My dad and I got into an argument over whether the following statement is racist: “I find all Asian women unattractive.” I say it’s clearly racist, he disagrees. What does GD think?
If you have to ask, the answer is usually yes. In this instance, you’re prejudging someone’s attractiveness based on ethnicity. I’d call that racist.
Not racist. Personal preference is all. And even if it was, so what? Racism is just a word like any other word. And it’s not wrong or evil not to be attracted to all people, so nothing wrong or evil has been done.
Nevermind the question of whether it’s to be labelled as “racist” or not. That’s just terminology. Really, what we care about is whether there’s something wrong with it. There’s nothing morally wrong with having whatever sexual preferences one has, but we might question whether there are cultural circumstances which cause one to feel this way (e.g., differing portrayals of Asian vs. European women in the media, its effect on mainstream standards of beauty, etc.) and whether those are unfortunate and an effort should be made to change them.
I think the test is this–if there was a woman he thought was, say, a hot Latina woman and then he discovered that she were actually Asian, would he cease to find her attractive? If so, I think it’s racist. If, instead, he would be like “No, I would then learn that there are some Asian women I do find attractive”, then he’s not racist. What he is really saying is “I have yet to see an Asian woman I think is attractive”.
If you’d seen every Asian woman or even a reasonable sampling of them, I might agree that it’s just personal preference. If you write all of them off without the above, IMO that’s racist. You’re prejudging based on a label.
Right, he’s got a racist penis which doesn’t get hard for Asian women. He should be sent to a re-education facility as soon as possible.
I’m sorry but this is plain silly. Our sexual preferences are our own, we need justify them to no one.
I think it correlates strongly with racism but is not racist in and of itself. There are some races I am more attracted to than others, but am certainly attracted to all. I’m sure the cultural value of seeing wealth as attractive and poverty as unattractive is mostly to blame and my knowledge of the various groups that tend to be more or less wealthy subconsciously is informed by that preference. It’s for the same reason I’m less attracted to women who wear their religion on their sleeves. It’s not objectively correct and I have to be aware of similar stereotyping mechanisms I’m set up to have but as other posters have inelegantly said, who you’re attracted to is not racism. If you won’t let your kids date certain races, that’s racism.
One thing it depends on is what you mean by “Asian”, since the Asian continent contains a very wide range of ethnic and physical types.
If you’re using it as shorthand for “East Asian”, as is commonly the case, then the statement makes more sense.
And in the sense “I find all East Asian women unattractive”, I think the statement doesn’t mean much more than “I find all redheads with freckles unattractive”. It seems to me that it’s meant to be about one person’s involuntary preferences for certain physical traits, rather than a judgement on those traits in themselves.
That said, though, I think the statement could be rephrased to have fewer racist-sounding connotations. Focus on the particular trait or traits themselves rather than the overall ethnic identity, and on the idiosyncracy of your response rather than the ethnic category. “For some reason, I’m never at all attracted to women with straight black hair” sounds way better than “I find all East Asian women unattractive”.
And of course, it’s quite possible that somebody has underlying racist reasons for their seemingly idiosyncratic response. If you were told all your life that “those people” were ugly and repulsive and subhuman and as a result you absorbed that belief, then your lack of sexual attraction to them would still not be deliberately racist on your part, but it would most certainly be ultimately motivated by racism.
I’d take it the other way around; yes, it’s racist…but so what? Not all racism is evil. Purely personal preferences are not only acceptable, but inescapable.
Saying it out loud to someone is a bit unwise. But simply having a preference? What, does that mean straight people are homophobic…by definition?
Even if it is horrible and racist and evil… What kind of social remedy would anyone propose? Compulsory dating? Mandatory social mixing? Tokenism? Affirmative Action? “Our records show you haven’t dated a Jewish woman recently.” “But I’m Catholic!” “And what kind of excuse is that?”
Yep.
The difference from other attributes, like aspects of personality, is that there is no characteristic that correlates absolutely with any “racial” label.
“Why aren’t you attracted to any Asian women?”
“Because I don’t like women who are [characteristic].”
“That’s not all Asian women.”
“Well, it’s most of them.”
“So that’s what you’re not into.”
Using a racial label as imprecise shorthand for an ‘undesirable’ characteristic–what can that be, if not racism?
Gonna disagree there.
I would propose that such a person try not to think in terms of “race.”
It’s racist by definition. He said all women of a particular race are inferior, at least in the looks department. He hasn’t met or even seen all these women, so he is prejudiced based on race, which is the definition of racism.
Now, on the other hand, is it wrong? Not really. You can’t really help what you’re attracted to. I’d hope he wouldn’t go around making a big deal out of it and mistreating Asian women and making them feel bad and such. If so, that’s wrong. Otherwise he’s just a guy with a personal preference in women. A racist preference, but still, no one is harmed by it.
Is it racist to say “I find all Asian women attractive”?
Possibly racist, but not necessarily. The fact that it is stated in the form of a personal preference makes it unclear if the reason is racism or just personal esthetics. It’s claiming that some other group is objectively ugly or otherwise inferior that is bigoted; not personal preference. Basically, to use another aspect of sexuality as an analogy, the difference between saying “homosexuality is perverted” and “I just don’t find other men/women attractive”.
It seems to me he’s making a statement about himself more than about the Asian race. I don’t find them attractive.
I could say that about a lot of groups. There are lots of kinds of women I don’t find sexually appealing for whatever reason. Hell, I’ve never been attracted to a man. Does that make me sexist? I agree that we can’t help to whom we are attracted. As has been demonstrated, it’s possible to come up with all kinds of hypothetical scenarios in which the statement is symptomatic of a more deeply seated racist attitude, but I don’t think the statement in and of itself is a racist one.
No, he said he’s not attracted to them. It’s a big difference. I don’t think men are inferior but I’m not attracted to them either.
Not racist, just poorly qualified.
I agree. Saying “I don’t find Asian women attractive” is a personal opinion. Saying “Asian women are unattractive” is a racist statement.
He could haver fixed it by saying instead, “All Asian women I’ve seen…”
You are only responsible for thinking you’ve done or haven’t done, for thoughts that are directly under your control, and that you are free to change. Your personal attraction does not fall under this category. Your personal taste is something very complex, and little of it developed consciously. You are not responsible for it.
Racism, on the other hand, can be changed as you experience people different than yourself. No matter how deep the feelings, they can be corrected. For this reason, you are responsible for attitudes that can be called “racist.”
The OP’s example is not racist.