This is a subject that there is much debate about.
Some people think that it’s no different than preferring blonde to brunette, or brown eyes to blue.
Others think that these preferences are societally ingrained, and therefore if you flat out are not attracted to other races, or if you are, are not attracted to a specific race, then you are being racist whether you know it or not.
What I have noticed is, most of the people who are calling others “racist” for their dating preferences are men who are unhappy that they were rejected by a woman or man of their desire, and berate them for it, regardless of the reason. I’ve had it happen to me, too, as if insulting me would make me want him any more than I did to start with.
I personally don’t think we should extend Affirmative Action to the bedroom and shame people for their sexual preferences… I don’t think it’s more racist if I was to hypothetically say I am not attracted to black men, than it would be sexist for a straight man to say he is not attracted to men.
What’s wrong with this one? It’s a genuine question.
I mean, do you guys think that being unattracted to people of certain races means you inherently think you’re better than them/is there a power dynamic behind it? If you’re forcing me to define “racist” I guess I’d say do you see it as discriminatory.
I posted it because people here tend to be relatively intellectual debaters… and I figured most of you would have anecdotes or personal stories or some other sort of insight.
I think if you are never attracted to anyone not of your race you might want to look at yourself a little bit. I mean, really? This isn’t about marriage, is it? You never found someone of a different race attractive?
However if you don’t find members of a particular race attractive that is probably as much cultural as anything else, and I don’t really have a problem with that.
And TBH even the races I have never dated I have still found specimens I find attractive…but I wouldn’t date them for cultural reasons.
I have found men of races other than my own attractive, and with some there is just as high of likelihood that I’ll be attracted to them as I will a white man. But there are races for which I can count on one hand the number of men I’ve been sexually attracted to.
What if YOU don’t find them attractive? Attractive to someone, yes. But everyone is not going to be attracted to every combination of “attractive” features.
I can appreciate someone being good looking without being sexually attracted. I don’t think you can call it racist if a certain group just does not get you aroused.
I think, though, what is racist is to think you aren’t attracted to a certain race, find someone of that race attractive, but deny the attraction because of their race.
You didn’t define your term. As the Wikipedia article points out, there is disagreement as to what is or is not racist, in context. With no common understanding before offering an opinion we are left to our own interpretations and/or life experiences of what we each think racism may or may not be, then answering the poll. Granted this isn’t in GD so one shouldn’t expect this level of definition and introspection.
FWIW, imo it isn’t racism. My preference for one does not disenfranchise nor denigrate the other. My preference for one has no adverse impact upon the other. Having been involved with federal civil rights programs for more than 30 years, entertaining the notion presented is silly. It’s carrying it to the extreme. One can intellectualize this ad infinitum but most people never even go there in their day to day lives. It’s a level of picking nits that cause me to question the rationality of the argument.
BTW, I prefer chocolate over vanilla, dark chocolate over milk chocolate and chocolate chip cookies over Oreo cookies. As to human preferences, beauty is skin deep, ugly is to the bone, but you can’t fix stupid.
I think we can step above the term racism in things like this by simply looking closer at the other races and learning to appreciate the differences in features. When I was younger I did not find black woman attractive. Gradually I started finding more that I was attracted to but they had more white features or hair etc. As time went on and I included more blacks into my social circle I started finding black woman more and more attractive. Now I appreciate the african features, the hair, the butts, the lips and all other aspects. I think attraction is more perception than anything else.