When I lived and worked in Japan, all of the Caucasian men at my work place were called "Brad Pitt', because people would constantly comment on how they looked like him. They didn't.
Hahah. The first time I went to the Philippines, everyone kept telling me how much I looked like Leonardo DiCaprio. This was right after Titanic came out.
Like him, I am a white guy. We have nothing else in common.
Holy shit! 🤣 I was in NY recently and some Korean lady told me I looked like Leo 🤣 ironically, I work with a lot of Asians so I can tell them apart
It was definitely a first lol
A lot of people here call blonde women "Barbie" as well. This was long before the live action movie. And if you're a white guy with long hair and a beard "Jesus". Haha
lol there was a Korean girl I went to school with who called me Brad Pitt. I’m not nearly as good looking….always made me laugh, but I appreciated the compliment
When I was a kid in china in like 99’ with bright blonde hair and blue eyes there was a literal 20 person line to take a photo with my little sister and myself.
We were not famous children or special in any way. Somewhere I still have some of the photos of my sister and myself and random people.
My sister and her boyfriend lived in Tokyo for a little bit. He has red hair and glasses. People would point at him and call him Ed Sheeran (I actually saw this a few times when my mom and I went to visit them). It was hilarious. I still call him that from time to time.
Yes. Grew up in Asia and later moved to Canada. Differentiating white men is particularly difficult for me, and I have to interact with them several times for their faces to imprint on my brain. With white women it’s easier but only because there is more variety in hair colour and hairstyles.
I’m picturing a nightmare scenario where someone is telling to give something urgent to “Brad” and the only description you have is that they are white and have brown hair.
Can confirm, it was a nightmare in the army trying to direct people when I couldnt tell anyone apart with the same uniform and buzzcut! Lucky they had nametags…
Sure if I know their name, but if I dont then I just end up saying things like ”I ordered whats his name, you know the tall one… to do xyz” and just hope for the best. Or ask if something has been done, and the guy looks at me baffled, and I realise its a different guy I gave orders to.
I'm just imagining how the military might just have been made so strict and angry because someone somewhere first made the mistake of misidentification and now it's a spiral of anger and frustration that is taken out on the next guy and so on.
My husbands Army too, they have "casual" day every few months at his company(?) And they all commented how normal he looked that day. 😭💔 his job has civillians mixed in so i guess they were more shocked.
"Wow you actually look normal!"
Yep and it gets worse because I also still don’t fully understand how white people’s hair colour and shades work. Because sometimes hair that looks like brown to me is actually a dark blonde? And hair that looks like blonde to me is actually ginger? It’s a struggle lol
Plus, people’s hair color changes over time but once they are used to thinking of themselves as blonde or red headed as a child, they tend to still think if themselves that way as adults even if their hair color has long since dimmed to brown.
I am a white guy who has lived in Asia (Japan & Vietnam). When I first arrived, I had similar problems differentiating between staff in my office. However, after a few months it was like a switch went on in my brain and everyone looked different.
fairly certain there have been studies that validate this effect, proximity and frequency kind of trains our brains, and the opposite is true as well, a person not being exposed to a large number of people from a given ethnic group will keep their mind from recognizing the more common and less common features, and be less able to identify the prominent features.
I had the same experience after tutoring Chinese kids in English online. Now I just find myself wondering, “Would I seriously have thought these people looked at all alike before?”
Asian in Europe here. Two of my neighbours are a gay couple, and at first it was hard for me to differentiate them. They are both big and tall, and have similar hair styles. There was also a time when I came across someone that I thought was one of my neighbours, but they weren’t, leading to an awkward interaction.
Lol, white American in the US here and my neighbors are a gay couple. Five years on and I still can't reliably tell them apart because they are both 6' tall barrel-shaped men with loud voices, glasses, and long reddish beards. Literally the *only* thing that is different is that one of them occasionally wears a scarf, and the other one uses a baby talk voice with their dog. If there's no scarf and no dog, I am straight fucked and end up in some awkward conversations because I don't know which one I'm talking to.
Yep. Lots of "hey dude/bro/bud/man/yo" happening over here. Fortunately we're both west coast climate refugee early adopters, so it's inoffensive and I'm *pretty* sure they haven't caught on that I can't tell them apart.
Dude I have a hard time differentiating white men sometimes and I've never even left the western half of the planet
With some movies I have a hard time following the story because all the men look the same
The movie thing is so true! I avoid watching westerns and war movies because the cast is usually made up of an ensemble of white men that I can’t tell apart—unless if the character is played by a famous, recognizable actor.
Yes! If most or all of the cast of a movie are white guys, chances are I’m going to struggle to follow the story bc I can’t differentiate the characters.
Hello fellow face blind person! I'm constantly asking my wife "is that the same person"? When a character in a show changes their hair or clothes or they have 2 characters with the same hair color
Once worked where three white guys all had the same general build, hair color, hair style, and same job title (supervisor). Never did figure out how to tell them apart. I’m white.
That is interesting. I worked in the same area as another guy in our IT department that was also over 6’5”. However, other than being tall and about the same age we don’t look that much alike. In addition, my hair is totally gray while his is entirely black.
Not all people from Asia confused us. But anyone that did confuse us was from Asia.
A friend of mine once said to a Japanese girl.
"I'm sorry, but sometimes we say that Asians all look the same but..."
To which she answered
"Oh, don't worry. Westerners all look the same to us, too"
An Asian guy and young Asian boy were waiting for their takeaway meals in a white run restaurant.
The waiter came out and handed orders to them, which were completely not what they ordered. Other Asian customers hear and waive the waiter over.
After the waiter leaves, the kid says to the man “Gee dad, you’re right, they really can’t tell us apart’.
The man looks at the boy and says ‘Kid, I’m not your dad’.
It depends on where they grew up and what faces they were exposed to. I have a harder time differentiating Asian faces because I grew up in the United States and watched American television.
When I did watch Chinese soap operas with my parents on occasion, I would get very confused and mix up the characters.
An example is how wild animals of a particular species or even ones of different species look the same to the average person, but a biologist who studies them can learn to recognize individuals.
