Interracial Dating and Common Combinations: Why Are Some Interracial Couplings More Common?

[loc978]

Not sure why this would be, but I'm a fairly atypical white guy. By my sexual history I guess I'm most into mixed black or native american women.

Mostly I just despise suburban women, really... the kind who fall firmly under the stereotype of "white".

 

[Hero of Lime]

Here in southern California, White Male/Asian Girl couples are very common, as there are large Asian populations in this state.

What about the reverse? As you said, the reason this would be a common couple is because of the high Asian population, but that shouldn't mean only white guy and Asian girl.

You mean White Girl/Asian Guy couples? I rarely see that combination to be honest. Which is odd considering the opposite is fairly common. In fact, Asian men only seem to be interested in Asian girls from my personal experience.

 

[Syuurin]

I've always found this topic interesting as well. I'm white, but the town I grew up in is about 1/3 Asian, and I've had very few non-Asian friends throughout my whole life. Perhaps as a result of this, I have always had a strong preference for Asian men. I don't find stereotypical white masculinity attractive at all (i.e. squareish/"rugged" features, muscular, facial hair, etc.); if I find a guy attractive (regardless of race), it's because he has softer features, a slim build, etc. So, I've always been very aware of how there are far fewer Asian guy/white girl couples than there seem to be Asian girl/white guy couples, though more of the former have definitely been popping up in my hometown in recent years. In general, I'm a big supporter of interracial couples of all types, and love seeing ones that represent less common combinations.

All the things about how Asian women are supposed to be so "delicate" are kind of reminiscent of this article [http://www.xojane.com/issues/fat-for-an-asian-the-pressure-to-be-naturally-perfect]. This stereotype has definitely affected me as well, considering my social circle and the general "Asian guys date Asian women" stereotype. Though quite thin myself, I feel like I'm always competing with these "perfect" people, and it's been a problem in some of my part relationships (see: guy who left me for a Taiwanese girl and then raved about how his parents "approved so much because not only was she Asian, she was Taiwanese!" Give me a break).

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to seeing more and more interracial couples around as immigration, etc. continues to make everywhere more diverse.

 

[DeltaEdge]

I would assume that it is predominately a cultural thing, before actual base preferences even, which are also likely influenced by cultural stigmas and what not. I'll use myself as an example. I am an African American male, and if I had to rank what races I find attractive from least to most, it would be roughly as follows:
African American - Middle-Eastern/Indian - Latino/White/Asian (/ indicating they are in close proximity)
Now for the explanation!

Spoiler: Life's Story ahead[Highly Subjective!] You have been warned

I grew up in the Midwest, in Michigan to be specific, and I lived in a few different parts of Michigan, including Troy, Auburn Hills, Detroit, Belleville, and Ypsilanti, where I currently am for college. I also lived in California from 2007-2011 after my parents divorced, and my mother moved there.

Before I go into my experiences with different races of women, let me say a little bit about myself first. Excluding watermelon, I pretty much do not fit into any of the stereotypes of most AA Males. I don't like sports much. I don't mind playing them sometimes, but find no joy in viewing them on TV or events, nor do I enjoy rap, or hip-hop. I grew up enjoying anime, video games(namely JRPGs, sonic, and Nintendo IPs), and browsing the web. I would also like to say that the potential is generally there for me to find women from any race attractive and/or desirable. While I have African American Women squarely at the bottom in terms of preference, there are still plenty of African American women that I find attractive(at least in the physical sense). The main thing keeping me from being more interested in them is by far interests/behavior. Where I have lived, most African American women women(and men) in general seem to have very similar tastes, most notably being rap, hip/hop, sports and many other things I have no interest in.

Particularly in Michigan, due to obvious reasons(i.e., past racism), coupled with the fact that many have come from poor households with a low standard of living, they often bear much resentment toward Caucasians, which due to my fortunate upbringing, is something that I do not share in, with the majority of my friends being Caucasian, further driving a wedge between them and I. With the prevalence of these traits among most African Americans I meet, particularly the women, there are generally very few women that share enough in common with me to even hold a decent conversation with, let alone develop any sort of relationship with. So to summarize, among African Americans where I live exists a highly prevalent and insular culture opposed to my personal culture, which keeps me from actually finding anyone of mutual interest most of the time. While I noticed that when I moved to California, most African Americans I met had a higher standard of living, which meant significantly less people of the former category, particularly males, I still very rarely met any African American women that I had anything in common with.

