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General discussion

Anybody see this on CNN?

Feb 26, 2004 11:25PM PST

Discussion is locked

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Bo, I don't get CNN, but I did hear about it on the local ABC radio station this morning.
Feb 26, 2004 11:35PM PST

(For those who think it's Clear Channel) 'Don and Roma' were discussing the appalling remarks, and how none of the Chicago Papers were reporting it. That pretty much says it all doesn't it?

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nt and i thought we just couldn't jump ;-)
Feb 26, 2004 11:57PM PST

.

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Facial recognition among various ethnic groups.
Feb 27, 2004 3:36PM PST

I wonder if there is any truth to those type statements. I've heard Asians referred to as "the inscrutable Oriental" and that was based on those who felt unable to see or read emotions or expressions from their face. Whites have often said the same about blacks, probably more in the north than the south were there was a larger association between the races. From the time we are born we start to become imprinted by those around us and for those raised with little contact with those of other ethnic backgrounds there is a good possibility that they have a reduced ability to discern between individuals of the other ethnic group, especially where difference of facial characteristics are more pronounced.

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I don't buy it....
Feb 27, 2004 4:24PM PST

I don't buy it, it was a bigoted statement. She'll get by with it. If she were a Repuclican, the howling for her political neck would be deafening. Let's admit it, Dave K. would have been all over her like the proverbial duck after the junebug. The minimal press coverage is curious.

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It may be that she is 'sensitivity impaired', but ...
Feb 27, 2004 10:46PM PST

The statement may also be correct.

Personally I really struggle with recognizing facial features for most people, regardless of race, but I find the struggle is worse in dealing with people from races and cultures other than my own (WASP, though the P isn't relevant here).

I'm convinced that there are 2 separate issues here: (1) Some of us are better than others at visual pattern recognition in general and facial recognition in particular; and (2) The range and types of facial features the we easily recognize depend on what we are used to seeing.

Although I grew up a 'military brat' and was exposed to a variety of people during my childhood, throughout most of my young life I had relatively little contact with none-WASPs. It was easy to identify the small number of non-caucasians by noting the very obvious differences from my WASP friends without really having to pay much attention to the more subtle details that I would have been forced to notic if I knew more black or asian or whatever people.

I suppose this is an example of a sort of 'intellectual laziness', but in any case it represents an ingrained pattern that I've had to struggle against for most of my adult life.

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I do agree on one thing, though ...
Feb 27, 2004 10:47PM PST

If a Republican had said the same thing he/she would have been tarred and feathered without any hesitation.

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I just wonder whether ...
Feb 27, 2004 9:39PM PST

I am the only person in the world who only recognises my next door neighbour when they are coming out of their house (Excuse the grammar). The neighbour usually has to tap me on the shoulder to say Hi when I pass them on the road and that is irrespective as to whether they are of my origin or another ethnic origin. I just don't have the ability to remember faces of any sort.

Therefore I just wonder whether ethnic origin has anything to do with it at all - maybe some people like me simply just cannot remember facial features.

BTW Nobody every accused me of being smart, but I can remember passages from law books et al almost photographically, but faces - well, count me out...

Regards
Mo

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You're not the only one ...
Feb 27, 2004 10:38PM PST

I really struggle with recognizing faces, especially in groups. I'm beginning to think that it is a sort of 'learning disorder'.

My most embarrassing recent gaffe came when I saw a new patient in the office and introduced myself as if we'd never met. It was somebody I know from church, but in the different social context it did not register that we had met before. My worst gaffe, however, came in high school when I failed to recognize my girlfriend whom I was supposed to meet at the library for a 'study date'. I walked into the library, did not see her, and sat down a couple of tables away from where she was very conspicuously waiting for me. She was NOT impressed.

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In unexpected places,
Mar 2, 2004 1:51AM PST

I've done the same thing you were discussing about seeing people in different context, more than once.

There was one lady I had know for a while as a teller at the bank where I made my mortgage payments. There was another that I saw and kidded around with regularly at a night club. With the different dress and manner, I actually went for a while, not just once, not recognizing the same individual. I didn't catch on until one night at the club she referred to something I had said at the bank that day.

Seeing regular delivery people out of uniform is another common 'know them but can't place them' for me. Or seeing people from work in a very different environment, as you referred to your situation.

But not recognizing your girlfriend where you were suppose to meet? Now that's living dangerously! Wink

RogerNC

click here to email semods4@yahoo.com

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Facial recognition is a problem ...
Feb 27, 2004 10:00PM PST

... when one does not know the people or are viewing a group from afar. There might be something to it in some cases, but often there's nothing sinister about it.

I have this problem all the time at the beginning of the semester and it has NOTHING to do with race/ethnicity. AAMOF, this semester I happen to have 5 women who are strawberry blonde, blue eyed, of similar stature with similar hairstyles. It is only because I interact more closely with them in the lab that I have developed an individual recognition of each, but it has taken a couple of weeks. FWIW, the blacks in my class this semester were much easier to tell apart and put a face to the name. As too were the men since I have only two Wink

This issue is just another one that a real observation has turned into a monster of political correctness. Certain races or ethnicities have less diversity in characteristics compared to "white people" only because so many are called white by default. It's just as hard to tell a bunch of Irish or Swedish apart as it is a bunch of Chinese or blacks.

HOWEVER, if a white person made the comment to Noriega that "you all look alike to me", or worse yet had that white been a Republican member of Congress, the press would not relent until that person had resigned from office or been pummelled into obscurity. But since this was a black Democrat, there is no hue and cry. To make it worse, she made these comments in the context of attacking the Bush Administration for being racists! It is a disgusting display of a double standard. Sad

Evie Happy