I'm sure we're all aware of the old racist adage that "they all look the same". Predominantly said by white people about other groups. If there's something we can agree on it's that everyone in the world does this (though they don't necessarily use it to negate people), it simply is difficult to distinguish simply because there are lots of different types of people. The other thing we can agree on is that white people are very vocal about this (and in a hurtful way). Does that not make sense? Since Asian people are generally the ones at the root of them (as per white people), we'll use them as the example. Asian people can distinguish between themselves for the most part. I'm not 100% on each collective group unanimously knowing the difference between all of the Asian groups, so we'll only go with what I know; that most of the groups, collectively, know most of the differences. They can look at someone and for one, know they are not of their group. So, a person from Vietnam will know other Vietnamese people from how they look, and will know that other people hailing from parts of Asia are most certainly not Vietnamese. They'll also know the people they encounter the most. These people are Cambodian and these people are Thai. Are they as good with the differences between north Asia as they are the southern region? That, I don't know. On the flip side, a person from Japan can spot other Japanese people and know who is not. They can look and know the difference between Chinese and Korean. Do they know the differences of the southern Asian people as well? Not sure. Most white people can only see A-S-I-A-N and they're all the same. Which is why there are a lot of incidents of Asian Americans marking the difference. "I'm not _________, I'm __________" when conversing with the white person who has mistaken them for someone else. White people will also lump groups together. To most white people there is only Black, Asian, Arabic, Jewish, and Brown. They neither know, nor seem to care, that black people are all different. Besides the fact that they know they all initially came from Africa, they're are under the impression that everyone in Africa is the same; which, of course, isn't true. It wasn't then and it isn't now. They don't realize they they can also be mixed with any race, either simply living in a place for so long or by actually having ancestry that is not African. They don't realize that they can have any religion, including Islam. Or just for the US that they have different ideas and speech patterns depending on where their parents or grandparents moved to. (It doesn't count if someone move from the south to a different part five years ago). Asian people, to the white person, all look exactly the same, speak the same languages, eat the same food, and have the same customs. They all know Kung-fu, eat eggrolls and live in the Forbidden City. You see where I'm going with this. For the white termed, "Arabic" it's anyone that lives "over there" in the desert, has different eyes and olive skin. It's a particular region that includes North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, all the way up to the southern border with Russia. While there are similarities in looks and the fact that people from these regions eat some of the same foods or weave carpets or use camels for transport, they are three different regions. There's North Africa, The Middle East, and The Caucasus region. White people will all say, "It's The Middle East" & that they're all "Arabs" but none of that is really true at the heart of the matter. The Caucasus region (you'll know it for Afghanistan) is a completely different region. It includes Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as all the Stans (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, & Pakistan - though this last one is also partly part of India). A lot of their history is wrapped up in a type of Orthodoxy Christian religion (think Greek or Russian Orthodox, which is not the same as Catholicism), as well as invasions and new customs from northern Asia (like Mongolia) as well as from Russia. A lot of these people still speak Russian because of their "ownership" prior to and during The Cold War. Though Iran is close (bordering some of these countries), Iran is not the same. Most of the countries that white people like to classify as The Middle East, do have Islam as a religion and they do speak Arabic. But not all of them. They either still use their native language and Arabic is a secondary or third language, or their native languages are still being used. Armenia is one example as they speak Armenian. They also still hold to their Orthodoxy-esque religion and are not Muslim. Iran, there there is Islam, they speak what they've always spoken, which is Farsi. Jewish people are either someone nefarious because they "jew'd" you out of something; somehow they are swindlers and crooks because they have a business of some kind. Or they killed your lord and savior. Or they're superstars, whom you can "forgive of their jewishness" like Steven Spielburg or one's you like to name drop, "So and so is Jewish!" as in "isn't that cool?". Most white people never want to recall that THE holocaust (or any preceding holocaust) that happened concerning the Jewish