All black men look alike ... right?

I had no intention of posting another blog until I got home tonight, but apparently there is an abundance of material today at the gig.

I was chatting with a co-worker as she prepared to leave for the day and one of the cleaning crew came in to the break room where we were. I was standing at the microwave, heating up some free pizza bought by one of our vendors *yes, I'm a fat ass - I had eaten before going to the dentist*, and my co-worker walked away. I'm usually quite cordial with the cleaning crew and so I was preparing to speak to her when ...

"Davi-"

"Huh?"

"Oh, I thought you were David"

*SERIOUSLY?!?!?!*

"Oh *forced chuckle* nope, not David"

"You look ... like kind of. *she's a foreigner - so not PC, I know* Me thought you David." *playful giggle*

Of course, based on the title of this post, you can tell that David is also a black man. He might be ABOUT the same height (he's a couple inches shorter than I am) and color as I am and maybe the same size - he's skinny and I give "skinny" - haha! Well, he's a daytime janitor (perhaps "maintenance professional" is a more befitting descriptor) here. I don't say that to be some sort of elitist or to make some sort of classist *is that a word?* statement, but he is and I am not. My job is definitely not that glamorous and doesn't come with a whole helluva lot of perks - hell, he could - quite possibly - make more money than me (I think he's been here for a few years). I more want to point out that I work in an office at a computer and he takes care of the many things around the building. Furthermore, he wears a uniform, dark blue Dickies-esque top with the company logo emblazoned on it, dark blue Dickies-esque pants, and black tennis shoes or boots. I, on the other hand, dress quite nicely - not to put him down, I've seen him out on his birthday and he is a nice dresser as well, but follow me here. Today's attire includes a nice blue collared button-up shirt, red tie, with a vest - black and white (make gray *teehee*) with blue and red stitching, black slacks and nice pointier-toed loafers.

CLEARLY we don't look alike? Or do we?

Do all blacks look alike? I know I've heard others say this on television as a means of derogatory or ignorant classification but where does it truly come from? It's quite obvious that they(we) do not, but why would they think so? Am I reading too far into this? I hope I'm not. I would also like to point out that I am not intending to sound offended with David. I guess I'm seriously curious about this. Is it seriously based on skin color? I mean, it's clear there are so very many different shades of chocolate - perhaps even a spectrum not unlike the rainbow itself. I mean, if you were to go to Home Depot or Lowe's, they would show you two strips and you'd say all brown and they would say "No" because they color wheel is so infinite.

I'm starting to ramble again and believe I forgot where I was initially going.

I'm done ... for now.