Somehow, I feel like the explanation for other races will a a lot shorter. I haven't really talked to many Middle Easter/Indian women, although I do have a few in some of my classes, but I really don't know that much about them, and meet so few of them, that no relationship will probably ever happen on that end. Most of them seem to maintain their traditional garb rather than adopting a more western style, which might imply insularity, especially seeing as many of them seem to have moved here directly from their respective countries for schooling.

I don't really meet very many Latino people where I currently live, although I did meet many more when I lived in California, and one of my better friends that I have somehow managed to keep up with considering how anti-social I can be, is Latino. I find a good amount of Latino women to be attractive, but don't meet very many that share common interests, but I did meet a few that did when I lived in California, but that hasn't transferred over to Michigan, so the likely hood of being in a relationship with a Latino women for me is relatively low as well.

As for Asian girls, it's probably just the weaboo in me, but I find them to be particularly cute and attractive and whatnot, but I rarely meet any, although probably more than any of the previous races, bar African Americans, and most of them seem to be transfer students from their respective countries like many of ME/Indian girls I see around campus.
Also, I tend to be even more self-conscious about talking about anime or most of my other interest with them, because strange awkward reasons that I don't feel like elaborating on(Basically, I'm dumb) so I don't see myself dating any Asian girls either(Unless I end up going even further in my Japanese classes, and end up teaching English in Japan or something).

As for caucasian women(and also men), due to being the majority, have little to no insularity where I live(and probably everywhere else), so they are the most varied in interests and culture and whatnot. Most of the people I have met since coming to college, male or female, that share my interests, have been Caucasians, with minorities probably only making up about a measly 10-20%. Therefore, statistically, considering my personal likely hood of meeting women of common interest by race, I would likely end up in a relationship with a Caucasian woman, provided I can even get a girl
's romantic attention.(I actually did ask a girl out recently(Caucasian). It was a no, but it was my first time, so I was pretty happy with myself for finally man-ing up enough to do so. Kinda sad though that I'm 19, and only just now getting around to this)

Anyways, not sure if this was particularly helpful, but I hope it might at least partially helped to answer your question.

 

[FireAza]

Is this the study you're talking about OP?

I'm not sure, as I said, the newspaper article didn't give it's source, but it's pretty likely that what you've posted is it.

For point A, this seems to be the Caveman brain at work. Caveman brain doesn't trust people who look too physically different from him, so he doesn't trust people people with with say, a different skin tone from what he has.

Please never say this again. That's not how it works. In Ancient times people were way more likely to be judged by their religion and class rather than their skin tone. The way we view other races and genders is taught entirely by our current culture

Emphasis on "caveman" dude. I'm talking about pre-religion and class, when homo sapiens were at their most animal-like (i.e the time when we killed all the Neanderthals)

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

as a white guy with a black girlfriend I suppose it should be kinda cool to be in the minority here but I am always kind of bothered that black women have a "perceived" value of less than women of other races. as far as why they don't date many white guys, I learned real quick there is ALOT of social pressure on black women to stay within their race when dating and even more so to stay within their tribe if they are African. one thing I learned quickly dating an African from Ghana is that Africans who immigrate to America have a high amount of contempt for American blacks and a general displeasure for Africans from some other countries. For example Nigerians are kind of perceived as con artists in general and are kind of looked down upon by other Africans. so black women are portrayed as less valuable by the media so white men are not encouraged to date them and I can attest to the fact that black women are often shamed by their own families if they date white men. my girlfriend catches a lot of flack for being with me in fact her own mother won't even talk to her anymore. some of her friends from Ghana do make comments here and there that bother me and so if I overhear it I tend to respond with a racist comment of my own. my girl shares my sense of humor so we can laugh it off pretty easily.

