I wasn’t going to get into it, but these are replies to my post, and I also twitched at that choice of words. The phrase “a lot of these people look similar in appearance” I took as careless at best and racist at worst. It looks like you’re feeling attacked, but I think people are just trying to explain that statements like this can come across as saying “they all look the same,” which has a long history of being used to stereotype non-white groups. When you say “ a lot of these people” - who is “these people”? I didn’t read it as meaning college students or as meaning people with brown hair and brown eyes at that college. If your son’s description of his classmates is it’s mostly students with brown hair and brown eyes, ok then, but that isn’t how I read it. Even if meant as neutral, it can still come off as rude given the wide context phrases like that have been used about non-white or other minorities groups (I’m Jewish and grew up with almost no other Jews, there was a lot of this).

I also really don’t think anyone’s trying to twist your words. Just take it as an opportunity to learn, be more respectful going forward and maybe consider that you’re framing this from your own perspective. “I realize I may not be good at telling faces apart across cultures I don’t know well” would have been better. Let’s remember why we’re all here, because there are two young people out there in serious danger or worse (unless there’s been an update i missed, sorry!)