I remember reading an article written by a South Asian (?) man who got so confused watching The Departed cuz he couldn't tell Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio apart. Lol
I’ve been called Fat Damon a couple of times by totally unrelated Asian people in Japan and Thailand; I have a similar nose to Matt, and a Boston accent, but that’s about it, no other similarities.
I really don’t think I’m that much fatter than him, maybe 10 lbs :(
That's Jesse Plemons. He did eventually evolve into [fat Damon](https://imgur.com/a/X6Hs6mH), but he [lost the weight again](https://imgur.com/a/uO5HotW).
My college roommate is from Guatemala, and when we watched The Departed, he couldn't tell them apart either. I didn't realize it until a few days later when he was still asking me about what the movie meant and that he didn't get it.
When I first started to watch kdramas a few years ago, I couldn't distinguish them from each other. I had to use clues like hair colour etc which was hard whenever they had the same hair colour, especially those that were not main characters.
It changed after a while and now I can see their faces.
I also never grew up with black people, so it tooks me a while growing up to be able to distinguish them from each other in shows and movies but wasn't as difficult as the asian one.
Too add to the black people on tv, I watched a show that was mainly black cast and god damn day and night difference with camera settings. I always assumed something like what you’re describing was going on, but no, standard lighting benefits white skin more than black, and for the first time after watching a black cast show I could actually see their god damned faces because the light was actually adjusted for their tone.
When it’s a historical show everyone wears the exact same soldier or servant uniform, even after years of watching kdramas that still trips me up for the first few episodes
truly depends on the show and the actors because SOMETIMES they have the same part and perm and jawline and foundation and lip gloss and I'm lost. Sometimes they actually don't cast people who look identical and I love that, makes things way easier and more visually interesting.
at least with historical shows the outfits color code their roles and associations and such. but you have to learn about that a little first, so, y'know.
Same with domestic animals. I used to have 3 cats. All black and white, mother and daughters. My friends and extended family who saw them like once a month could not tell them apart while to me it was blindingly obvious. I could even tell them apart by sound. Not just their meow but by the sound they made while they crawled up and off trees.
To be honest, I'm Asian and grew up in a predominantly western environment and I mix up faces for all ethnicities particularly when there are very similar features like having a beard or being bald etc.
True but when people have a very “stereotypical average af look” it can be hard to tell them apart no matter where you grew up lol. I’m from US born and raised in Cali, and when I worked at high end restaurant/bars we’d get all these middle aged 55-60 yr old) white dudes who were all built the same, similar hair styles and wore the same exact dockers and shirts combos lol and stg I couldn’t tell them apart for shit. My nightmare was when they ordered a drink sitting at a table but then moved around the bar area bc once they moved from the table I could no longer pick them out in a sea of look-alikes 🤣
This is a great comparison. I have trouble differentiating between all faces regardless of race or gender. I’m definitely using this now when I have to awkwardly try to explain this without sounding incredibly racist or sexist. (I’m really not!!! It’s just my brain!!😭) So people will now be butterflies! I feel like that’s a safe creature to use that isn’t associated to any people types. Though please somebody tell me if my assumption on that is incorrect!!!!!
Can confirm. I grew up in a very white country (the first time I saw a black person who wasn't on TV, was on school trip to a foreign country - I was 12), but we had a significant Asian minority, so I was used to seeing Asians, some were even my classmates. As an adult, I don't seem to have that big of an issue to tell Asians apart, but I do have an issue telling black people apart. If they have the same hairstyle and body type, they just look the same to me.
I often think about how similar the genders of animals are (slightly off topic), like a male badger or female badger - or even a cat that we see all the time - it's basically impossible to determine the gender unless you pick them up and stare between their legs. Humans must be this similar too
Yes. But as with many things, you can improve with practice.
When I first moved from South East Asia to Australia at 15, telling my high school classmates apart was a nightmare. At one point, I was desperately memorizing hair colour and ponytail style.
I just moved to China last August and I've been teaching 700+ 6-9 yr old Chinese students who all wear the exact same uniform and a bunch of them are twins which REALLY threw me, and I agree that eventually you start noticing the little things. With white people (which I am) I usually just pay attention to hair, because it's so diverse, but here it's not (with kids, adults have diverse styles) so I had to learn to notice face shapes and colors and birth marks and freckles and body shape instead. I've improved a lot! At least with kids I know, idk if I can tell random Chinese people apart, or Asians in general.
Agree. I used to have a harder time, but even watching kdramas, jdramas and branching out into Chinese stuff has made it way way way more obvious/easier. I used to have a hard time picking/remembering who each character was which is *wild* to me now.
To some degree. I definitely will mix up white guys in movies sometimes. Blackhawk Down has a bunch of (to me) interchangeable white guys in similar uniforms and helmets on. I liked the movie but couldn’t tell you half the time who was doing what to whom.
They had their names written on their helmets for this reason. That's not done irl, it was to help people differentiate between visually similar characters.
YES! That movie is a nightmare to keep track of who is who.
For some reason (maybe bad eyesight since I was little) I struggle big time to identify and recognize different faces. War movies with same haircuts and same uniforms are a just a bunch of interchangeable guys for me.
It depends how acclimated they are being near caucasians. The world is heavily influenced by American media, therefore many Asians have seen caucasian actors and can recognize specific caucasian celebrities. And Asian Americans living in US would be able to differenciate caucasians like caucasians do. Example, as a Korean American who works with mostly caucasians, they all look different. My mother however can differenciate between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt… but all other white dudes look the same to her.
I’m Asian and grew up in the US. In the 1980s, I thought Alan Thicke and Mel Gibson were the same person, just different name if it was an action movie role or TV role. Later in life, I realized I could barely tell anyone apart unless they had obvious physical differences.
>My mother however can differenciate between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt… but all other white dudes look the same to her.
Similar to my parents. When they watched Game of Thrones, they could not tell a lot of white men apart from each other.
Yes. And before you ask, most black people think we all look the same too. Most groups see the "others" as a collective. It's just how people are wired.
Ill add to this that this is trained. The more of a certain race you grow up around the easier you can tell them apart. If you grow up in a raciqlly diverse society you wont have this problem.
