Monday, February 25, 2013

Interracial Dating Views Online

I recently participated in a very interesting personal study for my own interests. I clearly write about interracial dating on multiple levels as a writer, so sometimes I like to go out of my way to see what the world of interracial perspectives are beyond my sphere. This led me to sign up for a very common, widely used dating service. One of the matching criteria is a question based solely on race, and in lieu, interracial dating. The question was posted as this,

“Would you strongly prefer to date somebody of your own race?”

Answers:

“Yes”
“No”
“Indifferent”

And then there was an area to say how important this factor was in a potential match ranging from “irrelevant”, to “mandatory”.

Just to make a point of this question's impact on my “matches” I went to see how I compared to the vastly open field of potential dates beforehand and then compared them after I had answered that I would strongly prefer to not date someone of my own race, and would want a match to think the same way. Before my matches ranked anywhere from 80%-90%, and after answering they dropped to 60%-70%. This simply means that a massive portion of the potential public was highly contrasted to the acceptance of interracial relationships. This is not only personally disturbing from a minority standpoint, but goes to show how niche of an area interracial relationships are regardless of their increased frequency and portrayal in media outlets.

Interracial dating is something that either people seem interested in, or they have preconceived ideas of wanting to specifically avoid it. I'm sure there are people who are converted from one side to the other in between there, but the lack of willingness in my own personal experience on this “mainstream” dating site showed that if you seek an interracial relationship foremost, you should look into venues where this is the theme. Otherwise you might be fishing in a pond where the fish are simply not interested in biting, regardless of you as a person.

It's sad that potential dates and mates are reduced to denying people based on their looks and ethnicity, but it would be silly to deny the frequency of this type of thing happening. Seeking out online relationships, or finding personal relationships through online sources is very modern and commonplace, but finding an interracial relationship seemingly should be done on sites where that is the main concentration.

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