Politics and Culture

An AP news article by Dionne Walker a couple of weeks ago that black women are increasingly dating men of other races reminded me of a theory on interracial dating I developed back in my college days. Since I didn't start Asymmetric until twenty years later, the theory languished in the little corner of my mind I reserve for interesting inconsequentialities until now, when I get to share it with my readers.

First, a few caveats. I consider this story and interracial dating in general to be morally neutral- neither bad nor good- and of little consequence to the lives of Americans. Second, Americans get more upset over race than religion and politics put together- more than even dog fighting- but I only intend to make what I feel is an interesting observation so don't get upset. Third, I’m speaking in the broadest of generalities and my own now-shelved proclivities have often contradicted this theory. Finally, I recognize that other factors may be at work, but I'll purposely limit the scope of the discussion to my little idea. If you know of something interesting on the subject, let me know.

Here we go:

UCLA is definitely one of the most racially diverse campuses in the nation. When I attended in the late eighties and, I’m embarrassed to say, up to the early nineties, I'd say that about thirty five to forty per cent of the population was Asian, five per cent Hispanic, and ten per cent black with the rest being white. Most everybody got along fine despite the best efforts of some groups to antagonize.

Being a healthy young man, dating was often paramount of my preoccupations and I routed many valuable hours from academics to explore dating's many mysteries of which an interracial dating disparity was one. As I walked around campus, I began to notice patterns in interracial dating: Black men with white women were a common pairing as were white men with Asian women. One saw the occasional black man with an Asian woman. It was very rare, however, to see black women with white men or white women with Asian men and I never saw a black woman with an Asian guy. Everybody loved Cubans (just kidding-I couldn't resist).

When the subject came up with my friends, which was quite frequently, I noticed a regular form as well. My male Asian friends bemoaned the white guys scooping up the available Asian women (one guy even said he'd go back to China to find a wife) and the black women would complain that the black men's preference for women of other races limited their dating opportunities, although their actual statements may have been more colorful.

Sensing a rare moment of relevancy, it's here that some, especially those populating blank-studies departments across the nation, start talking about the legacy of this or the power of that or the dominant culture whatever. I've learned to ignore such people, but I'll just quickly dismiss a few things that can’t be overriding factors: If culture or economic power were a major component in Asian-white dating, for example, we wouldn't see such a large disparity between types of couples. In other words, why would the dominant class send the message that it’s OK for Asian women to date white men, but not the reverse? At one time and in various parts of the country, it was true that white men, as described best in Ellison's Invisible Man and Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, found black men threatening and intimidated both white women and black men from sharing each other’s company. But if racist whites possessed such power today, certainly we’d see more black women with white men instead of its observable reverse.

The common error made by blank-studies specialists and other Marxist-influenced grievance groups is that in packing every societal phenomenon into the tiny suitcase that makes up their political views, they often leave the obvious explanations in the closet.

And what is the obvious? In this case, the disparate pairings exist because females or males of this group find opposite-sex members of another group more attractive than the obverse relationship. To be precise, black men find white women more attractive than black women find white men or white men find black women, and white men find Asian women more attractive than white women find Asian men. Calm down, please.

Why would this be? Let's assume the commonsensical idea that men consider feminine women alluring and that women seek more masculine men. That men would rather date Anna Kournakova than Martina Navratalova and that women would sooner go for Russell Crowe than Tommy Tune seems beyond debate.

Now, masculine and feminine behavior is, I believe, almost completely based in culture and values. The men camping outside the theater to get their tickets to Rent are the descendants of the Vikings who waited beyond Paris for a chance to pillage. However, different cultures at different times vary in the degree to which its men buy into the confrontational, intimidation-based, yet honorable and external-oriented protective traits that most people associate with masculinity. At this time in the American story, and for a variety of reasons, especially outside of the South, black men are generally considered to be more masculine than their white brothers and the same pattern holds true for the distaff. Eldridge Cleaver brings up the same point in the aforementioned Soul on Ice. His point isn't completely convincing, but whatever truth it contained is certainly more valid today compared to the sixties when many of the men had just participated in an undertaking known as World War II.

Physically, the same principal applies, but without the cultural component, of course. The PG-13ish nature of this blog and my own inclination prohibit specific delineation, but from a purely physical perspective, men and women of different races are seen as being differently endowed with masculine or feminine features, respectively- from hair length to other lengths; body structure, etc. This isn't to be taken as one race being "more beautiful" than another race. We know that concepts of prettiness and handsomeness have more to do with "health signs" like hemispherical symmetry, lack of evidence for disease like healthy skin and hair, and signs of fertility like hip-waist ratio. Height is important for men.

Here, I’ll admit that my blank-studies brothers and sisters have a point in that culture interferes with this order. In race-conscious societies, like pretty much everywhere except the modern West, both dejure and unspoken codes of intermarriage prevent men and women from dating (and marrying, of course), other races. But that’s a whole other big thing that I may talk about later.

Anyways, I'm sorry if I offended, but this is one opinion I won't defend, because, simply, I don't care enough to argue.

Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Seal-Klum-like a more common sight than...

...David Bowie and Iman-like.