Is it racist to be attracted to guys of a particular race?

[justaguy]

Do you think.its racist if you go on a dating app and specify that you are interested in, say, Asian guys? Do people get offended by this? Because it seems to me you have as much chance in controlling what kind of guy you are attracted to as controlling whether you are gay or straight? Does it come down to the way you express the specifics of your attraction? For example, inferring it somehow without explicitly saying it.

 

[BiBtm64]

Personally I don't think it's racist to have and express a preference for or against a particular race. It's about the type of person you're attracted to.

Let's look at a definition of racism: "the process by which systems, policies, actions and attitudes create inequitable opportunities and outcomes for people based on race." (Australian Human Rights Commission and I'm sure there are other definitions). Your actions and attitudes may create inequitable opportunities for me, as a white guy, if you prefer to have sex with Asians. That's one way of looking at it. But it's not quite like applying for a job or other situations where inequity is not or should not be tolerated. You're not obliged to have sex with anyone who wants it simply to provide equal opportunity. It would be like saying that you should have sex with women or you're partaking in gender inequality. Your personal preference takes precedence, I think. You're simply shortcutting the process of weeding out potential applicants who might approach you, like some might prefer a particular age range or top/bottom role.

I think it's important to state preferences respectfully and to decline offers politely if they're not for you.

I for one don't feel offended or discriminated against when I see a profile that rules me out as a choice. If anything I welcome the fact that I don't waste my time getting in contact with that person. We all have our preferences. That's just my take on it.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

I think it's pointless having conversations about race, it turns into a big festival of self-affirmation, no different from allowing children to grade their own tests. Shocker: everybody got an A+. I think very few people possess the self-awareness and ability to self-correct needed to examine themselves for bigotry. How many people have you heard say "Yeah, maybe I am a little racist/said something kinda racist?" If you don't know what racism is, everything under this umbrella is moot.

To humor the topic, depends on the reasoning. Being attracted to guys who like heavy metal means by default you're probably gonna prefer white guys, but there are black guys that like metal. Not liking black guys cuz you think they're gonna steal from you, or preferring Asians cuz you think they're effeminate pushovers who can easily be controlled, or an ethnic minority preferring white due to self-hatred are symptoms of racism. To think that a class system that has existed for centuries magically vanished on its own and doesn't permeate our subconscious is goofy and illogical.

My prediction: this thread will be a chorus of congratulatory "No"s with no new ground broken, as most men are overly confident and confuse bias for reason.

 

[Peloso]

Sorry, but I'm racist for the summer until those damn Latinos stop playing music so loud it can he heard in space.

 

[me203]

I'm personally attracted to guys who participate in long distnace races vs.sprints. I figure if they last longer running on the track tehy might also last longer elsewhere.

 

[LeicsDom]

Do you think.its racist if you go on a dating app and specify that you are interested in, say, Asian guys? Do people get offended by this? Because it seems to me you have as much chance in controlling what kind of guy you are attracted to as controlling whether you are gay or straight? Does it come down to the way you express the specifics of your attraction? For example, inferring it somehow without explicitly saying it.

Of course it isn't racist BUT, along with the idiot trans activists who say it is transphobic if you won't date a trans guy, there will be a vocal minority who will castigate you for it

 

[rareboy]

It is really more of a kink.

Most of us have a physical type that we are most turned on by.

What would be blatantly racist is to be exclusionary...as in 'no Asians'.

So the best phrasing is to say that you are most turned on by Asian guys.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Do you think.its racist if you go on a dating app and specify that you are interested in, say, Asian guys?

That would be literally impossible, as Asian is not a race. Indians, Arabs, Mongolians, Israelis, Iranians, Japanese, and Indonesians are all Asian.

Race is a phenotypical description. The inhabitants of Asia do not share a genetic set of traits, nor a linguistic one, nor a religious one, nor a culture or identity.

If you were to actually list a racial preference like Negroid, Caucasian, Mongolian, etc., you would doubtlessly cause negative blowback merely from the fact that historically, miscegenation was often the rule and laws forbade the interbreeding of races, even though it happened all the time, but without sanction.