as far as why I prefer black women and don't find Asian women attractive at all save maybe a few? simple, they look like women. there is this leaning towards almost loli-esque women these days. those considered most attractive are the ones that most closely resemble 5 year old boys. and Asian women do a great job of that. Me I prefer a woman with a little meat on her bones, not fat, but I like curves. boobs, butts and bam, i'm a happy guy.

now this part may get me labeled as an asshole but here goes. the reason why black guys are highly sought after is because on average women prefer to date assholes and black guys typically are bigger assholes in general. women with low self esteem, women who are vulnerable, are easy prey to those with a predatory personality type and black guys are over masculine to a fault weather consciously or not they tend to be more predatory in their treatment of women. these of course are massive generalizations and only apply in the abstract.


of course to the individual statistics and preferences mean F all.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Without examining any evidence or consulting a single study, I'd wager the cause is the result of some combination of:

1) Cultural predisposition to interracial coupling (e.g. in 1930's Mississippi, an interracial couple would be so frowned upon by the average community as to be effectively impossible)
2) A natural predisposition to prefer things similar to your self
3) Distribution of people (An interracial couple would be naturally rare when various races exist in relative minority. Also can contribute to point 1).

 

[Nouw]

If there's anything I learned from this thread is that dry ear-wax is recessive. What the flying fuck? I thought everyone had it!

Stereotypical Asian girl is small, demure, cute and submissive.

On the flip side, the stereotypical Korean girl is big, outgoing, hot-headed and dominant . I ain't even mad.

I always hear people say that being black is an advantage, but I fail to see any of them.

I'd say being able to rap without other people cringing at you is a huge advantage c; Seriously, have you ever heard a Korean guy rap Kendrick Lamar? It's fun but I can't help but wonder how silly I sound doing it.

 

[psijac]

I am an Asian Male and I prefer white girls. My Sister Once Dated a muscular Black man. He wasn't an African American, just straight up African. If was a hard relationship on both of them as Our mother wouldn't approve of her dating a Non-Asian and His mother wouldn't approve of him dating a non-Black. So they had to keep the relationship secret.

I am currently dating a white girl, my brother made a joke that there would be a wedding, my mom scoffed and said that girl is just for fun.

Rebelling against your mother is a powerful thing for American girls of any color

If you are a black women you should visit japan. Black women are incredibly rare there and you will be admired for your exotic nature

 

[Superlative]

I have to agree with @DeltaEdge in that I think what your attracted to is heavily influenced by your culture. I'm a black male and I'm attracted to asian and black women the most with everyone else following in a close second. I'm more attracted to curvy or sleek builds than skin tone.

@JuliusTerrell theres no need to feel inferior to anyone. I would highly suggest reading a book called Black History Before the Mayflower, it goes into our history in much more depth than the standard eurocentric K-12 education. We come from a people who were doing cataract surgery during the classical era.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

My husband is a tall, lean, white male (German/Irish) with blue eyes, I am a mix of Mexican/Native American and German - I am also short and I guess kinda chubby or 'full'. My skin is lighter than one might expect, while I have very dark hair and brown eyes. My husband has a preference for Hispanic women, but they tend to have to look a certain way. More like, mixed race Hispanics, perhaps. I've always had a preference for tall, white men with fair eyes. I've just always been drawn to them. Perhaps it's the ruggedness, especially of my husband. He's got a lovely beard.

I live in Southern California (in the desert, 2-hours from Vegas), and I've noticed: Hispanic and Asian women with white men, as well as white women with black men, and of course, you have your same race couples. Around this area, those seem to be some of the most common couplings - that I have noticed. I have an acquaintance who is a short Korean male and he is dating a tall, gangly white girl. I consider that to be a rare pairing.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

One quick thing this made me think of, does the actual study claim it is a preference? Because there are more possible reasons for it than preference, for example the actual demographics of the areas in question.

http://qz.com/author/rkingqz/
It doesn't say where the majority of the 2.4 million interactions are from, it does say that on average 2/3's of the users are above 35 years.

 

[FireAza]

those considered most attractive are the ones that most closely resemble 5 year old boys. and Asian women do a great job of that. Me I prefer a woman with a little meat on her bones, not fat, but I like curves.