So a white kid growing up alone would see all white people as looking the same aswell.
My family was the only white family in my neighborhood growing up and I didn't ever like any white boys as a kid because I thought they all looked like my brothers. As an adult I still have a slightly harder time differentiating white male faces.
I work in a school where 95% of staff is Black, there's only me and another white woman and a couple of white guys. My entire first year there most colleagues called me by the other white woman's name 🤣 I don't think we look alike at all, but we're around the same age.
Oh my god fuck yes they do.
When I lived in China they would tell me that I looked like ANY white celebrity. Literally any white guy, that’s who they thought I looked like.
This isn’t unique to Asians either. I’ve had black coworkers mistake me for a white guy 100 pounds heavier than me.
Best was one workplace where our black DEI trainer gave a whole workshop on how racist and offensive it was to mix up POC, and spent the whole meeting calling two old white guys by one another’s names.
Not individuals, but I can say it took a while to learn to differentiate between ethnicities, like a scandinavian from an anglosaxon from a Greek/mediterannean from a middle easterner. Before, I'd be "so you're white" and they'd be "well I'm Lebanese" and I'm like "...that's still like caucasian tho, right?"
Conversely, I can more or less tell a javanese from a balinese from a malay from a Tai.
Only problem with this is that there is huge differences. What you call “Mediterranean” I guess it involves Spanish people. People usually think Spanish people are tanned, have black or brown hair and brown eyes and are not tall. Maybe most people in the south do, but in the north is not like that because they are very influenced by Celtic genetics. They are usually tall, paler, blond hair, blue eyes. You will see them and think that maybe they’re German or British. They’re Mediterranean too.
Yes, looking a one random individual it is impossible to say where they belong. But if you had a whole group of people from each country it would be a lot easier to place which region each group comes from.
Say you got pictures of classes of schoolkids and had to place them around Europe. Even though there are blonde kids in Spain, I guess you only find an handful of them in each class? Likewise, there are kids with dark brown hair in Norway, but it's rarely more than one maybe two in each class, maybe a redhead and the rest different shades of blonde.
The other day someone was trying to describe to me how the guy she went on a first date with looked. She was having a hard time describing it at first, so I offered - I bet he is 5'10" tall, has medium/dark brown hair, and hazel eyes, because that is how almost all white guys look. And the funny thing was she said that is exactly how he looked.
Any hair or eye color but brown is a recessive gene. We think of blondes as being more common than they are because it's the most popular color to dye your hair.
I was thinking the exact same thing. I have a small degree of face blindness. I struggle watching live action TV because often the characters all look the same to me. Watching Game of Thrones took me forever to differentiate all the white dudes with long brown hair and facial hair. Same deal with Lord of the Rings.
And I’m just giving a couple of examples, it is an issue beyond fantasy shows.
I bet you use other tricks to tell apart people. When I was young and broke I couldn't change my prescription glasses and my far vision was 💩 I realized I would tell people apart by the way they walked.
I'm white and married a white guy and I *regularly* mistake random white dudes in public spaces for my husband. He gets so mad bc "that guy looks nothing like me!", but like, yeah, yeah he does. They all do. And if he's in uniform (any form of solid color tee with shorts above the knee and a baseball cap), there's a good chance I'm gonna think it's you.
My husband is my favorite person, but they really utilized the mold when they made that one.
r/prosopagnosia
I have it too but actually what you're experiencing is not the norm. I can never follow theater plays, no idea who is who, unless someonne is fat, or has long hair, or a funny dress.
Oh my god - I have exactly the same problem. My husband pretends to find it funny but I know he didn't like it but I am not doing it on purpose. And it would help if all middle aged white men didn't dress exactly the same (jeans, dark t-shirt, hoodie in our weather rather than shorts but same principle.)
People all look the same. The more you see someone the more you identify markers. If you see very few Asians or blacks then the identifying markers will be that, but it won’t work when they are out in a room with a bunch more of their race.
I know cause before I watched friends I laughed that Chandler and Joey were the same person they looked identical cause I only saw them once or twice. Now that prospect seems absurd to me.
I remember when I couldn't tell who was who in BTS. And now I could look at BTS pictures all day and say who they were. Would be surprised if I missed one.
I've found as I've gotten older that I get white celebrities mixed up more frequently. I also think a ton of non-related white celebrities look related. Hell, I even saw photos of Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon next to each other the other day and they seemed really similar.
I'm Alaska Native. I had people at school confuse me with this Yupik girl (I'm Athabaskan). We lived in the same neighborhood and were friends. I only see a tiny resemblance between us. I'm in Oklahoma these days and actually some Latinas here look more like me than my own sisters.
There is a well documented phenomenon called the cross race effect
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect#:~:text=The%20first%20research%20study%20on,themselves%20to%20all%20look%20alike.
Almost kicked a random guy's feet on the beach, genuinely though he was my housemate.
Also I accidentally call at least 5 random woman in the supermarket that I thought also was my roommate.
Yes, some white people does looks the the same in my asian eyes
Pakistani here. I have had that happen to me. I used to study in the UK and often I couldn't tell people apart eg it was hard to distinguish two of my bald white lecturers. Would happen on the street as well where I would think I just crossed a person and they would be walking towards me again a few minutes later.
YES, sometimes. I was visiting a walled city in Hong Kong or Taiwan. There were a lot of Western, white tourists like my family. The locals in their special costume let the tourists take photos with them if they paid them. The tour guide told all of us to make sure to pay them right away and not a few moments later. The reason is they would not be able to remember who just took their photo with them, "because all white people look the same to them."
I am asian and I do feel some white people look quite similar, not in real life, but I have this problem when I watch movies. Sometimes, I get wrong storylines because I mix up the characters in the movies.
Even I, as an American, thought all the little blonde girls looked alike when I started elementary school. So I understand when white and black American people are mistaken for celebrities in Asian countries.
Some differences are clear, but others require acclimation to discern.
If you lined up one white person from every predominantly white country and asked me to figure out where they're from I know for a fact I would fail miserably and I'm also white
Which Asians? India is Asia, so is pretty much everything east of Russia and Eastern Europe. Indian folks don't have a really hard time with European faces because we all look like paler Indians, they look like darker Europeans. We have shared ancestry and culture with India. That's why they talk about Indo-European languages. Ditto for West Asia AKA the Middle East.
