15
Your Racist Grandma Explained
"Some may say it as a joke, others might find it offensive, but it turns out there’s some truth to the idea that people of other races 'all look alike.' A new study demonstrates that people have more trouble recognizing faces of people of other races."
Also when you have a cat you start to be able to differentiate between cat faces!
But is there any truth to the idea that all the goddamn Mexicans are trying to cheat and steal from you? Because my grandma's issue has never really been that she couldn't tell them apart.
Incidentally, the article actually describes a study demonstrating, essentially, a difficulty in recognizing that you've already met someone if they're of a different race.
Thus finally proving that something can be both racist and true.
*Sigh* Interacting on the web makes it worse. Balk, try as I may, I always get you and "Kware" confused. You're gay and bearded and he's the drunk who likes Leonard Cohen, right?
I can't tell babies apart. Am I a baby-racist?
Yes. You're a bassist.
I have a tough time distinguishing between salad and desert forks.
Salad forks tend to be shorter and sometimes have rounded outer tines. Desert forks are the ones that all look alike, in their goddam turbans tryina get on my planes and shit.
And blowing up your figure with weapons of mass deliciousness.
The salad has leaves and a yummy dressing. The fork has tines that can poke you.
Defense attorneys have been trying to get this theory admitted as evidence for a while with some success in order to undermine so-called cross-racial identifications (i.e. white people picking dark people out of lineups). I have to admit that the notion was offensive to my aspirations for a colorblind society until I had to use it on behalf of a client. The evidence supporting the inability to identify faces of different races was well-supported at that point, well before this study. Too bad for the client that it didn't work, but he was probably guilty… and that assessment is based on the evidence, not color!
I have a friend with prosopagnosia, or face-blindness – she can't recognize faces! And because she lives in one of those cities full of universities, a doctor is running tests on her, and has discovered that my friend, a white girl who grew up in a predominantly white town, can distinguish between Asian male faces far better than any others.
In conclusion, brains are weird.
I'm kinda shocked this was even debatable/-ed…it's similar to one's inability to separate out words when listening to a language one doesn't speak.
Also, prosopagnosia is nuts! Does your friend have any other related difficulties (reading, &c.) or is it just faces?