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These Asians all look alike

all asian are the same

reply to Mandilion

Caucasians do not look all the same to You

I think that Western are so many different type that all the otthers
guy with brown hairs bronw eyes
red hairs green eyes or blu
black hairs with light ble eyes
blond with brown eyes
blond with blue eyes
etc etc
in the Orient 99 pct have black hairs and dark eyes....
so how can You say that Leonardo di Caprio is similar to Tom Cruise?
All this is only about the external differrence of course...
bye
 
haha, that made me remember an epsiode of Northern Exposure...
maybe i can transcribe later
 
Telling the difference...

Originally posted by Carolgirl00
well, personally, the reason I think ppl think all asians look alike is because they are not familiar to that race.

I would say this is probably be the most correct answer...I'm mixed race, but i grew up in malaysia, and therefore had familiarity with the difference between Whites, Chinese, South-East Asian, Indian and Malay! I could even tell if you were tribal or if you came from the continent...all because I grew up with them...

However, the hardest thing for me was African...Asians are easy for me to tell...Africans generally all looked the same to me. And with some Africans, I couldn't even tell if they were male or not...however, due to the fact that an African married into the family, and I went over there, I learned to tell the difference.

But hey, if you really want help spotting the difference there are generalities of different people groups:

Chinese - Rounder heads, Straighter hair, smaller noses.
(Nothern Chinese - can be as tall or taller than a Westerner)
(Southern Chinese - shorter...and what we're used to)

Japanese/Korean (I'm still struggling) - "western" shaped heads, flowing hair, taller than the average chinese. Longer noses.

Mongolian - Reddish cheeks, more squat than the chinese.

Malay: Browner skin, thinner hair than chinese, wider noses.
(Thai look like a mix between Malay and Chinese)

White Americans - they're VERY difficult to generalise...due to their mixed heritage, but generally, they're more overweight than those in Europe. (like I said - generalities)

Hopefully it helps some...no offence meant!
 
I'm constantly being confused with just about every other Asian race...

Just depends on how much you come into contact with people of other races.

If you live in a white dominated society of course your not gonna be able to tell the difference between Asian people, same with Asian people we tend not to be able to tell the difference between white people.
 
Re: Telling the difference...

Originally posted by Kaminoko


But hey, if you really want help spotting the difference there are generalities of different people groups:

Chinese - Rounder heads, Straighter hair, smaller noses.
(Nothern Chinese - can be as tall or taller than a Westerner)
(Southern Chinese - shorter...and what we're used to)

Japanese/Korean (I'm still struggling) - "western" shaped heads, flowing hair, taller than the average chinese. Longer noses.

Mongolian - Reddish cheeks, more squat than the chinese.

Malay: Browner skin, thinner hair than chinese, wider noses.
(Thai look like a mix between Malay and Chinese)

White Americans - they're VERY difficult to generalise...due to their mixed heritage, but generally, they're more overweight than those in Europe. (like I said - generalities)

Hopefully it helps some...no offence meant!

I know you didnt mean to offend but your generalisations are about as dumb as saying "Black people are all thieves"....
 
Sorry if you misinterpreted what I was saying.

Originally posted by Gaki
your generalisations are about as dumb as saying "Black people are all thieves"....

I do apologise if you took the generalisations I mentioned in the wrong way...I understand that you wouldn't seem to agree with them.

May I ask why? I understand saying that "black people are all thieves" would be untrue, as not ALL black people are. However, a generalisation is an observational theory based on traits/characteristics that many of the population of a particular group or sub-group of people seem to exhibit. But a "generalisation" NEVER applies to "ALL" people.

Indeed, I would say that my generalisations could probably be compared to "Most people in prison have committed a crime". However, there are some that remain that may have been innocent, are prison guards or wardens etc.

My generalisations were based on largely agreed anthropological observations of the human race. Having an english-chinese-zimbabwean family, travelled quite a lot, had friends from a myriad of different backgrounds, and lived in five countries, I was simply making observations based on experience.

If you happen to find it "dumb" because you find it offensive, then I really apologise. That was not my intention. 🙂

However, please feel free to say what you believe the truth to be. An opinion/belief based on reason is not dumb, although it may be incorrect.
 
Re: Sorry if you misinterpreted what I was saying.

Why i think like that is because, generalising people into groups creates stereotypes, stereotypes turn into racist comments.

It;s no different from saying :

Chinese people wear triangle hats,
Black people have sausage lips,
White people are blonde with blue eyes,
Japanese people all wear headbands saying "GANBATTE!",
Thai people are all ladyboys,

Etc etc....

I know what you mean, i just dont agree with the way you generalised people into groups.
 
Hard line to draw

You do have a point Gaki. It is a pleasure discussing this with you. I was discussing a similar issue with a friend of mine who works for an anti-racism magazine and lobby in London.

However, we were discussing the blurry line of when does a joke between friends become a racist remark? And it is a difficult line to draw!

The same probably applies to classification. Where should one draw the line in scientific classification? It's very difficult...

There are extremes that we absolutely need to avoid. Which would be a 100% blind belief in stereotypes. It's very difficult to stereotype me because I am both Chinese and English. (So I was just referred to as a "scrambled egg", half yellow, half white.) To damn a whole people group as the stereotype would surely be a crime. e.g. ALL english people love football!

However, I know where my features come from, even though I look very different to the rest of my family. I have Chinese eyes, English height, Chinese nose, English-Chinese hair, English beard, Chinese respect for elders.

Others just think I'm from Kazakhstan...although some Japanese have asked if I was Japanese. Some Filipinos have asked if I was Filipino.

Would you think it is also an error if we took the extremism in the other direction? With a lack of classification, comes a limited amount of understanding. If one doesn't understand that there are different mentalities due to culture, then problems will and have arised. One is not saying that ALL people are a particular way. There are always exceptions. e.g.Many english people do like football, but not ALL!

An example of a non-race people group would be religious, or generational. The characteristics that GenerationX exemplified, have given way to what we now call "Millenials". However, Japan is generally regarded as a generation behind the west - and therefore is now going through its phase of GenerationX.

We know that stereotypes do exist. We have all seen them and even have them as our friends. The sports fanatic who wears Nike and Reebok, yet has never run a mile in his life. The beefcake yet slightly slow jock. The brilliant but nerdy geek. The slick, slimy player. The rebellious teenager. We all know the groups, we all can identify them by their traits.

To say that people do not have their differences would be unfair, We are all different, and must be able to accept and enjoy the differences. Even the stereotypes are not all the same.

Anthropology - Classification - Stereotype - Racism

Racism is the abuse of classification. Stereotype is the borderline.

You have raised a good point. I guess we just need to learn where we should draw the somewhat vague and blurry line.
 
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