how is this racist?

[fred41]

They look different (especially side by side)..but there's enough of a resemblance where a cursory glance could make you confuse the two...especially when you are dealing with photos. It happens in real life too...I get confused with people all the time and...again...sometimes the resemblance is close, sometimes it isn't...sometimes it's within a specific context..
Doesn't make it racist though...need more information than that about a person for them to be labeled that.

[broncofan]

Here they are side by side. Look pretty different to me.

But you don't see people side by side. If you see people you confuse side by side you can distinguish them easily. When I was a kid I thought Matt Damon reminded me of Mark Wahlberg. The truth is they're just two somewhat shorter guys from Boston with brown hair. It has more to do with the foibles of memory than eyesight.

[nysprod]

Here they are side by side. Look pretty different to me.

There's a strong similarity, they could be sisters imo

[fred41]

But you don't see people side by side. If you see people you confuse side by side you can distinguish them easily. When I was a kid I thought Matt Damon reminded me of Mark Wahlberg. The truth is they're just two somewhat shorter guys from Boston with brown hair. It has more to do with the foibles of memory than eyesight.

yup...as a matter of fact..google : celebrities mistaken for other celebrities..in the google image section...some look similar, some don't...we all make those mistakes.

[trish]

As Martin's early post points out, confusing people of another race is a cognitive phenomena, not racism. Hey, I can't tell De Niro from Keitel

What I think is going on here is precisely that we don't see these girls side by side. In the original post we have to scroll down and in the process some folks are unable to retain a faithful enough copy of the first image in their minds. By the time they get there its features blur into the (what they regard as) similar second image. (Besides, while scrolling they're distracted by ... all those pretty distractions) I think their minds simply haven't logged the necessary facial markers that make the first face unique. The question is "Why?" I think, like Martin, the answer may be racial but not racism.

[Dino Velvet]

I always like this one.

[trish]

Second Dude is W. Who's the first?

[broncofan]

Second Dude is W. Who's the first?

I think Ted Bundy

[trish]

Which one got the most people killed?

[broncofan]

As Martin's early post points out, confusing people of another race is a cognitive phenomena, not racism. I think their minds simply haven't logged the necessary facial markers that make the first face unique.

If you can't log people's features as easily, I wonder if people also don't register the facial cues for emotions such as sadness, anger, or joy as well in people of different races.

I also wonder if the ability to register faces of the same race is an extension of narcissism. We have a keen sense of how we look and maybe we recognize other people by extrapolating from that. Just random thoughts.