# White Men-African Women **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 26, 2000, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594 "2000-05-26T12:49:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/61 "2017-11-17T11:23:24Z")
> [@molten](#): > > I surmised there are black facial features from seeing many women who have very dark skin colour and similar features. I have seen on the other end, women who have less of those features and have lighter skin colour, that in some individual cases were self described as mixed. Almost all the features found in humanity are distributed throughout Africa, and not in trace amounts either. What people stereotype as “black features” is usually kinky hair, broad noses and full lips. But even a cursory survey will show a crap ton of black people not having those features and not because they are mixed either. Beauty also abounds in these features, but you know, whatever floats your boat. If you move through life thinking you can reliably differentiate mixed and non-mixed people based on whether they have black features [aka you find them attractive), I don’t know what to tell you except look up confirmation bias and insularity. And then maybe take a trip to Africa. > [@](#): > > If you are seriously are telling me the only difference between white women and black women is the colour of the skin alone, you are deluded (/have an agenda) It’s curious you leap to this conclusion when, as pointed out before, you seemed to understand perfectly well the fallacy of making assumptions about people based on traits that are exclusive to only a subset. I’m not saying white women and black women only differ in skin color alone, but this still doesn’t support your point that black women have enough facial features in common to wave off as looking the same (unattractive). ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/62 "2017-11-17T11:23:27Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > A [Pew Research](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/12/key-facts-about-race-and-marriage-50-years-after-loving-v-virginia/) poll found that 24% of black newlywed men are in interracial marriages whereas only 12% of black newlywed women are in interracial relationships. > > [Data from dating websites](https://theblog.okcupid.com/race-and-attraction-2009-2014-107dcbb4f060) suggests that black women are rated more negatively than other women by all male groups. Including, to a minor degree, black men who appear to have a slight preference for Hispanic or Asian over black or white. [Here’s another set](http://techland.time.com/2013/11/26/dating-app-reveals-troubling-racial-preferences/). > > This doesn’t mean that “attractiveness” was the primary driver for these numbers, of course. Could be cultural or economic factors at work as well. From what I’ve read and surveys, men in general are more open to dating all types, whereas women tend to get fixated. “Once they go black they don’t go back” may be a myth, but it got to be a stereotype precisely because women are less open to dating outside the race they prefer. If they like white guys they like white guys. If they like black guys they like black guys. My wife, who is black, has only ever dated Jewish guys, although she insists that was never a plan. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/63 "2017-11-17T13:50:38Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think a food analogy may be useful here - some people want nothing more than home cooking like their mother made when they were growing up - some people find themselves gravitating towards taste in a different cuisine, and **some people turn out to want to try a little bit of everything**. Yep, that’d be me… er, back when I was single, _of course_. And, to follow your food analogy, I never found some of the restaurants I was curious about, alas. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/64 "2017-11-17T14:34:08Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > It is remarkable to me,whenever I see an African-American couple portrayed on a TV ad or drama: The Man is always darker than the woman. Interesting observation! I dated a black girl in the 1980s, and she pointed out to me that black guys tend to pick lighter-skinned girls as partners – in her experience, at least… ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/65 "2017-11-17T16:29:35Z")
For what it’s worth, marriages between white American men and African-American women are more stable / long lived than same-race partnerships. For Black men & white women it goes the other way. Not that stability or longevity makes a marriage good or bad though (and there’s some reason to believe that social stigmatization of relationships itself can make the relationship less stable and more likely to break up). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/66 "2017-11-17T17:30:17Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > For what it’s worth, marriages between white American men and African-American women are more stable / long lived than same-race partnerships. Wiki says otherwise. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States). Same-race marriages for Asians and Hispanics have lower divorce rates that white-white marriages. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/67 "2017-11-17T22:58:07Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Wiki says otherwise. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States). Same-race marriages for Asians and Hispanics have lower divorce rates that white-white marriages. > > Regards, > Shodan From the same page: “The role of gender in interracial divorce dynamics, found in social studies by Jenifer L. Bratter and Rosalind B. King, was highlighted when examining marital instability among Black/White unions.[11] White wife/Black husband marriages show twice the divorce rate of White wife/White husband couples by the 10th year of marriage,[11] whereas Black wife/White husband marriages are 44% less likely to end in divorce than White wife/White husband couples over the same period.” ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/68 "2017-11-18T07:27:49Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Wiki says otherwise. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States). Same-race marriages for Asians and Hispanics have lower divorce rates that white-white marriages. > > Regards, > Shodan I doubt if that is relevant. I think commonality of culture is a strong predictor of longevity. Like the old adage, never marry someone you cannot play trivial pursuit with. It is comforting to fall back on shared cultural memories. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/69 "2017-11-18T22:20:10Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Personal observation base on TV commercials I’ve seen lately - there are several with mixed race couples where the man is white and the woman is black. The only ad I’ve seen that has a black man and a white woman shows them dancing together (theatrically, not romantically) and there is no suggestion that they’re a “couple.” I’m not sure what, if anything, it means - it’s just something I’ve noticed. Same disclaimer of ‘just what I’ve noticed’, I haven’t noticed the same. I think I know the commercial you’re speaking of. But AFAI have noticed there are about as many commercials with black man, white woman couples as vice versa. And less based on just casual observation, if advertisers were really avoiding it, you’d probably hear complaints. OTOH just looking around in real society\* black man white woman couples far outnumber the opposite, so would on TV if it was supposed to be strictly representative of real life, but don’t. But back to the OP question and the criticism of it: how would one measure ‘scientifically’ whether white men tend to find ‘African’ women (reading the OP post I guess the assumption is white men and women identified as ‘African American’ in the US) physically attractive? It’s relatively unusual for US white men to date or marry black women compared to vice versa, but that’s not necessarily because of the opinions of white men about black women’s physical attractiveness. Black women have a vote in those decisions too, and both sides are surely ‘attracted’ or not for a broader array of reasons than just physical attractiveness, especially just facial features, and most especially in case of marriage (if you’ve got any brains at least you don’t commit to somebody for life based on looks alone 🙂 ). OTOH if you ask white men, many would answer with what they think is PC to say. And when you unscientifically throw out the question there’s going to be I expect a strong tendency for self-selection toward those who can honesty supply the ‘fair minded’ answer. Though note IMO it’s one of the unfortunate distortions of the concept of ‘racism’ to say it’s ‘racist’ if you’re not sexually attracted to the typical physical characteristics of a particular racial, ethnic etc group (with all due disclaimers about how ‘typical’ doesn’t apply to everyone, etc). \*for me the NY area, where I believe the skew might actually be smaller than on average in the US. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/70 "2017-11-18T23:06:03Z")
I asked this question years ago and was told that its the same reason that black guys go for white girls … White girls will put up with more bullshit than the average black woman will … Note this was 30 years ago and said by my foster mom ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2017, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/71 "2017-11-19T01:06:35Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > But back to the OP question and the criticism of it: how would one measure ‘scientifically’ whether white men tend to find ‘African’ women (reading the OP post I guess the assumption is white men and women identified as ‘African American’ in the US) physically attractive? [This was a study](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470491301100410) in Australia but they had people rate faces both “straight” race and the blended into various composites. ---
**Author:** ![Tempe\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tempe_jeff/32/7328_2.png) [@Tempe\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tempe_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/72 "2017-11-19T03:17:28Z")
When I was in 5th Grade, we moved from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Richmond,Va. Desegregation was just starting up in 1972-1973. I was bused to an inner city School that was majority\>90% Black. I think that experience showed me the precocious beauty of Black girls. I’ve been the Minority in that School, it opened my eyes. I later dated , and then Married my Beautiful Black Wife. BBW FTW! ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594/73 "2017-11-19T17:46:09Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > [This was a study](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/147470491301100410) in Australia but they had people rate faces both “straight” race and the blended into various composites. I know there are such studies. I question the worth of them to find the ‘true answer’ because there’s no way to ‘blind’ them. This study claims to use a ‘plausible cover story’ to fool the participants into thinking they needn’t show how racially ‘fair minded’ they are. I’m skeptical. This forum isn’t unique in its _intense_ focus on race, nor is it limited to the US. It’s a hyper-sensitive topic in the English speaking and developed world. It’s like telling Victorians they can really honestly talk about sex. 🙂 Besides which the OP and discussion have left open ended the distinction between preference for a particular face and choosing someone as a (particularly if serious/long term) romantic partner. Those overlap but are far from the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-men-african-women/20594.md?page=3)