Dec. 27, 2025
Is This Racist?: T. J. Mistaken for Obama
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RSS Feed There's a scientific reason you might be wired to think, "they all look alike to me." That concept was at the heart of a bizarre, extended interaction Amy and T. J. had with a woman who approached them at the airport yesterday. The stranger claimed she and her husband thought T. J. was former President Barack Obama. Then, things got uncomfortable.
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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hither, folks, it is Saturday, December twenty seventh. And no, ma'am, I am not Barack Obama. And no ma'am, I don't often get mistaken for Barack Obama. It's just you who can't tell one light skin brother from another. And with that, welcome to this, y'all all look alike episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Not the episode we planned on doing necessarily. But is this a fun funny topic? Y'all all look alike?
00:00:42
Speaker 2: We've all familiar.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and look I think it's only it's funny in that it's alarming and all you can do is laugh at a certain point, because what are you gonna do about it? I mean, your other choice is to be angry and offended, which is well within your right, but you chose to laugh.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are going to get into that. What you just said, what do you do about it? There is something that can be done about it. So folks, ask yourself, have you ever found yourself in that position to where you mixed up a couple of folks from a minority group, a couple of Asian women, You can't tell the difference a couple of black guys.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: You don't know. They all look alike. Have you done that?
00:01:21
Speaker 1: Now? I'll ask you first before we get into this incident that prompted this episode. Do you think you have ever done that before? Maybe not even said it to somebody's face, but even maybe internally or you mixed up.
00:01:32
Speaker 4: I'm sure I have, yes, I mean I don't.
00:01:34
Speaker 3: I can't think of a specific example, but I would never say, oh no, I've never done that.
00:01:40
Speaker 4: I'm sure I have.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: And a lot of people have.
00:01:42
Speaker 1: And some people will immediately point to racism, and this is what came out of and that word came out immediately after an incident we had at the airport.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: We'll explain, folks.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: We are on a trip, me, Robes and the girls at least Ava and Sabine.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: So we were in.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: Just yesterday airport lounge. I don't even know if we just say the lounge or not what airport. I don't know if it matters, but the point is we're sitting in the lounge all kind of lined up on this cushion, bitch, just enjoying ourselves, eating our food, drinking Ama Moosa's, and a woman as we were talking, Robes interrupts us. As we were talking.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: You take it from it.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it began rudely because you were actually winding up to tell me something. I was really I couldn't wait to hear You're like, Okay, I had this idea and don't you know, don't know judge right away, but I think it could be fun. So I was like all into it, leaning in, and this woman just started saying, you know, we thought you were Barack Obama, and you just turned your head and looked at her, and to the point where she recognized how rude it was that she cut us off. She didn't say excuse me, or she didn't wait for us to finish talking. She just blurted out she couldn't wait to tell you that. Her husband, she went on to say, was convinced you were Barack Obama.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: To the point that this woman got up and walked over to us. I couldn't see where her husband was.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he was off to the line, but yeah, she and she just couldn't wait to tell you that.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: She told him, no, I don't think that.
00:03:06
Speaker 3: Is Barack Obama, because look, he's thin, he's thinner and lighter than Barack Obama. So she also kind of wanted to kind of prove that she knew that you were a little bit more light skinned and a little bit thinner, and that's why you couldn't be Barack Obama.
00:03:21
Speaker 4: And you just had a smile on your face. You said, no, ma'am.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: She's like, you must get that all the time, and you said and you just looked at her. She's like, you get that all the time, right, And you said, actually, I don't, ma'am.
00:03:29
Speaker 4: And she then got upset, and she got upset that you.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Wouldn't acknowledge or validate the fact that she's was convinced that you might have been and could have been and certainly must be mistaken for Barack Obama.
00:03:43
Speaker 4: All the time she was.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: Got flustered by the idea that we wouldn't go along with her foolishness, which it was foolishness. And I will, oh, I never my tone never changed. I actually got happier talking to her because I was toying with her, and I continue to toy with her. For the part of the reason is that, really, you think Barack Obama is just hanging out here by himself, lounging this in the United Lounge. Okay, First, he's not. Second, I am sitting next to my hand on the thigh of a white woman, and you really think me and Barack, Yes, you.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: Mixed us up.
00:04:17
Speaker 3: Yes, he's stepping out on the shell with a white woman and a whole white family by the way, and.
00:04:23
Speaker 4: Two white daughters. He's just you know, he's adopted them.
00:04:26
Speaker 3: Yes, you haven't heard a lot, but that's all been going on behind the scenes.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: So this ridiculous conversation is going on. And it went on longer than it should have because I was giving her help.
00:04:35
Speaker 4: Correct you.
00:04:35
Speaker 3: You kept toying with her, and she kept getting frustrated. She's like, are you messing with me? Are you messing with me?
00:04:40
Speaker 4: Come on?
00:04:41
Speaker 3: You know people do tell you that, right, and you just kept going. That's when you started saying, well, no, not really, I'm here with three white women, so no, it doesn't happen. She actually looked at me at one point.
00:04:52
Speaker 4: I'm just witnessing it all. She said you should break up with him.
00:04:56
Speaker 3: She was so annoyed that you wouldn't play along with her or validate her way of thinking that she actually looked at me and said, you should break up with him.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: So still I'm laughing, and I'm happy and we still having a good time.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: I never got upset.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: The woman finally walks away in this incident, again longer than it should have gone, walks away, and at least some members of our party immediately looked, and the word racism came up, saying, isn't that a little.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: Racist what she just did.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily think much of it at the time, but it brings up robes, of course, something we all we all are aware of this idea that they all look alike.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yep, they all look alike. Who are they?
00:05:43
Speaker 1: Oftentimes as black folks, they all look alike. So is there anything to that. Scientists will actually tell you.
00:05:51
Speaker 4: Yes, and that's fascinating, And.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: It's not racism. Now, racism can get involved in this, but it's not racism. So this is something that actually call I've heard of a couple of these. What it's one called the other race effect, the cross race effect.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: Or own race bias is how they refer to them. And what we're talking. Doesn't this make sense?
00:06:12
Speaker 1: Though it's harder for people of one race to identify people of other races, it's.
00:06:18
Speaker 4: In your brain. Your brain's wired that way.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: That does make sense.