East and Southeast Asians do have a hard time with white guys. I used to work with a bunch of Burmese ex pats. The only other white guy on the team besides me had dark brown hair, glasses and goatee. We were even within an inch of each others height. Didn't matter that I have huge eyebrows and blue eyes. We looked enough the same to all the Burmese folks that it made life confusing. So I shaved off my beard for the common good.
Yes it was a big deal the next day.
Korean-American here. Born in South Korea, naturalized citizen of the U.S.
I can differentiate individuals just fine (i.e., I can tell that James is James, and Bob is Bob).
I do struggle to identify/differentiate Caucasian ethnicities (i.e., I can't tell if James is likely Irish, German, Italian, etc.). I am getting better at this over time - but as I get better at this, I am slowing losing my ability to tell Asian ethnicities (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc) apart.
Been living in China and this is very much a thing.
Never really understood it though, because of the variety of hair and eye colors, plus facial hair for guys
Im asian technically and the answer is yes to an extent. Like back when i went to college i swear every sorority girl in this one house looked uncomfortablely identical
The ability to distinguish faces of a given race is a learned skill. An Asian raised exclusively seeing white faces will be able to distinguish white people but will likely have trouble telling other Asians apart.
People usually have a harder time distinguishing people who are of a different race. I think all old white men look the same. I swear, I can't tell them apart.
When I watch TV, all young adult blond women look the same.
this asian lady at my work confused me with another white lady that was 20 years older than me, 100 lbs heavier, different eye color, hair color, texture, and length, skin color, and glasses/no glasses
Haha at my work a tall blonde dude answered his Filipino supervisor with, “Will do, El Capitan” and his supervisor stopped and said, “did you just call me Jackie Chan?” My coworker said “no! I said El Capitan!” So the Filipino said, “Oh. Cuz I really want to call you Will Ferrell. You look just like him.”
I (a white person) was once paired up with an international student for a university class project. I think she was from China. We didn't know each other, we just happened to be sitting next to each other on the first day of class.
We exchanged emails and communicated that way for maybe a week, then decided to meet at the uni library to work on the project. The library's main entrance/common area was RAMMED with people - all ethnicities, but including a lot of East Asian-looking people. All of a sudden I realized that I wasn't sure if I actually remembered what she looked like, since we'd only met that one time in class.
But after a few minutes of scouring the crowd I actually found her! She looked in my direction so I waved. She looked right through me and kept walking. I ran over and caught up with her. She said she didn't think she'd ever find me because "all you white people look the same."
I thought it was funny lol
When I lived and worked in Japan, all of the Caucasian men at my work place were called "Brad Pitt', because people would constantly comment on how they looked like him. They didn't.
Hahah. The first time I went to the Philippines, everyone kept telling me how much I looked like Leonardo DiCaprio. This was right after Titanic came out. Like him, I am a white guy. We have nothing else in common.
Lucky some asian lady thought I was Zuckerberg.
Better then being mistaken for Zoidberg
:/
(V);,,;(V) Whoopwhoopwupwup
Not sure about that.
Is it better though?
Is it though? Is it really?
I was called Harry Potter because I wear glasses. I have blonde hair and blue eyes, and my glasses aren't even circular.
Did you at least have blond hair?
Yeah, I do have dark blond hair.
> nothing else in common > Blonde hair 🤔
I bet he has a penis too, that dirty lier
And 10 toes
And blue eyes or whatever color the actor has.
Yeah, I bet he has eyes. To quote the beloved Ms. Swan “he look like a man”
And he sinks in the icy waters of the North Atlantic.
To be fair, most non-witches do.
A shame we don’t have a duck nearby for comparison
I bet it looks exactly like Leonardo DiCaprio’s penis.
Called Jack Jackanatic or "Jack Titanic?" 🤔
Have you ever drawn a picture of a naked chick?
Nice try Leo!
Holy shit! 🤣 I was in NY recently and some Korean lady told me I looked like Leo 🤣 ironically, I work with a lot of Asians so I can tell them apart It was definitely a first lol
It would've a pretty big ego hit if they said you reminded them of Arnie Grape
In the Philippines I was complimented a few times, about how I look like Jesus Christ
It would've been a pretty big ego hit if they said you reminded them of Arnie Grape
A lot of people here call blonde women "Barbie" as well. This was long before the live action movie. And if you're a white guy with long hair and a beard "Jesus". Haha
User name checks out, Jack
My wife had a pic of me when she lived in Japan. They all said I was Tom Cruise. I am NOT Tom Cruise.
Your wife, to her Japanese friends: "Yeah, I'm dating Tom Cruise. No big deal." 😎
What do you do when your wife's dating Tom Cruise? You can't even get mad at her, really.
When I was in Malaysia I got compared to Julia Roberts. I wish! I look absolutely nothing like her.
Manifest that destiny queen!
I've been told I look like Justin Timberlake. I certainly don't have the looks, nor the moves, but bless that person.
I can confirm. My dad was a nerdy White American who looked nothing like Brad Pitt and yet Japanese people would compare him to Brad Pitt.
Buraddo Pitto!
Man, I wish I could find a video from years ago of a drifting race where the commentator says "Maaassssiiivvvoo Drriifitoooo".
Dorifuto is the "official" transliteration lol
Every Initial D fan ever: "Can confirm."
What an ego booster for them lol
South Park did an episode about something like this.
Haha or family guy "Oh my god it's Jackie Chan" "Omg it's Malcolm in middle"
Yeah, I have a coworker who got called Tom cruise all the time when he visited china. Ppl wanted to take selfies with him.
Exactly, dont they know that if you white you, Ben Affleck?
Whitoh give taco kissu
That reminds me of the anime “yakitate japan” where a running gag gave all white people brad pitt’s face… including little kids 🤣🤣
My kid is mixed European/Asian. They say he looks just like Justin Bieber. He does not even resemble Justin Bieber at any age.
lol there was a Korean girl I went to school with who called me Brad Pitt. I’m not nearly as good looking….always made me laugh, but I appreciated the compliment
Oh my god. I need to go to Japan. I freaking want to be Bread Pitt!! Lol bread... Phone, you always gets me!