And, today, the mention of race is often a trigger for those who only see race in terms of oppression or inequality.

Attraction likely has a genetic component as well as a cultural one. If a person has been raised to admire or see a race as more privileged, then he may find them attractivve much as men see trophy wives as attractive. Likewise, prejudicial negative views can easily cause repulision through stereotypes like dirty or criminal or ignorant.

It would seem relatively easy to simply exluded responders on a case-by-case basis without causing the ruckus that stating racial preference would cause.

 

[Alistair]

That would be literally impossible, as Asian is not a race. Indians, Arabs, Mongolians, Israelis, Iranians, Japanese, and Indonesians are all Asian.

Race is a phenotypical description. The inhabitants of Asia do not share a genetic set of traits, nor a linguistic one, nor a religious one, nor a culture or identity.

The census bureau disagrees with you

About the Topic of Race

This section provides detailed information and statistics on Race. Find the latest news, publications, and other content.

www.census.gov

 

[LeicsDom]

So the best phrasing is to say that you are most turned on by Asian guys.

That in itself is racist ... to non-Asians

 

[NotHardUp1]

^^Are you suggesting the federal government cannot be wrong, especially in matters of political correctness?

Just because everyone has agreed ot a lie to avoid saying Oriental doesn't make a disparate group of races and cultures "Asian".

It's wrong on the face of it, a very modern example of The King's New Clothes.

The simple fact that in Great Britain the term is used to refer to Indians and Pakistani, and here to Japanese and Chinese is the best example anyone can give. Those groups have little in common other than being bipedal simians.

Sadly, despite their high academic success, those minorities in the U.S. have so little influence that they haven't yet a) rejected such an "All Other" moniker, and b) introduced their own self-identity rather than accepting "Asian".

The truth is, race today is too hot to be dealt with honestly, so people avoid it and refer to culture and ethnicity.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The census openly admits it is contradicting the historical definition of race:

The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.

About the Topic of Race (US Census Bureau)

It sounds like a U. S. senator answering a question from a member of hte press. Hispanic is a linguistic group, not a cultural one, and the fact that they can be so labelled as a race when the direction annotates that they may be of any race, illustrates just how tortured the government has become while NOT describing actual races.

 

[Alistair]

No. I’m suggesting that you’re wrong. 20 other links will disagree with you too. You’re not always right like you think you are.

 

[Alistair]

The census openly admits it is contradicting the historical definition of race:



It sounds like a U. S. senator answering a question from a member of hte press. Hispanic is a linguistic group, not a cultural one, and the fact that they can be so labelled as a race when the direction annotates that they may be of any race, illustrates just how tortured the government has become while NOT describing actual races.

It actually says that Hispanic is an ethnicity and not a racial group. That’s why Hispanic is a different question on the census from race.

 

[NotHardUp1]

No. I’m suggesting that you’re wrong. 20 other links will disagree with you too. You’re not always right like you think you are.

It's the internet. You could cite 10,000 other links, and they could all be equally wrong. There is no gatekeeper of truth on the internet. I've never said I'm always right, but you have said it repeatedly as an ad hominem comment, so that may be your perception.

It actually says that Hispanic is an ethnicity and not a racial group. That’s why Hispanic is a different question on the census from race.

The government is duplicitous. The census itself didn't make any clarifying remark in the response section of the survery, and then clearly blurred race as an identity in the questions by including nationalities AND using "Asian" as a generic lumping term. The U.S. federal government clearly treats Latino, LatinX, and Hispanic as a racial minority in all sorts of ways.

Because the politically correcting influences in American society define race by physical features, most prominently skin color, then attempts to undefine it as such are confused, at best, and dishonest and intentionally obfuscating at worst (see rhetoric about brown as a race when discussions refer to black and brown people of color.)

Hispanic would in any strict definition (including the U.S. goverment's) not include Brazilians or others non-Spanish speaking peoples of Central or South America or the adjacent islands. So, the forms intentionally widen the net to include Latino with an "OR" to link them. However, the government may exclude respondents from Spain or Portugal when sifting the responses, so the alleged cultural connection is trumped by geographical location.

