I think you are needlessly arguing semantics. From the start I addressed that for this topic race=looks and not cases like this.I've addressed this throughout the thread. People associate specific looks with specific social groupings. This does not mean black people look a certain way, it means people are more likely to put people that look a certain way in the group black. You're not understanding what's actually going on with race. Being black doesn't make anyone look like anything phenotypically. Just like being lower gentry in 18th century England didn't make anyone look like anything phenotypically.
No, because we have specific associations with those words, it's not that white people platonically look a certain way. Of course this runs into some internal errors almost immediately. If we take a facial aggregate of the people that identify as Irish, and one of the people that identify as Iranian they will not look the same, yet both are placed in the white category. Clearly something else is going on here.
Yes, people essentiallize traits to a label and then distribute the trait to everything that has that label. This doesn't work well in analyzing things, it's a shortcut that works for quick generalization, not for deep understanding. It's also racist when the labels in question are racial labels.
That's both not logical true, you're assuming there's only one understanding of the category, and missing the fact that identifying people as specific racial groups is a more complex process than sticking their features into the race giving equation and finding their race. What do you think passing is?
You've collapsed a lot of things into the bolded. The former is clearly worse than the latter, but your missing quite a bit here that makes the latter a poor level of analysis. Of course in practice this is impossible to actually do directly, but there are ways to approximate what goes on when people make decisions like this.
If they are rejecting based on appearance 51% of black women and 50% of white women, there's probably a slight problem. If they are rejecting 99.5% of black women and 50% of white women then there's clearly a pretty significant problem. And since we live in a society that has a history we can pretty easily point to what could be the origin of that problem.
You can do this qualitatively too. Most obviously, if people just outright dislike dark skin tones you don't have to dig very far to figure out what's behind that.
Fine, if this is literally the only thing going on, i.e. controlling for high ones racial preference is the exact same, and in that situation alone, I'm willing to admit problematic cultural understandings of gender are in play here instead of problematic cultural understandings of race.
Why do people keep on bringing up sexual orientation, something that's innate i.e. not choice based, and equate it to a social construct like physical features and race where refusing to date specific races no matter what isn't considered racism?
Yes, but by lending into it doesnt hurt the white supremacy structure that is racism in America and inherently white people in America. Minorities to not have the means to oppress.
I cannot parse the first sentence either, but in the second sentence, replace "to" with "do" and it makes sense.Sorry, I can't parse this at all.
Ok, come on. Do we always have to jump to "YOU'RE the real racist aren't you!""My friend..."?
Fuck no
its like saying refuse to date people of certain gender is being sexist. this logic is simply retarded.
everyone has preferences
I think you are needlessly arguing semantics.
From the start I addressed that for this topic race=looks and not cases like this.
Instead of saying the mouthful that is "I have a preference/dislike for features typically associated with race X", people just say "I (don't) find race X attractive".
First of all, lol at you taking an issue with 51% over 50%. Come back to the real world, please.
Second, there's no issue with rejecting 99,5% or even 100% women one views as black on the basis of physical appearance.
Again, unless you have no physical preferences yourself, you have no room to talk.
Please notice I said "one views as black" and not are black because, again, actual race, whatever your definition is, doesn't matter, only physical appearance does.
And you can harp on what race is or isn't as much as you want; at the end of the day the common usage is race=looks. That's the basis for categorization and discrimination.
There are far more definitions than that. That's one of the most narrow.rac·ism
ˈrāˌsizəm/Submit
noun
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.
So if I don't find a specific race to have ladies (or dudes) that I would want to date I think my race is superior and fulfilling the definition of a racist? I don't understand how this whole thread is people saying yes when the definition of racism is a bit broader than not finding a race date material. You could not find your own race superior, shit you might not even want to date any of your own race and just a different one but be ok with all races as friends or family by this definition.
Maybe people of a certain race don't appeal to them. How is this labeled if the person won't date tall people or obese people? I really have a hard time seeing how this is racism. The heart, brain, genitals want what they want and that would feel like it's impossible to change.
Fuck no
its like saying refuse to date people of certain gender is being sexist. this logic is simply retarded.
everyone has preferences
So how am I racist if let's say I like black women. Sure white women are good looking as well but my preference goes to black women because of their skin tone, hair and general looks.
How does that make me racist?
So how am I racist if let's say I like black women. Sure white women are good looking as well but my preference goes to black women because of their skin tone, hair and general looks.
How does that make me racist?
I'm one of those preferences people. I find Japanese girls attractive but generally not Korean for example.
Racial preference is a purely social concept whereas sexuality is innate. Nothing complicated or ambiguous about that.
This. The fact that you're unopen to the possibility is pretty shitty.I think the word 'refuse' is what makes it racist.
Having preferences is normal & him not wanting to date black people based on attractiveness or lack thereof is not racist, but refusing is stupid and racist
Sums it up perfectly.Yes, and we don't need a 15-page long thread to read people's flimsy justifications as to why is not.