This is a bit of a stereotype. While most Asian girls are slim, they certainly don't look like five year old boys. The curves are there (mostly around the legs and hips) they're just not as exaggerated as other races.

 

[Snowbell]

I find myself more attracted to culture than race. I tend to shy away from anyone with a 'foreign' accent (I'm British) because it indicates that their culture will be different to mine, I suppose I'm a bit of a romantic xenaphobe. I would much rather date someone that I have a lot in common with, and dating someone from the same culture implies a lot of similar opinions that are cultural norms.

I'm currently dating a Bitish-Indian. He's the only Indian that I have ever found truly attractive, but I live in the country and haven't ever encountered many people from different races, unfortunately.

As for my preference; I prefer people with Caucasian features, preferably dark haired and pale, height isn't too important but they must be slender, neither scrawny nor muscular. Skin colour doesn't matter so long as they have Caucasian features, though that will of course be less common in other races. So I suppose my preference is white men.

 

[Julius Terrell]

In my experience I've come across white women who want a "stereotypical" over masculine black guy. As soon as the person sees that I'm not that, they're usually not interested. I've struggled so much with finding someone to date because I'm "neither or". A lot of people have told me that if they close their eyes they'd swear I was white, but when they open them then you know I'm black.

It's like I'm living in the twilight zone. Never really accepted by one race or another. I'm masculine, but not overly masculine. I've lived with this my entire life, and at this point I don't know what to do. I'll just have to accept the fact that I wasn't born to be the ideal anything.

My likes/dislikes don't align with African American culture. I mean I sing classical music for crying out loud. How many black guys are you going to meet that do that?

 

[mecegirl]

From what I've seen it boils down to people believing racial stereotypes. While the reasons are not connected to dating its part of the reason why people are so concerned with media representation. Most people don't fit the stereotypical image of their race in some way. But dealing with folks who grew up in areas with little to no Black people its annoying as fuck that they expect me to behave in a certain way. Even those who do behave closer to the stereotypes have more nuance to them than the media gives them credit for.

As far as dating is concerned I'm just over meeting White guys who've never been attracted to a Black girl until they've talked to me. Just like I'm over being the first Black friend. Guess I've just gotten old. . But its an experience that a good number of Black women(same for guys just reverse the terms) I know have had. And it is usually something that happens with White men who live in predominantly White areas. You can see the change in perspective in their eyes as they talk to you. What it tends to boil down to is personalty and shared interests. They have fed themselves the lie that they just aren't attracted to Black women, so they are shocked by it. Unfortunately, they rarely have the social grace to hide how shocked they are, and end up making others uncomfortable. Enter the "You're so pretty for a Black girl." type of statements. Because of of course I'm supposed to be ugly because I'm Black right? I'm not supposed to be "feminine" either. Someone mentioned earlier that Black women are more confidant. I'd say that it has less to do with self confidence and more with having a "Not taking your bullshit" state of mind. Considering the little things, like how my grandparents had to live through segregation. That my parents lived in rural parts of the South were segregation was for all intents and purposes in effect just not legal. It's not self confidence. It's my family not allowing me to grow up feeling inferior just because the dominate culture has issues.

 

[blackrave]

I'm a white man and I don't really care about "race" when it comes to dating. If I like her, I like her. There is no reason to limit your options.

Same here
It is like when someone asks what kind of girl you prefer and than expects skin tone, hair color/length, eye color, etc.
I can't answer this question.
Because to be honest I have felt attraction to plenty of different females in my life
Brunette, blonde, ginger, pale, tanned, high, short, with wide eyes, with narrow eyes, with tiny nose, with big nose, and so on.
There isn't any particular set of features that would guarantee my preference

Spoiler: Not that anyone asked, but if I should describe girl I have felt strongest attraction to, then

Ginger, elbow length hair, hazel eyes, slightly freckled, small nose, pale-ish (hint of natural tan), ~1.7m
We spent 2 years walking from school together every day, never said how I felt to her
Most probably that never would change anything, since she was too good for me
Anyway I can't avoid feeling of slight regret. And now I need a drink

What I can say for sure- beautiful women attract more attention than ugly ones. Doesn't matter what skin, hair or eye color you have, if you are beautiful then you will have male attention.