A comment I just wrote about racism...

[calichillout]

This racism thread is very interesting. What I'd like to hear though is a discussion of how culture underlies people's preferences for different races. Physical attraction is often bread by cultural influences. Here's my personal example. I'm biracial (half black, half white) but I grew up in White suburbia (I think there were 3 black students in

Comments

[cowslayer]

What I find most interesting in this post is your perception of yourself. You are biologically half black and half white and culturally mostly white yet you seem to consider yourself to be black. Quite complex self perception you got going there.

And yes, I have had conversations on this topic many times before, with people who both saw overwhelming whiteness in the gay culture as a problem and as a a simple fact of life. When I first thought about this, I wondered whether an evolutionary component existed in this "sexual racism". After all, selecting partners that share most of your phenotypical characteristics will only strenghten your own image in the gene pool. The strongest argument against this is that not only that whites seem to go mostly for whites but also all other races seem to prefer whites too. And so it must be the consumerist brainwashing. A&F-like beauty is an unforgiving standard and stereotypes still rage in our society, making things even more difficult in creating an equal playing field. But I'm rambling now and this is getting long so I'll stop.
Better do an MCAT passage or two. :)

[calichillout]

Hey! I'm going to write you back in two seconds, sorry I haven't yet. Hmmmm...you're right about my perception of myself. So the reason that it's so complex is that skin color is quite obvious and you can't escape it. People just looking at me will always judge me as being black, no matter what my culture is. And because of this, there is a certain amount of discrimination that comes because of this. Especially in the form of physical attraction preference. So, yes, I do consider myself black at times because I do believe that I can help out that part of my racial background by showing that I can make it and therefore, so can they. I know that's a little off because I'm not purely black. But, upon initial impression, that's what people see. It's like Halle Berry. She's biracial as well but her mom (who's white) always told her to consider herself black because that's what society would see. Now, my parents never said that to me, but after exiting my 95% white hometown, I realized that, at times, I'm definitely seen for black and experience both advantages (college admissions, med school admissions) and disadvantages (people being shocked by my intellect and also guys judging me). So, I will usually say that I'm biracial but I'm also a representative of the black race, though obviously not the black community, if you see the difference.

Now, on the point of your evolutionary theory. I think that makes perfect sense! And I don't think you have to worry about other races totally preferring whites because, in reality, I think that's mainly a gay phenomenon. If you look at the statistics of interracial marriages and relationships, they are still a minority compared to same race relationships. And, your theory would support the gay behavior too because we don't have to perpetuate our genes in the way heterosexuals do. So, there may be more out of race interests in the gay community. The attraction to white people is probably because of the whole A&F thing but also because of the power that white people hold in our society. Gay people lack power and if you're a minority and gay, you really lack power so there's an interest in gaining a little power and one of the best ways is to date a white person. That's what I would say.

Ok, you should have kept rambling because you know I enjoy hearing your thoughts and because I just wrote a fucking thesis! lol. Hope the MCAT is going well.

[cowslayer]

What I also find interesting is the way in which men are attracted to other men. To vastly stereotype, straight women are somewhat forgiving on the physicality but seem to look much more for certain romanticism, care and security. Straight men look for hot versions of their mothers and physicality is very important. Gay men seem to view other men the way straight men view women but in essence, there is little difference between what gay men and straight women find physically attractive. In my opinion, that fact strongly suggests some sort of genetic basis to homosexuality. I kind went off on a tangent there, didn't I?