And no race has just one specific set of features. You can find all the features you find attractive in all races. You can be attracted to different things as you grow up, so I don't see what I'm attracted to when I was 10 to always be set in stone and never change to when I'm 30. I'm not attracted to guys in a sexual manner, gay porn or romance doesn't do anything for me, so I'm pretty set in my sexuality as a heterosexual. Compared to sexuality which is mostly clear cut from a young age to when you're an adult, so I don't see the equivalence of race to sexual orientation.Do you choose what you find attractive? I certainly do not feel I have a say in that. Considering personally, I value a fit look, clear language and bright mind, I am probably lucky in that the features I like are not more or less likely with one ethnicity over another, but I never decided "this is what I like", nor could I change this.
So how am I racist if let's say I like black women.
Haha my best mate and myself had this debate many a time - usually after a few drinks
He was vehemently convinced it's racist - I merely portended it was preferences
We were both partially right
I don't think so.
It's not like women of all races are lined up to you and you say "no, I won't date you coz you're black" to their face. You date who you wanna date based on preferences, and race can be one of those preferences.
I like how we keep focusing on the impact of a racist culture on our sexual preferences and not just the fact that these people are full of shit. Theres no way these people have never found a single member of a particular race physically attractive. There are super models of all races, you're telling me if you met one of them and you dug their personality and they were inexplicably into you that you still wouldn't date them because not racism? Fuck out of here...
You just disproved your own point. No one has lined up all black women and seen them all before deciding they weren't into them. If someone says this, it means they see what they perceive as universally "black" features as unattractive. Which makes them racist, because not all black women have those traits they've decided are ugly. Definitely racist.
There's a pretty big difference between having a preference for, and refusing to date.
My argument is simple and proves itself.As I say every time this comes up, if you say someone you are arguing with is arguing about semantics then you too are talking about semantics. Of course this is semantics, and of course it isn't needless. You're entire understanding, with pretty obvious problems I mentioned above, rests on semantics, on the way you think of certain words.
As usual, complaining about semantics is a cheap ploy to distract from the weakness of your argument.
Except when we look at how race works in the real world that isn't what's going on. So sure, if you want your "needless semantics" your free to define the words in a way that makes what you say make sense. Of course that means you aren't really talking about much at all, but whatever.
I agree that people often use it as shorthand, though for a still racist sentiment, I disagree that no one actually means what they are saying. There are people that actually think this way.
Ironically for someone complaining about me arguing semantics this part of your argument involves assuming people don't mean what they are literally saying.
That was clearly an example to demonstrate what the case for a marginal preference would be. Are you really going to argue it's all okay if it's marginal? At what point does marginal turn into a problem?
I'm genuinely curious as to your argument about why that would be okay? It doesn't mean the person is horrible, but would mean something was going on there. This is how we use statistics to evaluate the social world.
This is your whole thesis, you're supposed to be arguing for it. I've stated a number of times in this thread why it's a problem and why it in at least some cases will derive from racist thinking.
Utter nonsense. That's stripping race out from its social, cultural, and historical context and acting like it's the same thing as whether someone has a scar. This is disingenuous beyond belief and a vain attempt at scoring cheap points.
Of course you aren't even making an argument for it, though I understand the implicit one that all distinguishing between physical difference in people is the exact same because it's based on physical difference. Which of course misallocates focus from the distinguishing, how and why does this happen, to the physical difference, which you then unthinkingly turn social by putting into a racial category.
Except that's not true. What matters is how people are categorized, physical appearance is only a part of that.
That's the common usage sure, but that's not what actually is going on. The latter is what matters.
Also once again you're ironically making a semantic assertion.
You've still yet to provide an argument here. You're just fruitlessly asserting your main point and trying to handwave away the widely accepted frameworks that academics who actually study the topic have made because they are inconvenient to you.
Meanwhile you've failed to even address around half of that last post.
And no race has just one specific set of features. You can find all the features you find attractive in all races. You can be attracted to different things as you grow up, so I don't see what I'm attracted to when I was 10 to always be set in stone and never change to when I'm 30. I'm not attracted to guys in a sexual manner, gay porn or romance doesn't do anything for me, so I'm pretty set in my sexuality as a heterosexual. Compared to sexuality which is mostly clear cut from a young age to when you're an adult, so I don't see the equivalence of race to sexual orientation.
I posted a link to one Tence, but its like black culture, I'm not going to tell you where it is, you'll just have to look it up yourself.
Please, as if there wouldn't be an immediate follow up question.Your friend could have just politely refused dates with all "people of certain races" and nobody would have batted an eye. Advertising "your preferences" loudly and aggressively makes it racism because you are using your preferences as a weapon.
"I REALLY DISLIKE THIS POT OF FLOWERS THAT IS IN MIDDLE OF ROOM" - moaned the boy loudly, so that the whole house echoed, while sitting in a corner.
Is it racist to say I do not find x, y, and z features of that race to be attractive, therefore I generally wont date them?I think refusing to date ALL members of a race is racist, but saying you have a preference to one over another, is not.