00:06:21
Speaker 1: We are born and the first people we see or go to school with or in our homes look like us, so we know and we get comfortable early on with those features. The problem is that some people from some cultures don't have as much meaningful interaction with people of other races, like their identities early on, so you miss out on kind of registering what people look like.
00:06:47
Speaker 2: It kind of makes sense.
00:06:48
Speaker 3: That does if you think about all the things that are formed in your brain, but before you turn five, A lot of it is language, so it would make sense that sight would be a part of it as well, and your ability to distinguish. Think about it, if you don't learn certain languages or certain word patternspy.
00:07:03
Speaker 4: I believe it's like ten or eleven.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: You can't say you're ours if you're Asian the way we do here in America.
00:07:10
Speaker 4: Can't.
00:07:10
Speaker 3: You literally cannot get your brain to unform whatever connection it's made and make a new connection, like you just lose out or miss out on the ability to make different connections or distinguish. I know it's true for language, so that makes sense. It would be true for sight.
00:07:26
Speaker 1: It is in the brain, but they what happens is early on, see a white kid surrounded by white folks. A black kid surrounded by black folks growing up, But the white kid is going to have a more difficult time. Why because the white kid is in the majority group and he is growing up with less exposure to those minority groups. Me as a black kid, I see white folks all the time. There's my teacher, there's my pastor, there's this historical figure.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: That they're teaching me about.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: We get more access if you will make even looking at movies and whatnot, you we are accustomed to studying and seeing and understanding white features more so than the other way.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
00:08:11
Speaker 3: Yes, that I've never thought about it, but yes, that does make perfect sense.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: And the other thing for white folks that they, again research says here is that you all start to register different features that you all have. Meaning there's a blond haired girl, there is a redhead guy, there is a blue eyed boy, there is a green eye. You all have different types of features. You see us. You see brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair. There aren't the same types, and you all's minds the same types of distinguishing features. For me, I know, the nose can look this way, the lips can be that way, the ass can be that way, the.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: Ears could be.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: I know, all the features of black folks are different. I can identify because I am familiar.
00:08:53
Speaker 2: Does that makes sense?
00:08:54
Speaker 4: Yes, it does.
00:08:55
Speaker 2: So we haven't hit racism yet necessarily, right.
00:08:57
Speaker 4: No, it's exposure.
00:08:59
Speaker 3: And I mean in that sense you could say that racist attitudes create that because if you are isolated, you are segregated by choice because you prefer to be with your own kind. You don't expose yourself, you don't expose your children. So it's a choice in that sense. So that does lead to something that maybe isn't intentional, but it's still a byproduct of Man.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: You are nailing it right now, what the research says, you are going through loves with this research that's going to come out. So there has been and I mean a bunch of study in this and they all come out with the same result, which is that, yes, white people have a more difficult time identifying features of minorities. Now hear this a very important studying done out in California in twenty nineteen.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: White people were.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: Shown this is going to mess you up sebeing white people, I mean sabine ropes. White people are shown photos of various faces of black and white people. Okay, right, so then they altered the photo a little by thirty percent, than by fifty percent, then by seven twenty percent, then by one hundred percent, meaning they show them a totally different person.
00:10:04
Speaker 2: Get this, and this They put them through in an MRI. So they were looking at their brain function.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: So the result, people's brains reacted strongly to even the slightest change in a white face. Brains didn't register reaction even when a different black face was shown. Wow, if you change the eye color on a white person, a white person will go their my mind is firing. You can show them a different black man and they do not have the same brain reaction. Isn't that crazy?
00:10:39
Speaker 4: Wow? I mean actually, so you can't see me, but my jaw is dropped.
00:10:44
Speaker 2: What okay, now hear what?
00:10:45
Speaker 1: The research says that these white folks in the study were essentially treating black faces as almost like they're not faces. His quote, Wow, yikes, it does out.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: That stings.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: Now it's actually going to get worse with this. The bias starts immediately when we.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: See somebody, like as soon.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: As you see anything, your brain starts registering that face. The researchers shows white folks, you see someone they're not like you, They're from another group, and that's where you stop processing and giving a shit about anything else other than black skin. Wow, this is a this is a California researcher. This is not some theory or something somebody wrote in some paper. When you think about it that way, our brain's immediately when you see somebody's face ropes, your brain starts working. But the research shows that white people when they see a face not like theirs, immediately stop working and don't even care to further investigate anything else.
00:11:51
Speaker 3: About that because and is there they did they go into the reason Obviously, I know there's some of the reasons why, because of early perhaps processing, but is it because we've never had to as white people. Because when you're in the majority, it's not important enough, it doesn't change your life enough, it's not necessary.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: You nailed it.
00:12:10
Speaker 1: And the best example is, take for example, your office. Right, everybody remembers this boss, this manager. Because you have to write people you don't even see a lot, you study them because they mean something to you. Who's on the lower end of the totem pole. You don't have to give a damn and about that person. So the hierarchy there is a big part of it. His quote, this researcher white folks, they don't have the motivation to process an individual more deeply when you see somebody that doesn't look like you. This is his research and a lot of things come to these conclusions. I was fascinated by it, killing it. But we go from we don't even.
00:12:49
Speaker 2: Laugh about it.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: Oh, they all look like like this is some deeper and heavier stuff.
00:12:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, then there's science behind it. There's research behind it. And you know what, as you're telling me this, it makes sense. It's hard to it's hard to accept because no one wants to consider themselves racist. No one wants to consider themselves exclusionary or dismissive. That's a terrible thing to imagine yourself as being. But yet you kind of have to hear this, recognize it, and maybe see it in someone else, and then look within and say do I do that?
00:13:19
Speaker 4: And how can I do better?
00:13:21
Speaker 1: And so you once again, because some people will hear this and go, oh, it's not my fault. It's a phenomenon I can't do anything about. Some people will look at it that way. They absolutely will.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: All right, you're right.
00:13:32
Speaker 3: Oh see, it's not I did help it. This is how I was born, this is how I was raised. There's nothing I can do about it, but I would argue, and I don't know what you're about to say or tell us that this is an aha moment that you can that can be actionable.