people. As for Brown people that's pretty much everyone else that doesn't fit in the known realms of the "white world". Indigenous Americans being lumped in with people from India or people from Asia or even people from Latin America and South America. Really depending on the white person's exposure. If they've seen a lot of Asian people, they'll ask or assume they are Asian. If it's a lot of Latino's, then they'll ask or assume they are Mexican, because to most white people, they're all just Mexican. A lot of times white people don't know how to categorize Indians at all (people from India). Some of them get lumped in with black people or Middle Eastern people or Asians. Technically they are Asian, because they are on the continent of Asia. But that also includes people in the Caucasus region like Turkey, but Asian Americans, at least, see these people as anything other than Asian (white), so wouldn't count them. Or Indians are simply counted by themselves, as Indians, because they are on the Indian sub-continent. The difference, between white people's intentions and predominantly other people's intentions is based on superiority. There are white people, who don't think they're coming from a place of superiority, but it's been brainwashed into them, even in little ways, and they're just going through the motions. It's anything from people "discovering" Africa and thinking black Africans couldn't possibly have made the civilizations that they made, to Jews killing Jesus, to Middle Eastern people impeding Christian religion during The Crusades. Or even since we just "celebrated" Columbus Day here in the states, how about him. A white man who "discovered" America. We're taught to practically praise and worship him. Yet, he didn't know he wasn't in a country he'd previously visited (that was India, by the way), which tells me he was kind of dumb. Then he murdered, raped, and stole people from there because he didn't see them as people. If any of this gets mentioned at all, it's swept under the rug, brushed aside; or changed into a less horrible version of kidnap (it's still reading as kidnap, but a little more free-er like it was in the native people's best interest). If you just swallow that and don't question how it seems wrong, it, along with other things like this, help formulate your views later. Other people around the world, generally speaking, it's more cut and dry. There's no "lesser than" to the definition of us or them. They simply ascertain or notice if the person in question is them or not, so they're ready if it's friend or foe; which is at the heart of things what homosapiens (and probably their precursors) always did. It's just a natural instinct for survival, even if they realize it or not. Do they act on it and suddenly make war with people who could be possible enemies or throw a party for all possible friends? No. They go on about their lives for the most part. That is the difference. All people know who their own kind are and notice if someone isn't them, but it depends on if it's a survival instinct or for dominance. So what does this have to do with Thor, one might ask (if you even got this far). It's because, like all humans, I fall into the category of "They all look the same to me". I know there are people out there like me, but I haven't met them. But as a white person I don't really fall in with white people. I like to learn and strive for more knowledge. Ever since I can remember I saw that people looked different and thought it was awesome (because who wants all of the exact same people around? I don't!) & I wanted to know all about them. All of them. Not once did I initially think that these people who weren't white were lesser than me or that I should somehow be a superior to them. The brainwashing also mostly didn't work. I say that because some things did wheedle their way in. My views and thoughts never changed, I just happened to interpret some things being said in a completely different way and they didn't sound bad. Turns out they were bad and I just didn't understand what was being said. Which is different than learning what it means and learning to utilize it that way. While I'm better at languages than faces (because I can tell you what the language is; whether written or spoken - "That's Korean, that's Greek, that's Cyrillic, that's Armenian, that's Farsi, that's Arabic, that's Thai" etc.), I'm not good with distinguishing the people within their groups (Chinese or Japanese within the Asian group). I can tell you all day long how the Asian groups are different on their beliefs and where they live and wars they've fought in history or that of "Middle Eastern" people. I can tell you that Indigenous People and African People are not the same people and also have their own beliefs and cultures and friendships and rivalries between tribes. And while I can see facial feature differences (differences in skull shapes, eyes, noses, mouths, overall facial shapes) as well as overall bodily shapes and differences. I can't tell you for certain who a person is. Which brings me to the point here. I also can't tell white people apart. You'll hear all day long from white people how they can't tell other white people apart, but it's not really true. There may be some trouble, but their