Poll: Is Not Dating a Certain Race Racist?

[EboMan7x]

I'd say there's a difference to it being a preference vs. a rule... for example, I have a rule that I won't date girls that don't tip their waiters, and I have preference towards girls with nice butts. However, I have dated girls with little to no butts. Now, wordings when you don't think you're risking offending anyone are sort of unreliable, but he did say "won't." So in this particular case I think he may have been racist.

 

[Someone Depressing]

As long as it's not because of racist reasons, no.

Everybody has their preferences. You wouldn't call a bisexual peson greedy, and you wouldn't call a heterosexual or homosexual person sexist. Because that's stupid.

 

[CJ1145]

Let me make myself clear: people should be allowed to date who they want to date. That's just simple logic.

But. BUT. To all the people who voted no on this poll because they want to live in their dream world of tolerant happiness.

If the reason you are refusing to date someone is their race: that is, in fact, racist. You are making a decision about a person specifically from the observation of their race. If you decide you don't find them attractive, that's fine. Just don't try to sugarcoat it and claim it's not racist, because you don't want unsavory words associated with your choices.

See, people want to think that racism means wearing white hoods and lynching people. That's not what racism is. That's the stereotype of what racism is. Racism is when you look at a person, and the first thing you notice about them is the color of their skin. Racism is when you find one group of people more attractive than others because one has a more appealing range of colors. You follow me? Being racist is something that is so ingrained into our society we've picked up on it to some extent before we can talk. It's not something you can pretend doesn't exist. It's not something where you can say "Oh, those other people are racist, but I'm definitely not!"

You are. You really, truly are. And so am I. And so's Chet, LeVar, Rosa, and Yoshi. You imagined a specific race for each of those names in that list. Don't try and tell me you didn't.

But that's okay. We're not going to yell at you and think mean things because you notice that people look different from each other. What matters is that we recognize each other as people, regardless of the color of our skin, and give respect and friendship to one another. It's fine if you don't find a certain race attractive, just don't pretend it's not born from the same part of people that makes actual actively racially prejudiced people discriminate against others and try to deny them their basic rights. It is, those people are just worse because they allow those preconceptions to color how they interact with others, to the point that they stop treating other people like people.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Is it racist? Yes, a little.

Does it make you a racist? No.

Nobody's perfect. Or, to quote the song, "everyone's a little bit racist sometimes". So is it racist? Yes. But only a very little bit, and it doesn't make one a bad person by itself.

 

[Rex Fallout]

No. It's not racist. Unless preference in the looks of your mate is somehow discriminatory now. Hasn't been for thousands of years at least.

Yes it IS. Choosing or not choosing SOLELY because of RACE is the very definition of RACISM.
It's just that maybe it doesn't matter that much. He can date whoever he wants. Primitive way to go about it, but hey, it's his private life.

You can date whomever you wish. It isn't racist to prefer certain things more than others. I'm not going to date a woman I am not attracted to. I don't treat them differently other than that, but that doesn't make me racist if say I am not attracted to black women. I'm not going to go steady with someone I'm not attracted to just because you think I'm racist for not doing it.

This is a rather stupid argument.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No. It's not racist. Unless preference in the looks of your mate is somehow discriminatory now. Hasn't been for thousands of years at least.

Yes it IS. Choosing or not choosing SOLELY because of RACE is the very definition of RACISM.
It's just that maybe it doesn't matter that much. He can date whoever he wants. Primitive way to go about it, but hey, it's his private life.

You can date whomever you wish.

Nobody said otherwise.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

snip

I will admit to similar preferential's, although it's mostly caucasian women I find attractive (I'm even on the fence about Jessica Alba honestly). I can't explain why other races just don't flick that switch on in my head that makes me think; 'do want'.

If I found a girl attractive however and she was of a different race, I wouldn't dismiss her because of it.

 

[thePyro_13]

The problem with these arguments is that there is a biological component to attraction based on sex. There is no biological component to attraction based on race. It's not sexism to find one sex more sexually appealing than another because it's not a conscious decision. A straight person can't will themselves to find their sex attractive, a gay person can't will themselves to find the opposite sex attractive, bisexuals can't will themselves to only find one sex attractive, and asexuals can't will themselves to find anyone attractive. It's biology. It's not learned.

Associating certain races with sexual attractiveness is learned. There is no biological component of the body that says, "Black people are hot!" There's no hormone desitocin that makes seeing Indian people cause the body to go all weak-kneed. There's no caucanoid fold in the brain that produces thoughts of "pasty and pale, never fail!" Attraction or dis-attration to particular races as opposed to attractive people in general is a learned behavior. Which is why the reasons it was learned matter. So these comparisons between race and sexual orientation just plain don't work.

What makes you think their's no biological or instinctive preference regarding race? Race is more than just skin colour, it also includes major differences in facial structure and voice. Surly you can recognise that individuals do have preference when it comes to these things.

You could extend the quoted arguments to include people with big noses or cleft chins; would discriminating attraction based on those features be wrong?

 

[Nurb]

Are gay men sexist for not dating women?