00:13:47
Speaker 4: You can do something about.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Yes, awareness first, but ask yourself, why is it you look at this person and don't care about knowing anything more than seeing the skin color.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm thinking about it, going wow, I'm now like, as you're telling me this, I'm already imagining how I'm going to now try to process and think about people when I look at them, see them, meet them, and register, don't do that thing that maybe you do that you didn't intend to or you didn't Actually it wasn't something that was conscious. But now that I am conscious, now that I've woken up to this, I can now be better.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: You woke now? Huh?
00:14:26
Speaker 4: Oh God? Why did I use the W word?
00:14:31
Speaker 3: No?
00:14:31
Speaker 1: But this is okay. You used it appropriately. It's been taken from us in a lot of ways. But this is what we're talking about. If you're just aware, a lot of people aren't even aware of this. You're woke by just being aware. You're aware, you've woken up to something going on, and now you can make a difference and improve That's what woke is, by the way, people. So, yes, you used it appropriately, but I knew you would laugh when I said that. Okay, here's the problem you kind of hit on roades. It's two problems. One thing you kind of dismissive of. But what happens in the criminal justice system. Ah, yeah, come in for a lineup. Yep, that's him right there. That kind of a thing, mistaken identity. Wrong guy gets arrested, wrong god goes a trial, wrong guy goes to jail because somebody identified.
00:15:14
Speaker 2: Every day, that happens too often.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: But the other thing is just sucks to be in an office where somebody keeps calling you somebody else. It keeps getting you confused because why you're actually telling me that there's nothing unique or special about me, or nothing about me that makes you even want to take a moment to know who I am.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: That hurts.
00:15:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, that hurts.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: I can only imagine because you yeah, I was just or you can't be of service to me, You're of no use to me, well.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Robes, stay here, not Robes. I know you're staying here. I shouldn't be presumptive us. I hope you stay around Robes, but you all stay here because when we come back, will actually tell you the three individuals that I've actually been mistaken for most in my life, and also will hit you with a couple of high profile incidents that have happened to celebrities.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: Who have gotten mixed up with other celebrities.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: I e. Yeah, we're both black, Yeah we're both rich, but that don't mean we're the same person.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: Stay here, all right? We continue here on this.
00:16:25
Speaker 1: Y'all all looklike episode of Amy and TJ Robes that we've been together. When someone has come up to me and got me mixed up with somebody else, I think, yes, that's the one you get.
00:16:37
Speaker 3: I've heard people come up to you and actually call you don lemon.
00:16:42
Speaker 2: See.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: I can't I can't remember the last time it used to happen a bunch and we were both seeing it. It was we used to work seeing it in Saturday and Sunday. I did mornings, he did evenings. That may be a little.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: But still you don't look anything alike. Wat you have similar coloring.
00:17:00
Speaker 2: That's it, you know.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: The thing I used to say when I was when people used to say that to me, I would wouldn't break stride, as you know. I would say, nah, he's he's gay and I'm married to a woman. I would say that and just keep it pushing and that would be the end of But Dawn, that one made sense. I've only another time gotten Barack Obama. And that was literally when I was walking near the White House. I was in a I remember the blue suit I was in. Walking somebody said, oh gods, it's like, bro, you.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: Look nothing like Barack Obama.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: You know the response I gave, I said, I'm much better dressed.
00:17:33
Speaker 2: Never broke stride.
00:17:34
Speaker 4: Oh that is what you told the woman. Yes, she did not know what to do.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: She was so confused, and she actually was thinking like is he kidding? Is he not? She was You made her uncomfortable, and that perhaps was the points I thought she would move on.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: It was a joke.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: I said, Oh, somethime, Barack Obam, clearly I'm much better dressed.
00:17:55
Speaker 2: Hahaha. I thought that would lighten the movie.
00:17:57
Speaker 3: You were in a hoodie, right, and she and then she wouldn't take no for an answer.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: I will tell you.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: Are the other guy.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: You won't know his name, but you'll know his face. That I.
00:18:08
Speaker 1: Probably more recently and more often than Don Lemon in recent years, Gary Jordan.
00:18:15
Speaker 2: You don't know the name.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have known it either, and nobody would say.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: That name to me. The black guy from CSI.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Had the hair and he had light eyes, and that is the guy people would come to me and swear I was that guy.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: You remember what I'm talking about.
00:18:34
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm trying.
00:18:35
Speaker 3: I'm just like, that's I just why do people need to do that? It's so interesting people have this obsession with saying and maybe it's that they recognize you that's hilarious.
00:18:45
Speaker 4: Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. He just showed me the picture.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: But maybe it's because they know, I actually think because they know they know your face and they're trying to place it, so they just mix you up with every other famous light skinned black man they know, or they off there and that is sad.
00:19:02
Speaker 2: So that there you go.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: That takes me to the semi old Jackson Lawrence Fishburn. He was doing an interview. Samuel Jackson was doing an interview. On I think it was live kat till. I don't want to mix it up, but one of the stations and a guy made a reference to him being in a super Bowl commercial, like and he was thinking about Lawrence Fishburn who was in a super Bowl commercial, And Sami ol Jackson went off like, yeah, we got black and rich, but we at the same person. We don't all look alike. Actually went off on him at the time about it. You remember America Ferrera, Gina Rodriguez, Yes, Gina Rodriguez, I think nominated for a Golden Globe.
00:19:34
Speaker 2: The Golden Globes on.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: Their official Twitter account posted that and put out the wrong picture between.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: America Ferrera and Gina Rodriguez.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Lucy Lou Lisa Ling apparently get mixed up a bunch And another ugly incident Daniel Kalua Colujah from he was in Black Panther, but he won the oscar for Judas in The Black Messiah.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: You remember that?
00:19:56
Speaker 1: Yes? On the Red carpet, a reporter asked, how do you feel about being directed by Regina Regina King directed One Night in Miami with Leslie.
00:20:08
Speaker 2: Odhom Junior Ouch.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had to apologize later And the famous one James Blake, the tennis star. This was almost ten years ago now in New York. We were at GMA at the time. He came into the studio.
00:20:18
Speaker 3: We remember after this incident, Oh yes, I absolutely remember this, but it was all on video, right.
00:20:23
Speaker 1: A police officer tackled him because they thought he was some other guy and they had to apologize. So those high profile ones happened, but they hurt well.