quicker on the uptake than if they're trying to differentiate people in other groups. Obviously I am better if it's a celebrity and I've seen them a lot. So, I do know the difference between Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat. Between Michelle Obama and Phylicia Rashad. Between Graham Greene and Adam Beach. Or the difference between Prince William and Prince Harry. But sometimes I'm still rubbish at it. Which leads me to the Worst Wax Figures at Madam Tussaud up-vote thing on Ranker.com. Obviously this is not scientific, but for a lot of the people it had me saying, "But isn't this exactly what they look like?!" Perhaps these wax figures were created from memory, in much the same way my memory is recreating the image. Take Thor for example. It appears that even Chris Hemsworth doesn't think it's a good replica (for all I know, he just doesn't like the fact that he's in wax or they used a character and not himself or somebody said something & this is the shot they captured - but you assume that Hemsworth is making the face because his wax figure looks nothing like him). But isn't that exactly what he looked like in the first Thor film? Or is this only the way my memory recalls him looking? Obvious there are some people recreated in wax that are laughable nightmare fuel because while they're good because you can spot who they're supposed to be, they are, in fact, a horrible rendition. Case in point Prince William. You know, or guess, that that's who you're looking at, and why he hadn't aged well, he doesn't look this bad. Along with Prince William, here are the one's that resemble their person, but are terrible renditions: -Mel Gibson (looks to me like they tried tweaking a cast of Ronald Reagan). -Leonardo DiCaprio -Will Smith -Celine Dion (looks accurate, but like her face got heated up and someone smooshed in the side of her mouth over there) -Michelle Obama -Angelina Jolie -Matthew McConaughey -Jodie Foster -Betty White Everyone else though... isn't this EXACTLY what these people look like?! I'm honestly hard-pressed to find anything that amiss with the wax rendition. Some of them are so good that I though I was looking a photograph of the real person at first. -Julia Roberts (like someone just got too close with the camera) -Beyoncé (like the photo was taken outside on the red carpet) -Whitney Houston (like the photo was taken while she's walking on stage at an awards show) -Jack Nicholson (like the photo was taken while he's sitting at an awards show) -Denzel Washington (like the photo was taken, with flash, while he's walking out of an awards show) -Rihanna (like the photo was taken during a concert) You might think I'm kidding, but I'm not. This was my first impression of these six wax figures, that they were photos of the real people. After I looked at them harder, they seem like wax figures, but still excellently rendered wax figures (as in, isn't this exactly what these people look like in real life?!) except for two. It still looks to me like Rihanna and Jack Nicholson could be photo's of real people. Which still begs the question... "Isn't this exactly what these people look like in real life?!?" So, here's another good example. I just finished watching American Horror Story: Apocalypse two nights ago. Now, I'm sure people who watch all the AHS's can easily spot certain people being different characters because they're in every single show (or just about). So, I had no problem with all of Sarah Paulson or Peter Evan's characters because they're in every one and so you know what they look like. I had to sit and think on their names because I couldn't remember them except as AHS lady and Quicksilver. So there ya go. And obviously I could pick Kathy Bates out because I love her and enjoy seeing her in things. However, as a white person knowing white people that doesn't help. So now we come to Adina Porter. I had to look her name up, because she's either "Drunk lady in True Blood", "Indra" "The Lady from Roanoke" or "Marzipan". Marzipan, because she seems tiny and in The 100 she's totally badass and if our tiny, badass cat Marzipan was going to be a character, she's be Indra. I can always spot her immediately. I haven't watched all of the AHS's (Freak Show & Cult I've not watched - got two epi's in to each and stopped). I also didn't watch past season 1 of True Blood. I'm into The 100 and Indra's my favourite character. However, initially, I could not differentiate between the characters of Mallory and Zoe. At all. Half way through and I finally could tell them apart. That's actresses Billie Lourd & Taissa Farmiga. And it took me until the very last epi of Apocalypse to realize that younger and older Michael were the same guy; Cody Fern. I'm serious, I thought it was two different actors. By the end I was pretty sure it was the same guy and had to look it up to confirm. I had to look the other two up to make sure I was finally correct in my assumption that Mallory (Lourd) & Zoe (Farmiga) were different people. This could be a post on the broader aspect of memory and perception & numbers concerning populations corroborating or disproving this hypothesis, but I don't have those answers, I only have what I know of myself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
Categories |