 

[Insomniac55]

If you find someone of race X physically attractive, but won't date them because they are of race X... Then yes, you are racist.

If you find the physical features typical of race X to be unattractive and thus aren't attracted to people of race X, then you are not being racist.


Personally, I would never rule out dating any particular race. However, it's much more likely that I'm going to find a Caucasian or Asian woman attractive than an African woman. That's not racist, it's just a symptom of the arbitrary way my brain judges attractiveness. However there are always going to be exceptions to such a sweeping generalisation.

 

[Easton Dark]

I'm going to keep note of this thread to know who on here knows what words mean and who doesn't.

Yes it's racist. Yes people who think it's clever to compare gender, only finding one gender date-able is sexist.

And no, none of this matters.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

"Happen to have" As in, race was not considered.

Yeah...no. You can't not consider race when saying that one race is unattractive.

"I don't like black hair"

*All black people become included in this catagory*

Suck on it.

Side note: the picture I picked however, may be unintentionally racist given the subject matter.

Mmm... hair dye?
Although, I do get what you're saying, my type is redheads, how many redhead non-white people are they naturally or otherwise. Having said that, the celebrity I find most attractive is mila kunis and at first sight she appears to be latina or mixed race (don't know if that is the case or not).
So in conclusion, preferring one race to another on sexual level = not racist
Saying all members of a race are unattractive suggests that a person is racist, even if it is to point where said person doesn't realise it themselves (i.e. subconsciously)

Edit: Gay/Bi/Straight people are biologically attracted to gender, I'm not sure if the same can said about race.

Also, though people deny it, even to themselves, racial prejudice happens all the time without us even realising. There is a psychological test in which test subjects of various races are shown pictures of men of various races and asked to associate a word from a choice of 5 to the men on screen. Regardless of the test subject's race they always associate a positive word with the picture, however 95% take longer to this with members of a different race then they do with their own. (I think this was on an episode of Lie to me come to think of it)

Anyway, sorry about the wall of text this just got me thinking.

 

[darkhallwaygames]

If this is racist then not being Bisexual is "sexist"

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Why would you even include a criteria like 'no blacks' on your preferences? I would find it prejudiced on the grounds that they are already convinced that a black person couldn't capture their fancy in any way shape or form.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me personally, I don't have a choice. I don't wake up and think to myself "I don't want to be attracted to black women". I just aren't. Same as I'm not attracted to men. I feel no sexual desire there. I just don't find the great majority of black women as sexually attractive to me. I don't know why, that's just the way I am.

 

[Something Amyss]

Hence the second half of my post about how it can be racist.

The problem being that it was racist, and the point you made about what it means was wrong. Therefore, the second part was irrelevant. I don't know what's hard to get here.

 

[Something Amyss]

I can't speak for everyone, but for me personally, I don't have a choice. I don't wake up and think to myself "I don't want to be attracted to black women". I just aren't. Same as I'm not attracted to men. I feel no sexual desire there. I just don't find the great majority of black women as sexually attractive to me. I don't know why, that's just the way I am.

Are you attracted explicitly to "anyone but a black girl?" See, I'd already guess not because you said most black women, not all black women. You aren't completely precluding them. The example given was.

There's a difference between standards of attraction and this rather particular exclusion.

I mean, most people are attracted to people who look sort of like them. I get it, it's normal. We have our own standards for beauty within our own communities.

Specifically saying you could go for anyone but a black girl certainly comes across as prejudicial.

I'm not immune. I have a tendency to prefer white people. The key here being "prefer." I also prefer redheads, but I'd find it particularly weird if someone said "I'd date anyone but a blonde girl."

 

[viking97]

Racist (adj): Based on race.

Yeah, it kinda does.

 

[Something Amyss]

Whatever you happen to like is just your preference and you have a right to prefer people of a certain race over another certain race, for example, I just so happen to find Japanese or Asian women more attractive than white women, I would date a white women if I liked them enough, but I just find asians more attractive for whatever reason, does that make me racist?

I really don't think so, its not like I have something against other races its just my own personal preference, sexual attraction is not something that people can control, even though many people pretend they can, you have a right to find someone more attractive then someone else at least most sane people do

(*cough* feminists aren't exactly intelligent *cough*

If you're talking rights, you also have the right to claim black people are inferior, homosexuals are going to Hell, and women should stay home and make babies. That doesn't mean those claims aren't racist, homophobic, and sexist respectively.

I mean, sure, it's his right to use whatever standards he wants in dating. but just because you have a right doesn't make it at all non-prejudicial/bigoted/whatever.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Maybe by the most sterile dictionary definition yeah it is, but it's not like you can really control what makes your dick happy.

Then again, if someone IS racist they probably wouldn't consider that race a pontential partner, but that's more of a "all squares are rectangles, not all rectangles are squares" kind of thing.

 

[Dethenger]

No, that's not racist. Different races have different features, different physical characteristics. Whether or not you find them attractive or not is just a matter of preference. Now, I mean someone could call you shallow--I wouldn't, I think that sexual attraction is a key component in a relationship--but racist? Nah.