00:20:32
Speaker 3: And you know, it's funny you asked me and I just remembered something because it's similar to what you're saying. This happened a Good Morning America when I was doing the Olympics.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: Simone Biles.
00:20:41
Speaker 3: Obviously, oh you remember this, yes, So we go to bed and my producer, thank god.
00:20:49
Speaker 4: We had recorded Simone Biles, Simone Biles.
00:20:54
Speaker 3: They put Jordan Childs in the video, lining up with me saying Simone Biles and my producer I'm talking for minutes before it was supposed to air, caught that the overnight editor did not know the difference between Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles uh and switched the video and that would have been Can you imagine if that had aired on Good Morning America with me saying Simone Biles and the audience seeing Jordan Chiles.
00:21:21
Speaker 2: I haven't.
00:21:22
Speaker 1: I kind of remember him now. So throughout your career, I know there's been so many incidents like that behind the scenes, of mixing people up.
00:21:29
Speaker 2: And almost getting on the air. Get on the air.
00:21:32
Speaker 3: Yes, I had another co anchor accidentally say Jesse Jackson Junior when it was actually El Sharpton.
00:21:41
Speaker 4: That was tough. That was tough. Yeah, that was really tough. And I think it was.
00:21:46
Speaker 3: Before the internet was crazy, otherwise that would be on YouTube right now.
00:21:50
Speaker 1: So look, I am not offended. I got a little I was having fun with it. We went a good move. We're vacationing, so maybe she called me at a good time, but I don't necessarily get offended by it. But I think it's interesting that we have to admit she wasn't willing to admit that she made a mistake and why she made it. If she didn that we could have had a meaningful conversation.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: And that's okay. I'm not mad.
00:22:13
Speaker 1: She didn't see anything about me that said anger, So it's it's okay, but we b it sucks that we get put in the position that we have to make her feel better about what she did.
00:22:27
Speaker 4: It's a good way to put it. And you know it's interesting too.
00:22:30
Speaker 3: Is this has been a fascinating conversation and fascinating to hear the research behind it.
00:22:35
Speaker 4: And I hope that white people can.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: Listen to this who are listening and say not to say do I do that, but recognize when you're meeting someone, when you're looking at people, just recognize that there might just be something in you that needs to be corrected, that needs to be refocused, that needs to be aware. And I think this is I I am so appreciative of actually seeing what happened yesterday and then seeing and hearing the research you just gave me and saying, Okay, I can do better. I can recognize that this is an issue. Because you asked me, do people mistake you for someone else? And I said, no, people tell me I look like. Has anyone ever said you look like? But no one's ever said I swore it was this person or that person, or you were someone else, or don't you get that all the time.
00:23:21
Speaker 4: No, I have not had that experience.
00:23:25
Speaker 2: And we need to be clear here.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: Plenty of research out there shows that any racial group can have that kind of bias, but it is overwhelmingly weighted towards white folks.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: First, just simply waited.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: But you add to that the fact that we have majority white spaces. Yes, and they don't have to improve, don't have to get better, don't have to And that is why the focus in the research so often has been specifically on white folks in the majority group.
00:23:56
Speaker 4: Yep, and that does make sense.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: Okay, so you just I have a list here, how can you do something about it? I think you actually have already on your own hit.
00:24:04
Speaker 2: I'm serious.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: The first thing first, I have written down here, give a shit care enough to pay attention to dig deeper about individual Why you should do that with anybody, no matter what race.
00:24:12
Speaker 2: There you go.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Meaningful interactions can help.
00:24:16
Speaker 4: That's cool.
00:24:16
Speaker 2: Take time have a.
00:24:18
Speaker 1: Meaningful conversation with somebody beyond just somebody taking your order that happens to be a minority, or somebody checking you out at the grocery store that happens to be a minority, or whatever it may be. Do that the other one, studying someone's face, like actually being conscious of it, Like you said, the other thing, being thoughtful can help. And look at your friend group, look at your friend group. If you're constantly around people that don't look like you, you are caring about someone, you are studying them, you are caring enough to notice their features and whatnot.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Look at your friend group.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: That can help a lot because you'll have meaningful interactions obviously with people of other races, and that can help.
00:24:57
Speaker 2: But take a look at your friend group.
00:24:59
Speaker 4: I love that, you know.
00:25:00
Speaker 3: Look, it's something that happened that wasn't traumatic in any way, but it but it.
00:25:05
Speaker 4: Was interesting, and it certainly was a moment.
00:25:07
Speaker 3: And I love when you can take a moment like that and recognize something and learn something.
00:25:12
Speaker 4: And that's exactly what happened.
00:25:14
Speaker 3: So maybe I appreciate the incident that occurred because.
00:25:18
Speaker 4: I learned something.
00:25:19
Speaker 1: Well, it's amazing. We had no idea and had no plan. We were on vacation, we.
00:25:22
Speaker 3: Were delayed, we had a flight delay. We wouldn't have been there if the flight hadn't been delayed. We were wow, well, you know, we got there with enough time, and then all of a sudden, it get we got delayed by over an hour at least at the airport and then another hour on the tarmac. But yeah, that was and he gave us good content that delay gave us a really something good to talk about and something to think about, and I appreciate.
00:25:41
Speaker 4: I always love learning something new about.
00:25:43
Speaker 3: It's fascinating how we work, why we do what we do, and we always can do better.
00:25:49
Speaker 1: Well, Folks, always appreciate you spending some time with us. Over now for my dear Amy Lack, I am Barack, don DJ, Gary whatever you want to call me. When you see me out there, Folks, just say hello and be nice.
00:26:02
Speaker 2: I'd appreciate it. But we appreciate you listening to us as always. What's talk about it
Speaker 1: Hither, folks, it is Saturday, December twenty seventh. And no, ma'am, I am not Barack Obama. And no ma'am, I don't often get mistaken for Barack Obama. It's just you who can't tell one light skin brother from another. And with that, welcome to this, y'all all look alike episode of Amy and TJ Robes. Not the episode we planned on doing necessarily. But is this a fun funny topic? Y'all all look alike?
00:00:42
Speaker 2: We've all familiar.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, and look I think it's only it's funny in that it's alarming and all you can do is laugh at a certain point, because what are you gonna do about it? I mean, your other choice is to be angry and offended, which is well within your right, but you chose to laugh.
