"They all look the same to me." Here' what I think is wrong with that statement:

[daedalus_dude]

First of all, it is a scientific fact that people often have trouble distinguishing individuals from a foreign area from another. It has to do with the social conditioning. The senses only become fine tuned to the specific differences when one has regular contact. It is more or less the same in each direction. Asian people sometimes have difficulties telling Europeans apart.

I live in an area where there are very few africans (not USA), and the other day I saw an african get into an argument on a train. Later that day I was approached by another african in a store asking me whether he was in the right line. For a split second I wondered
if it was the same guy. On the other hand, I have alot of contact with asians (I am causasian) and I could probably tell if someone is
from China, Thailand, Corea or Japan just by looking at their face.

Still, the statement "they all look the same to me." can be viewed as offensive. This is especially true, when there actually are alot of individuals from the other race present.

It depends on the context, but the reason is that it often can mean something like "I don't care to deal with these people"
or "they don't belong here".

If you are living in an area that is heavily populated with people from another race, and you cannot tell them apart, then that might indicate that you are either actively or passively isolating yourself from them.

As a side remark, I was astonished the other day when a lady from china described her countryfolks to me as yellow.
Different people have different ideas of what political correctness means. I think it all boils down to the question
of whether you can feel comfortable around people that are very different from you.

[Captain Hilts]

1. People think all redheads look alike too. nt

[Odin2005]

2. I thought it was a freak artifact of the diversity of hair and eye color in Europe?

That is something that I've always found strange. In most parts of the word people have dark hair and brown eyes, so why did such diversity in eye and hair color appear in Western Eurasia?

[daedalus_dude]

6. maybe due to the intermixture of north europeans and south europeans?

really, i have no clue :shrug:

[nc4bo]

3. Sometimes it's just plain ignorance. Sometimes it can't be helped

as in the case of an isolated, closed society. In other cases, it's a way to avoid relating or making a connection to the humanity of people different than ourselves.

If people only took the time to actually *see* they would be surprised at how easy it is to see the uniqueness of every individual and appreciate those differences.

It comes naturally to most artists.

Just my opinion, I mean no harm.

[MineralMan]

4. People think that because they don't really

look at people of other races. They also don't get close enough to them to actually see the details of their appearance. Further, they don't think about them much at all.

People only recognize those they consider to be friends. Beyond that, people are a blur to most people.

Very sad.

[undeterred]

5. I knew a woman who grew up in South Vietnam during

the US occupation. As a child she thought all the US soldiers looked the same. I pointed out that Americans have lots of different hair colors and races... but she said they all looked the same to her. The people of her own race had much more variety in her eyes.

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Welcome to DU!

I wonder if artists ever have this problem?

[pipi_k]

8. And sometimes it doesn't mean anything at all

Like you have already pointed out.

My trouble is when people automatically assume it means something different from what the speaker intended and they go off on a rant accusing the person who said it of being a "racist".

People are way too quick to go hurling names around at people when they don't even know what they're talking about.

I often wonder why, and what their own issues might be....

:shrug:

[hfojvt]

9. I am gonna take some comfort in the idea

somebody out there thinks I look just like Matt Damon and George Clooney and Johnny Depp.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

10. To a lot - a whole lot - of people,

"different" means "strange."

And "strange" means "scary."

That's why places like Holiday Inns prevail - because people like what they're familiar with, and they want it to be the same all the time.

Drop a shitload of Koreans in every McDonald's in the USA, as managers and workers, and watch what happens......................................