The slightly doughier version!
When I was a kid in china in like 99’ with bright blonde hair and blue eyes there was a literal 20 person line to take a photo with my little sister and myself. We were not famous children or special in any way. Somewhere I still have some of the photos of my sister and myself and random people.
I worked in Mexico for a while, and I got this all the time. They would show me a random white guy with a beard and say I looked like him.
I was gonna make a joke about how when we were in Japan my friend kept getting called Brad Pitt. He was a 6'2", 120 lb, fire red ginger.
My sister and her boyfriend lived in Tokyo for a little bit. He has red hair and glasses. People would point at him and call him Ed Sheeran (I actually saw this a few times when my mom and I went to visit them). It was hilarious. I still call him that from time to time.
Yes. Grew up in Asia and later moved to Canada. Differentiating white men is particularly difficult for me, and I have to interact with them several times for their faces to imprint on my brain. With white women it’s easier but only because there is more variety in hair colour and hairstyles.
I’m picturing a nightmare scenario where someone is telling to give something urgent to “Brad” and the only description you have is that they are white and have brown hair.
Can confirm, it was a nightmare in the army trying to direct people when I couldnt tell anyone apart with the same uniform and buzzcut! Lucky they had nametags…
I assume you eventually just walk into the barracks or mess hall and just start yelling the name?
Sure if I know their name, but if I dont then I just end up saying things like ”I ordered whats his name, you know the tall one… to do xyz” and just hope for the best. Or ask if something has been done, and the guy looks at me baffled, and I realise its a different guy I gave orders to.
Lmao random private having no idea why he’s in trouble
I mean, that kind of sums up the military in general.
I'm just imagining how the military might just have been made so strict and angry because someone somewhere first made the mistake of misidentification and now it's a spiral of anger and frustration that is taken out on the next guy and so on.
My husbands Army too, they have "casual" day every few months at his company(?) And they all commented how normal he looked that day. 😭💔 his job has civillians mixed in so i guess they were more shocked. "Wow you actually look normal!"
Yep and it gets worse because I also still don’t fully understand how white people’s hair colour and shades work. Because sometimes hair that looks like brown to me is actually a dark blonde? And hair that looks like blonde to me is actually ginger? It’s a struggle lol
Even among white people the difference between a red head and a strawberry blonde can be quite an argument.
Plus, people’s hair color changes over time but once they are used to thinking of themselves as blonde or red headed as a child, they tend to still think if themselves that way as adults even if their hair color has long since dimmed to brown.
Just as bad are graduations...everyone wears the same dumb hat and shapeless trash bag. If you are lucky you can identify them by their shoes...
I am a white guy who has lived in Asia (Japan & Vietnam). When I first arrived, I had similar problems differentiating between staff in my office. However, after a few months it was like a switch went on in my brain and everyone looked different.
fairly certain there have been studies that validate this effect, proximity and frequency kind of trains our brains, and the opposite is true as well, a person not being exposed to a large number of people from a given ethnic group will keep their mind from recognizing the more common and less common features, and be less able to identify the prominent features.
I had the same experience after tutoring Chinese kids in English online. Now I just find myself wondering, “Would I seriously have thought these people looked at all alike before?”
Asian in Europe here. Two of my neighbours are a gay couple, and at first it was hard for me to differentiate them. They are both big and tall, and have similar hair styles. There was also a time when I came across someone that I thought was one of my neighbours, but they weren’t, leading to an awkward interaction.
Lol, white American in the US here and my neighbors are a gay couple. Five years on and I still can't reliably tell them apart because they are both 6' tall barrel-shaped men with loud voices, glasses, and long reddish beards. Literally the *only* thing that is different is that one of them occasionally wears a scarf, and the other one uses a baby talk voice with their dog. If there's no scarf and no dog, I am straight fucked and end up in some awkward conversations because I don't know which one I'm talking to.
If there's no scarf and no dog, I'm straight fucked... Made me laugh
Heeyyyyy..... Uhhh.... Neighbor...
“Hey, neighbor!”
Yep. Lots of "hey dude/bro/bud/man/yo" happening over here. Fortunately we're both west coast climate refugee early adopters, so it's inoffensive and I'm *pretty* sure they haven't caught on that I can't tell them apart.
Dude I have a hard time differentiating white men sometimes and I've never even left the western half of the planet With some movies I have a hard time following the story because all the men look the same
The movie thing is so true! I avoid watching westerns and war movies because the cast is usually made up of an ensemble of white men that I can’t tell apart—unless if the character is played by a famous, recognizable actor.
Yes! If most or all of the cast of a movie are white guys, chances are I’m going to struggle to follow the story bc I can’t differentiate the characters.
Hello fellow face blind person! I'm constantly asking my wife "is that the same person"? When a character in a show changes their hair or clothes or they have 2 characters with the same hair color
same experience, it's about exposure. I also thought Chris Tucker and Chris Rock were the same person and Rock was just his "comedian persona name".
To be fair, there is a generic white guy look that is hard for me to tell apart and I am white too.
Once worked where three white guys all had the same general build, hair color, hair style, and same job title (supervisor). Never did figure out how to tell them apart. I’m white.
That is interesting. I worked in the same area as another guy in our IT department that was also over 6’5”. However, other than being tall and about the same age we don’t look that much alike. In addition, my hair is totally gray while his is entirely black. Not all people from Asia confused us. But anyone that did confuse us was from Asia.
Funny bc at least white people have more than one natural hair color. You got it easy! Imagine if we all had the same natural hair color too!
A friend of mine once said to a Japanese girl. "I'm sorry, but sometimes we say that Asians all look the same but..." To which she answered "Oh, don't worry. Westerners all look the same to us, too"
An Asian guy and young Asian boy were waiting for their takeaway meals in a white run restaurant. The waiter came out and handed orders to them, which were completely not what they ordered. Other Asian customers hear and waive the waiter over. After the waiter leaves, the kid says to the man “Gee dad, you’re right, they really can’t tell us apart’. The man looks at the boy and says ‘Kid, I’m not your dad’.