00:01:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we are going to get into that. What you just said, what do you do about it? There is something that can be done about it. So folks, ask yourself, have you ever found yourself in that position to where you mixed up a couple of folks from a minority group, a couple of Asian women, You can't tell the difference a couple of black guys.
00:01:18
Speaker 2: You don't know. They all look alike. Have you done that?
00:01:21
Speaker 1: Now? I'll ask you first before we get into this incident that prompted this episode. Do you think you have ever done that before? Maybe not even said it to somebody's face, but even maybe internally or you mixed up.
00:01:32
Speaker 4: I'm sure I have, yes, I mean I don't.
00:01:34
Speaker 3: I can't think of a specific example, but I would never say, oh no, I've never done that.
00:01:40
Speaker 4: I'm sure I have.
00:01:41
Speaker 2: And a lot of people have.
00:01:42
Speaker 1: And some people will immediately point to racism, and this is what came out of and that word came out immediately after an incident we had at the airport.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: We'll explain, folks.
00:01:51
Speaker 1: We are on a trip, me, Robes and the girls at least Ava and Sabine.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: So we were in.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: Just yesterday airport lounge. I don't even know if we just say the lounge or not what airport. I don't know if it matters, but the point is we're sitting in the lounge all kind of lined up on this cushion, bitch, just enjoying ourselves, eating our food, drinking Ama Moosa's, and a woman as we were talking, Robes interrupts us. As we were talking.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: You take it from it.
00:02:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it began rudely because you were actually winding up to tell me something. I was really I couldn't wait to hear You're like, Okay, I had this idea and don't you know, don't know judge right away, but I think it could be fun. So I was like all into it, leaning in, and this woman just started saying, you know, we thought you were Barack Obama, and you just turned your head and looked at her, and to the point where she recognized how rude it was that she cut us off. She didn't say excuse me, or she didn't wait for us to finish talking. She just blurted out she couldn't wait to tell you that. Her husband, she went on to say, was convinced you were Barack Obama.
00:02:54
Speaker 1: To the point that this woman got up and walked over to us. I couldn't see where her husband was.
00:02:58
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he was off to the line, but yeah, she and she just couldn't wait to tell you that.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: She told him, no, I don't think that.
00:03:06
Speaker 3: Is Barack Obama, because look, he's thin, he's thinner and lighter than Barack Obama. So she also kind of wanted to kind of prove that she knew that you were a little bit more light skinned and a little bit thinner, and that's why you couldn't be Barack Obama.
00:03:21
Speaker 4: And you just had a smile on your face. You said, no, ma'am.
00:03:23
Speaker 3: She's like, you must get that all the time, and you said and you just looked at her. She's like, you get that all the time, right, And you said, actually, I don't, ma'am.
00:03:29
Speaker 4: And she then got upset, and she got upset that you.
00:03:34
Speaker 3: Wouldn't acknowledge or validate the fact that she's was convinced that you might have been and could have been and certainly must be mistaken for Barack Obama.
00:03:43
Speaker 4: All the time she was.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: Got flustered by the idea that we wouldn't go along with her foolishness, which it was foolishness. And I will, oh, I never my tone never changed. I actually got happier talking to her because I was toying with her, and I continue to toy with her. For the part of the reason is that, really, you think Barack Obama is just hanging out here by himself, lounging this in the United Lounge. Okay, First, he's not. Second, I am sitting next to my hand on the thigh of a white woman, and you really think me and Barack, Yes, you.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: Mixed us up.
00:04:17
Speaker 3: Yes, he's stepping out on the shell with a white woman and a whole white family by the way, and.
00:04:23
Speaker 4: Two white daughters. He's just you know, he's adopted them.
00:04:26
Speaker 3: Yes, you haven't heard a lot, but that's all been going on behind the scenes.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: So this ridiculous conversation is going on. And it went on longer than it should have because I was giving her help.
00:04:35
Speaker 4: Correct you.
00:04:35
Speaker 3: You kept toying with her, and she kept getting frustrated. She's like, are you messing with me? Are you messing with me?
00:04:40
Speaker 4: Come on?
00:04:41
Speaker 3: You know people do tell you that, right, and you just kept going. That's when you started saying, well, no, not really, I'm here with three white women, so no, it doesn't happen. She actually looked at me at one point.
00:04:52
Speaker 4: I'm just witnessing it all. She said you should break up with him.
00:04:56
Speaker 3: She was so annoyed that you wouldn't play along with her or validate her way of thinking that she actually looked at me and said, you should break up with him.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: So still I'm laughing, and I'm happy and we still having a good time.
00:05:11
Speaker 2: I never got upset.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: The woman finally walks away in this incident, again longer than it should have gone, walks away, and at least some members of our party immediately looked, and the word racism came up, saying, isn't that a little.
00:05:26
Speaker 2: Racist what she just did.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: I didn't necessarily think much of it at the time, but it brings up robes, of course, something we all we all are aware of this idea that they all look alike.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yep, they all look alike. Who are they?
00:05:43
Speaker 1: Oftentimes as black folks, they all look alike. So is there anything to that. Scientists will actually tell you.
00:05:51
Speaker 4: Yes, and that's fascinating, And.
00:05:53
Speaker 1: It's not racism. Now, racism can get involved in this, but it's not racism. So this is something that actually call I've heard of a couple of these. What it's one called the other race effect, the cross race effect.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: Or own race bias is how they refer to them. And what we're talking. Doesn't this make sense?
00:06:12
Speaker 1: Though it's harder for people of one race to identify people of other races, it's.
00:06:18
Speaker 4: In your brain. Your brain's wired that way.
00:06:20
Speaker 2: That does make sense.
00:06:21
Speaker 1: We are born and the first people we see or go to school with or in our homes look like us, so we know and we get comfortable early on with those features. The problem is that some people from some cultures don't have as much meaningful interaction with people of other races, like their identities early on, so you miss out on kind of registering what people look like.
00:06:47
Speaker 2: It kind of makes sense.
00:06:48
Speaker 3: That does if you think about all the things that are formed in your brain, but before you turn five, A lot of it is language, so it would make sense that sight would be a part of it as well, and your ability to distinguish. Think about it, if you don't learn certain languages or certain word patternspy.
