the pictures. I know that different races have different features (brows, eyes, cheek bones, etc) but I don’t know what features belong to what race.
Please someone, anyone. Help me. I don’t need a debate or to be sent on a wild goose chase for information, I just need facts. Thanks!
Make sure Safesearch is turned on!
Real broad brushstrokes.
The eyes (Burmese more ‘oriental’). The face shape (Burmese more round). The nose (Pakistanis more acquiline).
Note that both of those women are from eudcated political class families, and also their skin tones are lighter than many.
Don’t worry - they’ll do that themselves.
I don’t personally subscribe but I’ve heard people say that they think “where are you from” is code for “you don’t belong here”.
I couldn’t find it in a quick search but I’d read the theory that each group (race/ethnic I’ll sidestep that issue) has variances. If you grow up in a relatively “pure” group, you get used to using those variances to identify individuals (hair color, eye color, hair texture for caucasions) and those characteristics won’t help you distiguish between other groups (say Native Americans). Not so much racist but just needing to learn which characteristics to look for. I think that is the basic question the OP is getting at and it seems valid.
Suggesting that there are very easy ways to use the internet to do some very basic research on the subject is not sending you “on a wild goose chase”. You’ve been given some very good advice. Complaining isn’t going to win you any friends around here.