I’ve idlely thought about this as well, but it’s only been one group that seems to be prominent. Of all the black and Hispanic people I have and do know, I’ve never noticed any odor to speak of. The one I have noticed are Mid-Eastern/lower Asia. ( think that’s what the region is called.)
I had two childhood friends through High School. One family was from India. One was from Pakistan. (Strangley I was 25 when I realized the three of us were never actually together at the same time. I was young and just had friends, it was later I understood why. Anyway, not important to the thread.)
What I did notice in their homes was a very distinct smell. Not unpleasant, just different from anything I had known. Also, 4 doors down was an Egyptian family and my group hung out with two of those boys. I noticed a similar, yet wholly different smell in their house.
Years later in college, I had a friend from Saudi, and I often noticed the same odor. Or at least a 20 year-old memory being reinvoked.
The only difference I can possibly come up with is the different diets and ingredients in the typical meal. It could be some sort of body chemistry, but I doubt it. Body chemistry, based on the highly detectable difference in odors, can’t be the only explanation.
I remember when I was about 12, after leaving my Pakastani friend’s house after having my family over for dinner what the smell might be. I didn’t dare offend him by asking him. She offered a WAG that it could be the amounts of spices like Cumin in the diet. Seemed as reasonable an explanation as any so I kind of just based it on that. Any reason to thing could be a reason?
Hell, if you go out and drink 18 beers then go to work in the morning shower-free, people are gonna know what you put in your body. Can’t imagine it’s any different with certain spices.
Of course, this is really an IMO, take it for what it’s worth.
You know somethin this thread is pretty disturbing to me. Not because you guys are talking about certain races having different odors, but because 95% percent of the people here are afraid of “sounding racist”. Ya know most of us aren’t(racist), “but how do we make other people believe this?” You don’t!
You speak your mind and you accept yourself as what you are or you go shame yourself in corner for all I care. Why does everybody have to be acting all nice and “PC” about it all? Walkin on eggshells and Sh**?
I’m not gonna tell you how it happens but it does. So-me black people have smelled pretty bad to me and I can’t even begin to say like what. And so-me white people smelled so awful I couldn’t stand near them, but that smell was like mildew- like one of ya’ll commented above. Then I had a friend, i’m guessing indian, his name was Zeshan and he smelled totally different, just not like any other racial aroma. The smells are all random, but they are from the same color person when I come across the smell again. And that’s all I’ve got to say to about that. Now maybe so-me of these folks were “dietary exceptions” but for the most part, I don’t buy this.
Besides everytime I see “diet” used it’s sounds like a nice way to say someones farting everywhere they go. It’s just one thing used as an excuse for something else. I understand there’s alot of people in here tryin to give respect to those they’re talking about, but please… people aren’t stupid, they get you no matter how you talk about them.
Just spit it out and stop worrying so much about what you sound like, if we’re all so much alike then there’s bound to be a few more of us out there that feel the same way and th-at is worth discussing; anything to get past all of this damn racial tension.
Cuz, at this rate- people are nowhere close to the “same thing” so scientist can go study th-at phenomenon.
No. Diet is presumed to affect sweat, not flatulence. Since we already know how the aromatic agents are spread around, we have just chosen not to put the word “sweat” in every paragraph.
Now, if you have some documentary or anecdotal evidence based on farting, you are free to post it, but I don’t think you should be projecting your concerns on the rest of us.
If anyone here thinks it would be unpleasant to be near me for any period of time, I could erase all doubt after 2 dozen Brussels Sprouts and a head of cauliflower.
Take your arguments about “political correctness” or whatever elsewhere, please. That’s not the topic of this thread and it certainly isn’t a relevant or interesting contribution.
I sort of doubt that, though, because I know what my hair smells like when it’s unwashed, and I’ve certainly smelled that on other white people, but it’s not an odor I can ever remember smelling on a black person (though I’ve never noticed black people smelling any particular way at all.) In fact, as I understand it black people wash their hair less because it doesn’t get as dirty - their scalps don’t produce as much of the oils that coat the hair strand. My assumption is that dirty hair smell happens when those oils build up and maybe start to go rancid; that being the case, you wouldn’t expect black people’s hair to smell even after several days without washing it.
There’s an article at New Scientist about a guy who claims to have isolated the chemicals that make some of us humans irresistible to mosquitoes, and some of us repellent.
I know for a fact I’m one of those to whom 'skeeters are very attracted. It’s not just my observation, friends of mine have noticed it too. We can both be standing in the backyard wearing shorts & t-shirts, and mosquitoes flock to me and ignore them.
In my own anecdotal experience among intimates, I’ve noticed some men in their mid-to-late 40’s sometimes have a slight mildew smell, which is difficult to explain away. Same diet as me, same shower everyday regime, more or less the same soaps, shampoos, etc.
Seems possible different ethnic groups could smell different, even correcting for diet, etc.
Partly diet, partly genetic, partly age-related or disease-related. Doctors are still taught to use smells as diagnoses of some diseases, and that practice goes back in writing at least to Galen in ancient Greece.
I smell different when I’ve been eating Japanese food almost exclusively, to the point where relatives have remarked on it when I go back to visit them. My typically blunt and slightly racist sister put it ever so delicately, “You smell like a gook, big bro.” I notice it both ways when I travel; that Americans smell funny at first when I go to the US, and then that Japanese smell different when I return. That indicates to me that diet is probably more important than anything other than the fairly powerful smell of cosmetic products as a contributor to body odor. The other factors are outweighed by these two, in my opinion.
Smells have an effect on sexual attraction too. There have been a couple of studies that indicate that women select mates partially upon how different their immune system is from their own. Apparently, there is a detectable olfactory indicator for this. I know that I’ve met a couple of women who from looks and personality would have been attractive, but who didn’t do much for me for some reason, whereas I’ve been massively attracted to at least one woman who wasn’t that attractive to look at, but who smelled great. It definitely wasn’t perfume, but something about the way her skin smelled constantly made me want to rip her clothes off.