00:07:03
Speaker 4: I believe it's like ten or eleven.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: You can't say you're ours if you're Asian the way we do here in America.
00:07:10
Speaker 4: Can't.
00:07:10
Speaker 3: You literally cannot get your brain to unform whatever connection it's made and make a new connection, like you just lose out or miss out on the ability to make different connections or distinguish. I know it's true for language, so that makes sense. It would be true for sight.
00:07:26
Speaker 1: It is in the brain, but they what happens is early on, see a white kid surrounded by white folks. A black kid surrounded by black folks growing up, But the white kid is going to have a more difficult time. Why because the white kid is in the majority group and he is growing up with less exposure to those minority groups. Me as a black kid, I see white folks all the time. There's my teacher, there's my pastor, there's this historical figure.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: That they're teaching me about.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: We get more access if you will make even looking at movies and whatnot, you we are accustomed to studying and seeing and understanding white features more so than the other way.
00:08:10
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
00:08:11
Speaker 3: Yes, that I've never thought about it, but yes, that does make perfect sense.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: And the other thing for white folks that they, again research says here is that you all start to register different features that you all have. Meaning there's a blond haired girl, there is a redhead guy, there is a blue eyed boy, there is a green eye. You all have different types of features. You see us. You see brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair. There aren't the same types, and you all's minds the same types of distinguishing features. For me, I know, the nose can look this way, the lips can be that way, the ass can be that way, the.
00:08:48
Speaker 2: Ears could be.
00:08:49
Speaker 1: I know, all the features of black folks are different. I can identify because I am familiar.
00:08:53
Speaker 2: Does that makes sense?
00:08:54
Speaker 4: Yes, it does.
00:08:55
Speaker 2: So we haven't hit racism yet necessarily, right.
00:08:57
Speaker 4: No, it's exposure.
00:08:59
Speaker 3: And I mean in that sense you could say that racist attitudes create that because if you are isolated, you are segregated by choice because you prefer to be with your own kind. You don't expose yourself, you don't expose your children. So it's a choice in that sense. So that does lead to something that maybe isn't intentional, but it's still a byproduct of Man.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: You are nailing it right now, what the research says, you are going through loves with this research that's going to come out. So there has been and I mean a bunch of study in this and they all come out with the same result, which is that, yes, white people have a more difficult time identifying features of minorities. Now hear this a very important studying done out in California in twenty nineteen.
00:09:44
Speaker 2: White people were.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: Shown this is going to mess you up sebeing white people, I mean sabine ropes. White people are shown photos of various faces of black and white people. Okay, right, so then they altered the photo a little by thirty percent, than by fifty percent, then by seven twenty percent, then by one hundred percent, meaning they show them a totally different person.
00:10:04
Speaker 2: Get this, and this They put them through in an MRI. So they were looking at their brain function.
00:10:09
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:10:10
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
00:10:11
Speaker 1: So the result, people's brains reacted strongly to even the slightest change in a white face. Brains didn't register reaction even when a different black face was shown. Wow, if you change the eye color on a white person, a white person will go their my mind is firing. You can show them a different black man and they do not have the same brain reaction. Isn't that crazy?
00:10:39
Speaker 4: Wow? I mean actually, so you can't see me, but my jaw is dropped.
00:10:44
Speaker 2: What okay, now hear what?
00:10:45
Speaker 1: The research says that these white folks in the study were essentially treating black faces as almost like they're not faces. His quote, Wow, yikes, it does out.
00:10:58
Speaker 2: That stings.
00:10:59
Speaker 1: Now it's actually going to get worse with this. The bias starts immediately when we.
00:11:07
Speaker 2: See somebody, like as soon.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: As you see anything, your brain starts registering that face. The researchers shows white folks, you see someone they're not like you, They're from another group, and that's where you stop processing and giving a shit about anything else other than black skin. Wow, this is a this is a California researcher. This is not some theory or something somebody wrote in some paper. When you think about it that way, our brain's immediately when you see somebody's face ropes, your brain starts working. But the research shows that white people when they see a face not like theirs, immediately stop working and don't even care to further investigate anything else.
00:11:51
Speaker 3: About that because and is there they did they go into the reason Obviously, I know there's some of the reasons why, because of early perhaps processing, but is it because we've never had to as white people. Because when you're in the majority, it's not important enough, it doesn't change your life enough, it's not necessary.
00:12:09
Speaker 2: You nailed it.
00:12:10
Speaker 1: And the best example is, take for example, your office. Right, everybody remembers this boss, this manager. Because you have to write people you don't even see a lot, you study them because they mean something to you. Who's on the lower end of the totem pole. You don't have to give a damn and about that person. So the hierarchy there is a big part of it. His quote, this researcher white folks, they don't have the motivation to process an individual more deeply when you see somebody that doesn't look like you. This is his research and a lot of things come to these conclusions. I was fascinated by it, killing it. But we go from we don't even.
00:12:49
Speaker 2: Laugh about it.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: Oh, they all look like like this is some deeper and heavier stuff.
00:12:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, then there's science behind it. There's research behind it. And you know what, as you're telling me this, it makes sense. It's hard to it's hard to accept because no one wants to consider themselves racist. No one wants to consider themselves exclusionary or dismissive. That's a terrible thing to imagine yourself as being. But yet you kind of have to hear this, recognize it, and maybe see it in someone else, and then look within and say do I do that?
00:13:19
Speaker 4: And how can I do better?
00:13:21
Speaker 1: And so you once again, because some people will hear this and go, oh, it's not my fault. It's a phenomenon I can't do anything about. Some people will look at it that way. They absolutely will.
00:13:32
Speaker 4: All right, you're right.
00:13:32
Speaker 3: Oh see, it's not I did help it. This is how I was born, this is how I was raised. There's nothing I can do about it, but I would argue, and I don't know what you're about to say or tell us that this is an aha moment that you can that can be actionable.
00:13:47
Speaker 4: You can do something about.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Yes, awareness first, but ask yourself, why is it you look at this person and don't care about knowing anything more than seeing the skin color.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm thinking about it, going wow, I'm now like, as you're telling me this, I'm already imagining how I'm going to now try to process and think about people when I look at them, see them, meet them, and register, don't do that thing that maybe you do that you didn't intend to or you didn't Actually it wasn't something that was conscious. But now that I am conscious, now that I've woken up to this, I can now be better.