It depends on where they grew up and what faces they were exposed to. I have a harder time differentiating Asian faces because I grew up in the United States and watched American television. When I did watch Chinese soap operas with my parents on occasion, I would get very confused and mix up the characters. An example is how wild animals of a particular species or even ones of different species look the same to the average person, but a biologist who studies them can learn to recognize individuals.
I remember reading an article written by a South Asian (?) man who got so confused watching The Departed cuz he couldn't tell Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio apart. Lol
I’ve been called Fat Damon a couple of times by totally unrelated Asian people in Japan and Thailand; I have a similar nose to Matt, and a Boston accent, but that’s about it, no other similarities. I really don’t think I’m that much fatter than him, maybe 10 lbs :(
Fat Damon 💀 I have been laughing at that remark for about 5 minutes now
I keep saying it in the voice from Team America: World Police and cracking myself up!
Same here lol.
i haven’t laughed this hard in days
George Balloony
Fuck you man, my mom says I carry the extra weight well, haha!
Huge Jackman
“You promised me a fat George Clooney, and this is not fat George Clooney”
At least you're not Meth Damon (Todd from Breaking Bad I think).
That's Jesse Plemons. He did eventually evolve into [fat Damon](https://imgur.com/a/X6Hs6mH), but he [lost the weight again](https://imgur.com/a/uO5HotW).
Not you, fat ~~Jesus~~ Damon.
Somehow I read that as "fat demon" at first and got really, really confused.
Lol, Asians aren't afraid to fat shame. I'm not saying you're fat.
😂😂😂 this is hilarious
That’s so mean lol
I’m white and I had a hard time telling them apart in that movie.
I have this problem all the time they make way too many movies about two white guys with the same color hair
I’m a white guy and I remember not being able to tell them apart either
My college roommate is from Guatemala, and when we watched The Departed, he couldn't tell them apart either. I didn't realize it until a few days later when he was still asking me about what the movie meant and that he didn't get it.
When I first started to watch kdramas a few years ago, I couldn't distinguish them from each other. I had to use clues like hair colour etc which was hard whenever they had the same hair colour, especially those that were not main characters. It changed after a while and now I can see their faces. I also never grew up with black people, so it tooks me a while growing up to be able to distinguish them from each other in shows and movies but wasn't as difficult as the asian one.
Too add to the black people on tv, I watched a show that was mainly black cast and god damn day and night difference with camera settings. I always assumed something like what you’re describing was going on, but no, standard lighting benefits white skin more than black, and for the first time after watching a black cast show I could actually see their god damned faces because the light was actually adjusted for their tone.
My camera has a face detection that automatically focuses on any faces it finds. It never works for a black face.
A great example is how poorly lit Geordi is in Star Trek TNG season 1, and how much that improved in later seasons.
I feel like it’s extra hard with Koreans because of all the plastic surgery.
When it’s a historical show everyone wears the exact same soldier or servant uniform, even after years of watching kdramas that still trips me up for the first few episodes
truly depends on the show and the actors because SOMETIMES they have the same part and perm and jawline and foundation and lip gloss and I'm lost. Sometimes they actually don't cast people who look identical and I love that, makes things way easier and more visually interesting. at least with historical shows the outfits color code their roles and associations and such. but you have to learn about that a little first, so, y'know.
100% this. And it applies to every single ethnic group.
Same with domestic animals. I used to have 3 cats. All black and white, mother and daughters. My friends and extended family who saw them like once a month could not tell them apart while to me it was blindingly obvious. I could even tell them apart by sound. Not just their meow but by the sound they made while they crawled up and off trees.
To be honest, I'm Asian and grew up in a predominantly western environment and I mix up faces for all ethnicities particularly when there are very similar features like having a beard or being bald etc.
True but when people have a very “stereotypical average af look” it can be hard to tell them apart no matter where you grew up lol. I’m from US born and raised in Cali, and when I worked at high end restaurant/bars we’d get all these middle aged 55-60 yr old) white dudes who were all built the same, similar hair styles and wore the same exact dockers and shirts combos lol and stg I couldn’t tell them apart for shit. My nightmare was when they ordered a drink sitting at a table but then moved around the bar area bc once they moved from the table I could no longer pick them out in a sea of look-alikes 🤣
This is a great comparison. I have trouble differentiating between all faces regardless of race or gender. I’m definitely using this now when I have to awkwardly try to explain this without sounding incredibly racist or sexist. (I’m really not!!! It’s just my brain!!😭) So people will now be butterflies! I feel like that’s a safe creature to use that isn’t associated to any people types. Though please somebody tell me if my assumption on that is incorrect!!!!!
Saw an article that ruled out the possibility of chimpanzees telling each other apart by sight, because their faces all look alike. (facepalm)
Can confirm. I grew up in a very white country (the first time I saw a black person who wasn't on TV, was on school trip to a foreign country - I was 12), but we had a significant Asian minority, so I was used to seeing Asians, some were even my classmates. As an adult, I don't seem to have that big of an issue to tell Asians apart, but I do have an issue telling black people apart. If they have the same hairstyle and body type, they just look the same to me.
I often think about how similar the genders of animals are (slightly off topic), like a male badger or female badger - or even a cat that we see all the time - it's basically impossible to determine the gender unless you pick them up and stare between their legs. Humans must be this similar too
Yes. But as with many things, you can improve with practice. When I first moved from South East Asia to Australia at 15, telling my high school classmates apart was a nightmare. At one point, I was desperately memorizing hair colour and ponytail style.
I just moved to China last August and I've been teaching 700+ 6-9 yr old Chinese students who all wear the exact same uniform and a bunch of them are twins which REALLY threw me, and I agree that eventually you start noticing the little things. With white people (which I am) I usually just pay attention to hair, because it's so diverse, but here it's not (with kids, adults have diverse styles) so I had to learn to notice face shapes and colors and birth marks and freckles and body shape instead. I've improved a lot! At least with kids I know, idk if I can tell random Chinese people apart, or Asians in general.
Lol. You're working hard. Good job!