And, the Hispanic non-identity aside, the 2020 form is nothing less than a clusterfuck when the actual race question is posed, as shown below:

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/technical-documentation/questionnaires-and-instructions/questionnaires/2020-informational-questionnaire.pdf

And I am by no means alone in identifying the problem with race and ethnicity ambiguities in the federal government and in society. The Pew Research Group spends quite a bit of energy laying out the widely perceived problems:

Who is Hispanic?

The Census Bureau estimates there were roughly 63.7 million Hispanics in the U.S. as of 2022, a new high. They made up 19% of the nation’s population.

www.pewresearch.org

The obvious truth is that most Americans have lazy definitions of race that range from skin color to language spoken to nationality. And that includes people who self-identify with inaccurate categories such as Asian or Latino. The vacillating markers are not merely used by a majority population describing "other" as various minorities, but also by culture warriors using whatever designation is convenient at the moment of utterance, rather than any meaningful description.

The end result is that if race is no longer anything that can be agreed upon by any rational definition, then the omnipresent accusation of racism can and is by that vagueness delegated to arbitrariness and caprice.

The well-recognized problem with racism definition and application as an accusation is studied and reported:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01902725221117834

Majorities of Americans see at least some discrimination against Black, Hispanic and Asian people in the U.S.

Americans are much less likely to say there is discrimination against White people: 40% say White people face at least some discrimination.

www.pewresearch.org

Americans are divided on whether society overlooks racial discrimination or sees it where it doesn’t exist

53% of U.S. adults say people overlooking racial discrimination is a bigger problem than people seeing it where it really didn’t exist.

www.pewresearch.org

Are False Accusations of Racism a Form of Defamation? - SFBBG Law

The other day as I was taking my work-from-home morning walk, I explored a thought: Should racism be made a per se defamation category? Clearly, that's not a solution to the enormous problem of societal and institutional racism spurring the current protests in furtherance of the Black Lives...

www.sfbbg.com

 

[rareboy]

That in itself is racist ... to non-Asians

It isn't...but you do you.

 

[LilBit]

The census openly admits it is contradicting the historical definition of race:



It sounds like a U. S. senator answering a question from a member of hte press. Hispanic is a linguistic group, not a cultural one, and the fact that they can be so labelled as a race when the direction annotates that they may be of any race, illustrates just how tortured the government has become while NOT describing actual races.

The US Census bureau has been remarkably inconsistent in its definitions of race. Depending on when my ancestors came over, we may have been defined as Turks, Syrians, Jews, or white. And in general, racial classifications have been incredibly unstable over the past 300 years (which is the extent of my expertise).

 

[NotHardUp1]

The US Census bureau has been remarkably inconsistent in its definitions of race. Depending on when my ancestors came over, we may have been defined as Turks, Syrians, Jews, or white. And in general, racial classifications have been incredibly unstable over the past 300 years (which is the extent of my expertise).

100%.

Humans, and many other species, identify like and unlike as a critical survival skill.

With the development of language, we put words to definitions and distinctions that far predated spoken language. Now that we have evolved far enough to at least pretend to be less tribal, language itself becomes the enemy of clarity, just as in any dystopian novel.

 

[Latimer]

There's a movement afoot for moving North Africans and Middle Easterners out of the white category into their own category, with the attendant access to the DEI spoils. Many Armenian Americans are delighted with the prospect, but my Armenian partner, with his light-brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes ("Caucasian" he would say, with good reason) in his is appalled at the prospect that anyone would consider him not to be white, and that he'd be lumped together in a category that is pretty much Magreb plus Ottoman Empire plus Iran.

 

[unloadonme]

There's a movement afoot for moving North Africans and Middle Easterners out of the white category into their own category, with the attendant access to the DEI spoils. Many Armenian Americans are delighted with the prospect, but my Armenian partner, with his light-brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes ("Caucasian" he would say, with good reason) in his is appalled at the prospect that anyone would consider him not to be white, and that he'd be lumped together in a category that is pretty much Magreb plus Ottoman Empire plus Iran.

I didn't realise that people from North Africa and the Middle East were currently categorised as white.