# Why is it racist to believe that people from the same racial group look alike? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 13, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050 "2011-12-13T17:31:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/41 "2011-12-18T00:00:01Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > Therefore, if you see two or more people from the same racial group, and if you don’t know them well…you would probably have difficulty in distinguishing them. No, I probably would not have any such difficulty. I’ve seen two or more strangers or casual acquaintances of the same race almost every day of my life, and it’s pretty unusual for me to be confused about who’s who. Just a few days ago I did mistake a stranger for an acquaintance of mine, but it turned out these two women were actually identical twins (!) so they had a lot more in common than just being two white people. When I have made a mistake of this sort with two unrelated people they always had a lot more in common than just their race; they were typically also the same sex, around the same age, had similar builds, etc. I don’t think anyone should have trouble distinguishing the Asians seen [here](http://www.exactitudes.com/index.php?/series/detail/37) from the Asians seen [here](http://www.exactitudes.com/index.php?/series/detail/35), even though they’re all Chinese men wearing dark coats and pants and were photographed in the same city in the same year. It would be much easier to mix up the men within each photo set, but that’s because they were deliberately chosen for this photo project because they resembled each other. But even people of different races can look a lot alike to the casual observer under the right circumstances, see for instance [here](http://www.exactitudes.com/index.php?/series/detail/122) and [here](http://www.exactitudes.com/index.php?/series/detail/123). > [@](#): > > Why is this viewed as racist? Because it’s the sort of thing racist people say. It is not necessarily racist in and of itself, but people who aren’t racist rarely have reason to point out how “those people” all look alike. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/42 "2011-12-18T22:41:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Almost all the American-born and raised people I know have few problems differentiating between two people who are Blacks or of European descent, and even usually people descended from the Indian sub-continent. You would be surprised how quickly high school teachers can learn the names of the 100-150 students he or she is responsible for even in a school where the students are mostly of one “race.” It’s not difficult. It just means paying attention. And I don’t believe any study that says that are fewer differences among people of one race than another. If that were true, the people of the same race themselves would have trouble. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/43 "2011-12-18T23:05:20Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > A light-skinned, small-framed, short-haired Michelle Obama. > > I look more like Barack than I do Michelle. Maybe she thinks they look alike too! Actually my guess is that you probably have a few facial expressions that are very similar to Michelle Obama and that is what she is picking up on when she says you look alike. I’ve often talked to people I’ve known for several months only to see them make a specific facial expression and in that moment they look tremendously like someone else. People do this with me too. I have long red hair and freckles (I’m almost identical to Adele actually, except she is thinner and about 1,000 feet tall) but I’ve been told a number of times that I look like Meryl Streep despite seeing no resemblance. Apparently I make a couple of faces that are almost identical to hers and that is what people mean when they say I look like her. Either that or this chick just has horrible facial recognition. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/44 "2011-12-18T23:11:52Z")
It is not. It’s a matter of conditioning. If you see a lot of one sort of humans you’ll learn to spot the differences. For a zebra all zebras look very different. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/45 "2011-12-18T23:15:29Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Actually my guess is that you probably have a few facial expressions that are very similar to Michelle Obama and that is what she is picking up on when she says you look alike. I’ve often talked to people I’ve known for several months only to see them make a specific facial expression and in that moment they look tremendously like someone else. People do this with me too. I have long red hair and freckles (I’m almost identical to Adele actually, except she is thinner and about 1,000 feet tall) but I’ve been told a number of times that I look like Meryl Streep despite seeing no resemblance. Apparently I make a couple of faces that are almost identical to hers and that is what people mean when they say I look like her. > > Either that or this chick just has horrible facial recognition. 🙂 I’ve noticed what you talking about too in other people. But no one has ever said I look like Michelle Obama, expression-wise or not. So I think she’s cwazy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/46 "2011-12-18T23:21:24Z")
It seems like a great way to dehumanize a group of people. If “they” all look alike they’re not really individuals any more. I can’t tell the difference between whales in a pod, zebras in a herd or goldfish because they’re identities as individuals are unimportant. I can’t help but think those who say that group X all look alike feel the same way. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Dord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@The\_Dord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Dord)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/47 "2011-12-19T10:51:45Z")
I’m caucasian and I don’t think all Japanese look alike. Guess it’s been watching Gamecenter CX for so long. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/48 "2011-12-19T14:04:08Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > We have the Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Chinese Americans, Native Americans, and Arabics. People within the same racial group are more likely to have similar physical characteristics. These are not all racial groups as the term is commonly understood. Please clarify what you mean by “racial group” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/49 "2011-12-19T14:28:23Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > Therefore, if you see two or more people from the same racial group, and if you don’t know them well…you would probably have difficulty in distinguishing them. Same as if their racial group is your own. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/51 "2019-10-31T14:39:58Z")
Reported. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/53 "2019-10-31T16:21:19Z")
Reported again. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-racist-to-believe-that-people-from-the-same-racial-group-look-alike/606050/55 "2019-11-01T00:58:14Z")
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