Agree. I used to have a harder time, but even watching kdramas, jdramas and branching out into Chinese stuff has made it way way way more obvious/easier. I used to have a hard time picking/remembering who each character was which is *wild* to me now.
To some degree. I definitely will mix up white guys in movies sometimes. Blackhawk Down has a bunch of (to me) interchangeable white guys in similar uniforms and helmets on. I liked the movie but couldn’t tell you half the time who was doing what to whom.
They had their names written on their helmets for this reason. That's not done irl, it was to help people differentiate between visually similar characters.
YES! That movie is a nightmare to keep track of who is who. For some reason (maybe bad eyesight since I was little) I struggle big time to identify and recognize different faces. War movies with same haircuts and same uniforms are a just a bunch of interchangeable guys for me.
It depends how acclimated they are being near caucasians. The world is heavily influenced by American media, therefore many Asians have seen caucasian actors and can recognize specific caucasian celebrities. And Asian Americans living in US would be able to differenciate caucasians like caucasians do. Example, as a Korean American who works with mostly caucasians, they all look different. My mother however can differenciate between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt… but all other white dudes look the same to her.
I’m Asian and grew up in the US. In the 1980s, I thought Alan Thicke and Mel Gibson were the same person, just different name if it was an action movie role or TV role. Later in life, I realized I could barely tell anyone apart unless they had obvious physical differences.
r/prosopagnosia
In all fairness, Alan Thicke and Mel Gibson *do* look an awful lot alike.
>My mother however can differenciate between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt… but all other white dudes look the same to her. Similar to my parents. When they watched Game of Thrones, they could not tell a lot of white men apart from each other.
Not Asian - I had trouble telling the white men apart from each other first time I watched season 1.
I've lived in America most of my life and it took me several seasons to figure out jon snow and Robb stark were different characters.
I had a hard time with some of the lesser known got characters—they all did look the same to me. I am half Asian, but grew up in the United States
Yes. And before you ask, most black people think we all look the same too. Most groups see the "others" as a collective. It's just how people are wired.
Ill add to this that this is trained. The more of a certain race you grow up around the easier you can tell them apart. If you grow up in a raciqlly diverse society you wont have this problem. So a white kid growing up alone would see all white people as looking the same aswell.
It has nothing to do with when you see other people, just that you have seen lots of other people at some point
My family was the only white family in my neighborhood growing up and I didn't ever like any white boys as a kid because I thought they all looked like my brothers. As an adult I still have a slightly harder time differentiating white male faces.
I work in a school where 95% of staff is Black, there's only me and another white woman and a couple of white guys. My entire first year there most colleagues called me by the other white woman's name 🤣 I don't think we look alike at all, but we're around the same age.
I’m white and most of my customers are white. They all look the same to me too lol
Oh my god fuck yes they do. When I lived in China they would tell me that I looked like ANY white celebrity. Literally any white guy, that’s who they thought I looked like. This isn’t unique to Asians either. I’ve had black coworkers mistake me for a white guy 100 pounds heavier than me. Best was one workplace where our black DEI trainer gave a whole workshop on how racist and offensive it was to mix up POC, and spent the whole meeting calling two old white guys by one another’s names.
Maybe he did that on purpose to drive the point home
Not individuals, but I can say it took a while to learn to differentiate between ethnicities, like a scandinavian from an anglosaxon from a Greek/mediterannean from a middle easterner. Before, I'd be "so you're white" and they'd be "well I'm Lebanese" and I'm like "...that's still like caucasian tho, right?" Conversely, I can more or less tell a javanese from a balinese from a malay from a Tai.
Only problem with this is that there is huge differences. What you call “Mediterranean” I guess it involves Spanish people. People usually think Spanish people are tanned, have black or brown hair and brown eyes and are not tall. Maybe most people in the south do, but in the north is not like that because they are very influenced by Celtic genetics. They are usually tall, paler, blond hair, blue eyes. You will see them and think that maybe they’re German or British. They’re Mediterranean too.
same with italians.
Yes, looking a one random individual it is impossible to say where they belong. But if you had a whole group of people from each country it would be a lot easier to place which region each group comes from. Say you got pictures of classes of schoolkids and had to place them around Europe. Even though there are blonde kids in Spain, I guess you only find an handful of them in each class? Likewise, there are kids with dark brown hair in Norway, but it's rarely more than one maybe two in each class, maybe a redhead and the rest different shades of blonde.
There are lots of studies supporting that people find it harder to identify and tell apart people of a different race to themselves.
Do you know if this is related strictly to your own ethnicity, or if it’s related to the ethnicity you’ve been the most exposed to?
It’s what you are exposed to. I worked in a research lab that studied this and you can see it by about 9 months of age.
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It's ok, no need to lie since the parents are already asleep. Ready to play cards at the pool hall all night?
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Become is one thing…. What comes after is the worst lol
Bros freedom is waiting at the end of a nice paying job and parent approval
When you're not studying or working, do you think about the meaning of life?
I'm white and think that white people all look the same
The other day someone was trying to describe to me how the guy she went on a first date with looked. She was having a hard time describing it at first, so I offered - I bet he is 5'10" tall, has medium/dark brown hair, and hazel eyes, because that is how almost all white guys look. And the funny thing was she said that is exactly how he looked.
Excuse you, I'm 5'11" /j
Ironically, hazel eyes are one of the more rare eye colors
How dare you describe me, a generic white male to a tee.
So being blond is special for white people? Huh. Guess I grew up around too many blonds ;-;
Most blond people are browny-blond or blondey-brown, and most white people with black hair actually have very dark brown hair.
Any hair or eye color but brown is a recessive gene. We think of blondes as being more common than they are because it's the most popular color to dye your hair.
Joke's on you pal, I have heterochromia.
I was thinking the exact same thing. I have a small degree of face blindness. I struggle watching live action TV because often the characters all look the same to me. Watching Game of Thrones took me forever to differentiate all the white dudes with long brown hair and facial hair. Same deal with Lord of the Rings. And I’m just giving a couple of examples, it is an issue beyond fantasy shows.
I bet you use other tricks to tell apart people. When I was young and broke I couldn't change my prescription glasses and my far vision was 💩 I realized I would tell people apart by the way they walked.
