I have a reputation here. I'm not sure exactly what it is. It has to do with being liberal enough to think that men and women are equal. Uh-huh. With it comes a certain amount of freedom and a certain amount of respect. I mean that the men respect (= fear) me enough to not make chauvinist comments while I'm around. Frustratingly enough, I enjoy the comments because I can use those as an opportunity. I get a certain amount of freedom as well. Freedom from stilettos, make-up, and coordinating my wardrobe.
I have this reputation thanks (rather sincerely, to an extent), to my flat mates. They have been the ones telling students that "she actively shuns the role of a woman," (which isn't fair; I talked with him about that). There have been a few "it's a good thing you didn't say that in front of Kristen"s. Yes, really. I'm not quite sure why this is, because to my face, they embrace feminism. Oh, well.
Along the bigoted lines, "I just can't tell the difference between you. You all look the same!" Said with a laugh. Rather than create a lengthy and personal response to it, I just want to bring attention to it. I had not heard that for many years, as I try to avoid it, and it left me pensive for the day. The woman that said it was not calloused to me, rather, she was quite kind and generous. Do not write her off as heartless.
I think it is interesting about 'looking alike'. Rae encountered a similar situation in one of her class rooms last year when one student confused two boys, one of whom was African American and another who was East Indian. I think it has to do with almost a genetic predisposition. Not that we are genetically predisposed to see differences in only our own race, and not others, but that we are predisposed to distinguish between individuals in our inner group more so than in the larger group or outer circle. To this, I site how much alike so many people think Rae and Mara look. Yes, I can see a family resemblence, but no way do they look like twins (which they have been taken for) to me. The more familiar one is, the more one will see differences instead of similarities.
Yay for Feminisism! No to Stilettos! Now, if I understand correctly, all you flat mates are from Miami, no?
I would say it is learned rather than genetic, or created from experiences, or lack thereof.
Yes. All Miami. Yes, Rae, I agree. I hope/believe that we are all sufficiently capable in this realm.
Human beings learn to distinguish themselves from others. When individuals are racially isolated, in that they tend to spend most of their time around only members of one race, the ability to look for differences is limited to differences among similar individuals. People who are white will see different differences in the face of a person who is white than will people who are black. What happens is not a generalization issue but, rather, the development of an untrained eye. The observer is unable to determine significant differences and, thereby, uniqueness because the variant features among the races are, well, variant themselves.
Furthermore, an Indian woman joking with a white woman about how "white people look all alike" is a play on traditional (and somewhat expected) racism of condescension. No one, probably, ever really thought to ask or cared whether or not a person who was white looked similar to the rest of the white population to an Indian or an African. Furthermore, it may not be unwise to be familiar with a common expatriot joke that all white people look alike. It is, theoretically, a joke to relax people and to help them understand that the group has no intention of making racial distinctions.
I don't think she was joking. It was not that kind of laugh. And not at the right time. I would also be more inclined to call it a joke if I knew that she saw more white people and had, as you've said, a trained eye, but she just does not see (m)any whites. (Most people here don't). Thanks for the psych rundown; I should have posted it before but I've just not cared enough to do so.