James, I can almost always tell Koreans and Japanese apart, but I also lived in Korea for a year and spent 4 years in a relationship with a Japanese girl.  The names are easy because I can read Korean and still speak a little and I know what Japanese looks and sounds like, both alphabets...

But I still cannot tell you how I do it.  They just look either Korean or Japanese.

Like I look Italian.

But I can pass for Cuban, especially when I speak Spanish, but then again I grew up in South Florida.

To me, racial prejudice has always been more about the way we talk than about the color of our skin.  Try it out.  Next time someone else sounds more "white" to you, think about how you think they look to you compared to someone with an accent.  It is usually the accent that sells the stereotype.  Just watch prejusidice people deal with this.

Think about how one might view someone with a southern accent or an Italian-American with a NY accent or how a spanish speaking person looks Latin-American when he is as white as I am.  If I speak Spanish, people think I look Spanish.  When I do not, they think I am white, unless I am with Latin people.

But I guess I am Latin since the Latins settled Latium in modern day Italy about 1000 BC.

It is all a bunch of crap to me as both a biologist and a Christian.  I also think Stan was using the X-Men to comment on racism and the equal rights movement of the time.  I always saw the Professor & Magneto as King & Malcolm X.  Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this the case with the X-Men?

Regardless, the racism piece should have been dropped no later than GS X-Men #1.  Like in society, if we never let go of the inequalities of the past, then racism today will never go away.

So if anyone asks, insist that, yes, naked ladies are educational!!

Man, JB, I forgot how funny you could be since I used to post regularly on the old board.

I remember a commercial a few years ago that kind of hit me like that where an asian woman was talking and had a really deep southern accent. Asian's I think have really bad stereotypes in the US. When I used to really be into Bruce Lee, I remember that was one of his greatest personal conflicts. You can see some of that in the movie they made about him "The Dragon". Now martial arts are a stereotype, so I don't know if he would feel if he helped much if he was alive. I think there is way too much misunderstanding about cultures and ethnicities in our country. We seem to refuse to recognize our own culture as well and expect all other palces to be the same or cater to us(which is probably why so many Americans traveling abroad are seen as arrogant).

You are probably fortunate to have a varied backround and have that insight. What effect do you think your parents had on you being from England? Do you feel like you are part of all of the countries youv'e lived in?

JB, that's an excellent point, and one that few men would dare to state publicly - Bravo, Sir!

One only has to look at the sterling example set by that noted educator Hugh Hefner to see the truth of your statement.

I attended an ethnically diverse middle school where I had several Asian friends of different backgrounds: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese.  After a while of hanging out with them, I became adept at differentiating between different Asian groups by appearance alone.  The height of the cheekbone, the width of the nose, the angle and shape of the eye...all of those anatomical landmarks are distinguishable, even amongst people who tend to look alike upon casual glance.

It's the same way with people of African descent.  Ethiopians look completely different than Nigerians, as do Kenyans from Somalians.

Not trying to front on James' earlier question re differentiating between Asians by sight alone but the answer is yes, some people can.

clarification

Mostly I feel like an American (Southern Alberta, where I grew up, could turn into a State with very little effort), but every once in a while there are small reminders of my "mixed background". For example, people have occasionally asked me how I am able to capture the look of America in the 1930s and 40s so well, since, obviously, I did not live there. I tell them that (a) I have seen a lot of vintage movies and (b) mostly I just draw what I remember of England from my childhood. After the War, Great Britain was pretty much locked in the 40s until the cultural explosion of the 1960s.

Not trying to front on James' earlier question re differentiating between Asians by sight alone but the answer is yes, some people can.<<

The point is, while there could be a Korian Cheekbone or a Chineese eye or whathave you, as much as there is a Greek Nose, these can only make you THINK you know a differance, but not everyone in the group will have the features, and not everyone with the features will be of the group, it's not absolute, thus, you can't KNOW - you can just be educated to make good guesses which can still be wrong.

Troy Nunis wrote: The point is, while there could be a Korian Cheekbone or a Chineese eye or whathave you, as much as there is a Greek Nose, these can only make you THINK you know a differance, but not everyone in the group will have the features, and not everyone with the features will be of the group, it's not absolute, thus, you can't KNOW - you can just be educated to make good guesses which can still be wrong.

sigh...

No, the point is that all people of a particular ethnic background do NOT look alike and that there are differences in physical characteristics that, while subtle or indistinguishable upon casual glance, can be noticed by a trained or knowledgable eye.

Why try to split hairs?  The answer to the question posed about differentiating between a Japanese and a Korean is yes, some people can.  If nothing else, Asians certainly don't look alike to each other.

How can I disagree with something I said? 

You asked a question in an attempt to make a point, but received answers you didn't want to hear or didn't anticipate hearing.  Doesn't make the answers wrong.

Yes, some people can distinguish between different Asians by sight alone.  Doesn't make you a bad guy or ignorant or racist if you cannot.