00:14:25
Speaker 2: You woke now? Huh?
00:14:26
Speaker 4: Oh God? Why did I use the W word?
00:14:31
Speaker 3: No?
00:14:31
Speaker 1: But this is okay. You used it appropriately. It's been taken from us in a lot of ways. But this is what we're talking about. If you're just aware, a lot of people aren't even aware of this. You're woke by just being aware. You're aware, you've woken up to something going on, and now you can make a difference and improve That's what woke is, by the way, people. So, yes, you used it appropriately, but I knew you would laugh when I said that. Okay, here's the problem you kind of hit on roades. It's two problems. One thing you kind of dismissive of. But what happens in the criminal justice system. Ah, yeah, come in for a lineup. Yep, that's him right there. That kind of a thing, mistaken identity. Wrong guy gets arrested, wrong god goes a trial, wrong guy goes to jail because somebody identified.
00:15:14
Speaker 2: Every day, that happens too often.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: But the other thing is just sucks to be in an office where somebody keeps calling you somebody else. It keeps getting you confused because why you're actually telling me that there's nothing unique or special about me, or nothing about me that makes you even want to take a moment to know who I am.
00:15:31
Speaker 2: That hurts.
00:15:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, that hurts.
00:15:34
Speaker 3: I can only imagine because you yeah, I was just or you can't be of service to me, You're of no use to me, well.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Robes, stay here, not Robes. I know you're staying here. I shouldn't be presumptive us. I hope you stay around Robes, but you all stay here because when we come back, will actually tell you the three individuals that I've actually been mistaken for most in my life, and also will hit you with a couple of high profile incidents that have happened to celebrities.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: Who have gotten mixed up with other celebrities.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: I e. Yeah, we're both black, Yeah we're both rich, but that don't mean we're the same person.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: Stay here, all right? We continue here on this.
00:16:25
Speaker 1: Y'all all looklike episode of Amy and TJ Robes that we've been together. When someone has come up to me and got me mixed up with somebody else, I think, yes, that's the one you get.
00:16:37
Speaker 3: I've heard people come up to you and actually call you don lemon.
00:16:42
Speaker 2: See.
00:16:42
Speaker 1: I can't I can't remember the last time it used to happen a bunch and we were both seeing it. It was we used to work seeing it in Saturday and Sunday. I did mornings, he did evenings. That may be a little.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: But still you don't look anything alike. Wat you have similar coloring.
00:17:00
Speaker 2: That's it, you know.
00:17:01
Speaker 1: The thing I used to say when I was when people used to say that to me, I would wouldn't break stride, as you know. I would say, nah, he's he's gay and I'm married to a woman. I would say that and just keep it pushing and that would be the end of But Dawn, that one made sense. I've only another time gotten Barack Obama. And that was literally when I was walking near the White House. I was in a I remember the blue suit I was in. Walking somebody said, oh gods, it's like, bro, you.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: Look nothing like Barack Obama.
00:17:30
Speaker 1: You know the response I gave, I said, I'm much better dressed.
00:17:33
Speaker 2: Never broke stride.
00:17:34
Speaker 4: Oh that is what you told the woman. Yes, she did not know what to do.
00:17:39
Speaker 3: She was so confused, and she actually was thinking like is he kidding? Is he not? She was You made her uncomfortable, and that perhaps was the points I thought she would move on.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: It was a joke.
00:17:51
Speaker 1: I said, Oh, somethime, Barack Obam, clearly I'm much better dressed.
00:17:55
Speaker 2: Hahaha. I thought that would lighten the movie.
00:17:57
Speaker 3: You were in a hoodie, right, and she and then she wouldn't take no for an answer.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: I will tell you.
00:18:02
Speaker 1: Are the other guy.
00:18:04
Speaker 2: You won't know his name, but you'll know his face. That I.
00:18:08
Speaker 1: Probably more recently and more often than Don Lemon in recent years, Gary Jordan.
00:18:15
Speaker 2: You don't know the name.
00:18:16
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have known it either, and nobody would say.
00:18:18
Speaker 2: That name to me. The black guy from CSI.
00:18:23
Speaker 1: Had the hair and he had light eyes, and that is the guy people would come to me and swear I was that guy.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: You remember what I'm talking about.
00:18:34
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm trying.
00:18:35
Speaker 3: I'm just like, that's I just why do people need to do that? It's so interesting people have this obsession with saying and maybe it's that they recognize you that's hilarious.
00:18:45
Speaker 4: Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. He just showed me the picture.
00:18:48
Speaker 3: But maybe it's because they know, I actually think because they know they know your face and they're trying to place it, so they just mix you up with every other famous light skinned black man they know, or they off there and that is sad.
00:19:02
Speaker 2: So that there you go.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: That takes me to the semi old Jackson Lawrence Fishburn. He was doing an interview. Samuel Jackson was doing an interview. On I think it was live kat till. I don't want to mix it up, but one of the stations and a guy made a reference to him being in a super Bowl commercial, like and he was thinking about Lawrence Fishburn who was in a super Bowl commercial, And Sami ol Jackson went off like, yeah, we got black and rich, but we at the same person. We don't all look alike. Actually went off on him at the time about it. You remember America Ferrera, Gina Rodriguez, Yes, Gina Rodriguez, I think nominated for a Golden Globe.
00:19:34
Speaker 2: The Golden Globes on.
00:19:35
Speaker 1: Their official Twitter account posted that and put out the wrong picture between.
00:19:40
Speaker 2: America Ferrera and Gina Rodriguez.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: Lucy Lou Lisa Ling apparently get mixed up a bunch And another ugly incident Daniel Kalua Colujah from he was in Black Panther, but he won the oscar for Judas in The Black Messiah.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: You remember that?
00:19:56
Speaker 1: Yes? On the Red carpet, a reporter asked, how do you feel about being directed by Regina Regina King directed One Night in Miami with Leslie.
00:20:08
Speaker 2: Odhom Junior Ouch.
00:20:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had to apologize later And the famous one James Blake, the tennis star. This was almost ten years ago now in New York. We were at GMA at the time. He came into the studio.