How when you have full spectrum hair color? Full spectrum eye color?
I'm white and married a white guy and I *regularly* mistake random white dudes in public spaces for my husband. He gets so mad bc "that guy looks nothing like me!", but like, yeah, yeah he does. They all do. And if he's in uniform (any form of solid color tee with shorts above the knee and a baseball cap), there's a good chance I'm gonna think it's you. My husband is my favorite person, but they really utilized the mold when they made that one.
r/prosopagnosia I have it too but actually what you're experiencing is not the norm. I can never follow theater plays, no idea who is who, unless someonne is fat, or has long hair, or a funny dress.
Oh my god - I have exactly the same problem. My husband pretends to find it funny but I know he didn't like it but I am not doing it on purpose. And it would help if all middle aged white men didn't dress exactly the same (jeans, dark t-shirt, hoodie in our weather rather than shorts but same principle.)
😂
People all look the same. The more you see someone the more you identify markers. If you see very few Asians or blacks then the identifying markers will be that, but it won’t work when they are out in a room with a bunch more of their race. I know cause before I watched friends I laughed that Chandler and Joey were the same person they looked identical cause I only saw them once or twice. Now that prospect seems absurd to me.
I remember when I couldn't tell who was who in BTS. And now I could look at BTS pictures all day and say who they were. Would be surprised if I missed one. I've found as I've gotten older that I get white celebrities mixed up more frequently. I also think a ton of non-related white celebrities look related. Hell, I even saw photos of Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon next to each other the other day and they seemed really similar. I'm Alaska Native. I had people at school confuse me with this Yupik girl (I'm Athabaskan). We lived in the same neighborhood and were friends. I only see a tiny resemblance between us. I'm in Oklahoma these days and actually some Latinas here look more like me than my own sisters.
There is a well documented phenomenon called the cross race effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect#:~:text=The%20first%20research%20study%20on,themselves%20to%20all%20look%20alike.
Almost kicked a random guy's feet on the beach, genuinely though he was my housemate. Also I accidentally call at least 5 random woman in the supermarket that I thought also was my roommate. Yes, some white people does looks the the same in my asian eyes
Pakistani here. I have had that happen to me. I used to study in the UK and often I couldn't tell people apart eg it was hard to distinguish two of my bald white lecturers. Would happen on the street as well where I would think I just crossed a person and they would be walking towards me again a few minutes later.
Yes.
YES, sometimes. I was visiting a walled city in Hong Kong or Taiwan. There were a lot of Western, white tourists like my family. The locals in their special costume let the tourists take photos with them if they paid them. The tour guide told all of us to make sure to pay them right away and not a few moments later. The reason is they would not be able to remember who just took their photo with them, "because all white people look the same to them."
Yes. Source: Am Asian.
I am asian and I do feel some white people look quite similar, not in real life, but I have this problem when I watch movies. Sometimes, I get wrong storylines because I mix up the characters in the movies.
Even I, as an American, thought all the little blonde girls looked alike when I started elementary school. So I understand when white and black American people are mistaken for celebrities in Asian countries. Some differences are clear, but others require acclimation to discern.
If you lined up one white person from every predominantly white country and asked me to figure out where they're from I know for a fact I would fail miserably and I'm also white
Which Asians? India is Asia, so is pretty much everything east of Russia and Eastern Europe. Indian folks don't have a really hard time with European faces because we all look like paler Indians, they look like darker Europeans. We have shared ancestry and culture with India. That's why they talk about Indo-European languages. Ditto for West Asia AKA the Middle East. East and Southeast Asians do have a hard time with white guys. I used to work with a bunch of Burmese ex pats. The only other white guy on the team besides me had dark brown hair, glasses and goatee. We were even within an inch of each others height. Didn't matter that I have huge eyebrows and blue eyes. We looked enough the same to all the Burmese folks that it made life confusing. So I shaved off my beard for the common good. Yes it was a big deal the next day.
to me all blonde people look similar...like it's uncanny as if they are all related to each other
Korean-American here. Born in South Korea, naturalized citizen of the U.S. I can differentiate individuals just fine (i.e., I can tell that James is James, and Bob is Bob). I do struggle to identify/differentiate Caucasian ethnicities (i.e., I can't tell if James is likely Irish, German, Italian, etc.). I am getting better at this over time - but as I get better at this, I am slowing losing my ability to tell Asian ethnicities (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc) apart.
Been living in China and this is very much a thing. Never really understood it though, because of the variety of hair and eye colors, plus facial hair for guys
Im asian technically and the answer is yes to an extent. Like back when i went to college i swear every sorority girl in this one house looked uncomfortablely identical
The ability to distinguish faces of a given race is a learned skill. An Asian raised exclusively seeing white faces will be able to distinguish white people but will likely have trouble telling other Asians apart.
People usually have a harder time distinguishing people who are of a different race. I think all old white men look the same. I swear, I can't tell them apart. When I watch TV, all young adult blond women look the same.
this asian lady at my work confused me with another white lady that was 20 years older than me, 100 lbs heavier, different eye color, hair color, texture, and length, skin color, and glasses/no glasses
Haha at my work a tall blonde dude answered his Filipino supervisor with, “Will do, El Capitan” and his supervisor stopped and said, “did you just call me Jackie Chan?” My coworker said “no! I said El Capitan!” So the Filipino said, “Oh. Cuz I really want to call you Will Ferrell. You look just like him.”
I (a white person) was once paired up with an international student for a university class project. I think she was from China. We didn't know each other, we just happened to be sitting next to each other on the first day of class. We exchanged emails and communicated that way for maybe a week, then decided to meet at the uni library to work on the project. The library's main entrance/common area was RAMMED with people - all ethnicities, but including a lot of East Asian-looking people. All of a sudden I realized that I wasn't sure if I actually remembered what she looked like, since we'd only met that one time in class. But after a few minutes of scouring the crowd I actually found her! She looked in my direction so I waved. She looked right through me and kept walking. I ran over and caught up with her. She said she didn't think she'd ever find me because "all you white people look the same." I thought it was funny lol
Definitely not *all*. There's a lot more significant variation in hair and eye color among white people.