00:20:18
Speaker 3: We remember after this incident, Oh yes, I absolutely remember this, but it was all on video, right.
00:20:23
Speaker 1: A police officer tackled him because they thought he was some other guy and they had to apologize. So those high profile ones happened, but they hurt well.
00:20:32
Speaker 3: And you know, it's funny you asked me and I just remembered something because it's similar to what you're saying. This happened a Good Morning America when I was doing the Olympics.
00:20:40
Speaker 4: Simone Biles.
00:20:41
Speaker 3: Obviously, oh you remember this, yes, So we go to bed and my producer, thank god.
00:20:49
Speaker 4: We had recorded Simone Biles, Simone Biles.
00:20:54
Speaker 3: They put Jordan Childs in the video, lining up with me saying Simone Biles and my producer I'm talking for minutes before it was supposed to air, caught that the overnight editor did not know the difference between Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles uh and switched the video and that would have been Can you imagine if that had aired on Good Morning America with me saying Simone Biles and the audience seeing Jordan Chiles.
00:21:21
Speaker 2: I haven't.
00:21:22
Speaker 1: I kind of remember him now. So throughout your career, I know there's been so many incidents like that behind the scenes, of mixing people up.
00:21:29
Speaker 2: And almost getting on the air. Get on the air.
00:21:32
Speaker 3: Yes, I had another co anchor accidentally say Jesse Jackson Junior when it was actually El Sharpton.
00:21:41
Speaker 4: That was tough. That was tough. Yeah, that was really tough. And I think it was.
00:21:46
Speaker 3: Before the internet was crazy, otherwise that would be on YouTube right now.
00:21:50
Speaker 1: So look, I am not offended. I got a little I was having fun with it. We went a good move. We're vacationing, so maybe she called me at a good time, but I don't necessarily get offended by it. But I think it's interesting that we have to admit she wasn't willing to admit that she made a mistake and why she made it. If she didn that we could have had a meaningful conversation.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: And that's okay. I'm not mad.
00:22:13
Speaker 1: She didn't see anything about me that said anger, So it's it's okay, but we b it sucks that we get put in the position that we have to make her feel better about what she did.
00:22:27
Speaker 4: It's a good way to put it. And you know it's interesting too.
00:22:30
Speaker 3: Is this has been a fascinating conversation and fascinating to hear the research behind it.
00:22:35
Speaker 4: And I hope that white people can.
00:22:38
Speaker 3: Listen to this who are listening and say not to say do I do that, but recognize when you're meeting someone, when you're looking at people, just recognize that there might just be something in you that needs to be corrected, that needs to be refocused, that needs to be aware. And I think this is I I am so appreciative of actually seeing what happened yesterday and then seeing and hearing the research you just gave me and saying, Okay, I can do better. I can recognize that this is an issue. Because you asked me, do people mistake you for someone else? And I said, no, people tell me I look like. Has anyone ever said you look like? But no one's ever said I swore it was this person or that person, or you were someone else, or don't you get that all the time.
00:23:21
Speaker 4: No, I have not had that experience.
00:23:25
Speaker 2: And we need to be clear here.
00:23:28
Speaker 1: Plenty of research out there shows that any racial group can have that kind of bias, but it is overwhelmingly weighted towards white folks.
00:23:39
Speaker 2: First, just simply waited.
00:23:41
Speaker 1: But you add to that the fact that we have majority white spaces. Yes, and they don't have to improve, don't have to get better, don't have to And that is why the focus in the research so often has been specifically on white folks in the majority group.
00:23:56
Speaker 4: Yep, and that does make sense.
00:23:57
Speaker 1: Okay, so you just I have a list here, how can you do something about it? I think you actually have already on your own hit.
00:24:04
Speaker 2: I'm serious.
00:24:06
Speaker 1: The first thing first, I have written down here, give a shit care enough to pay attention to dig deeper about individual Why you should do that with anybody, no matter what race.
00:24:12
Speaker 2: There you go.
00:24:13
Speaker 1: Meaningful interactions can help.
00:24:16
Speaker 4: That's cool.
00:24:16
Speaker 2: Take time have a.
00:24:18
Speaker 1: Meaningful conversation with somebody beyond just somebody taking your order that happens to be a minority, or somebody checking you out at the grocery store that happens to be a minority, or whatever it may be. Do that the other one, studying someone's face, like actually being conscious of it, Like you said, the other thing, being thoughtful can help. And look at your friend group, look at your friend group. If you're constantly around people that don't look like you, you are caring about someone, you are studying them, you are caring enough to notice their features and whatnot.
00:24:51
Speaker 2: Look at your friend group.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: That can help a lot because you'll have meaningful interactions obviously with people of other races, and that can help.
00:24:57
Speaker 2: But take a look at your friend group.
00:24:59
Speaker 4: I love that, you know.
00:25:00
Speaker 3: Look, it's something that happened that wasn't traumatic in any way, but it but it.
00:25:05
Speaker 4: Was interesting, and it certainly was a moment.
00:25:07
Speaker 3: And I love when you can take a moment like that and recognize something and learn something.
00:25:12
Speaker 4: And that's exactly what happened.
00:25:14
Speaker 3: So maybe I appreciate the incident that occurred because.
00:25:18
Speaker 4: I learned something.
00:25:19
Speaker 1: Well, it's amazing. We had no idea and had no plan. We were on vacation, we.
00:25:22
Speaker 3: Were delayed, we had a flight delay. We wouldn't have been there if the flight hadn't been delayed. We were wow, well, you know, we got there with enough time, and then all of a sudden, it get we got delayed by over an hour at least at the airport and then another hour on the tarmac. But yeah, that was and he gave us good content that delay gave us a really something good to talk about and something to think about, and I appreciate.
00:25:41
Speaker 4: I always love learning something new about.
00:25:43
Speaker 3: It's fascinating how we work, why we do what we do, and we always can do better.
00:25:49
Speaker 1: Well, Folks, always appreciate you spending some time with us. Over now for my dear Amy Lack, I am Barack, don DJ, Gary whatever you want to call me. When you see me out there, Folks, just say hello and be nice.
00:26:02
Speaker 2: I'd appreciate it. But we appreciate you listening to us as always. What's talk about it