Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Now Race and the Mating Marketplace

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Now

Race and the Mating Marketplace

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and He placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with His arrangement there would beno cause for such marriages.The fact that He separated the races shows that He did not intend for the races to mix.”

Judge Leon Bazile (1959) States where interracial marriages were illegal are shaded red

195919611966

Guess Who’s Coming To DinnerRace and the Mating Marketplace

• Very Slow Growth– 1970: Less than 1% of marriages are interracial– 2005: Only 7.5% of marriages are interracial

• Both Race And Socioeconomic Status Matter

• Racial Aversion and Racial Fetishism

• Approval and Disapproval– Blacks: Disapprove generally, but make exceptions for family

and friends– Whites: Approve generally, but disapprove of them for their

immediate family and friends.


• Border Patrolling– White women (with black partners)

• Verbally harassed, socially ostracized, and even excommunicated. Shaming by former White partners

– White men (with black partners)• People express curiosity, confusion, and sometimes concern

from Whites, but open hostility from Black men.– Black men (with white partners)

• Perceived as “weak” or “selling out.” Seen as betraying and/or weakening the Black family

– Black women (with white partners)• Perceived as “wanting to be white,” or worse, “disloyal” for

giving their bodies to White men


Exchange TheoryAssumptive Scopes

• Exchange relationships develop within structures of interdependence between actors.

• Actors behave in ways that increase outcomes they positively value and decrease outcomes they negatively value.

• Actors engage in recurring, mutually contingent exchange with specific partners over time.

• All outcomes of value obey a principle of satiation or diminishing marginal utility

Exchange Resources (Rewards)• Blau (1964): Personal attraction, social acceptance,

social approval, instrumental services, respect/prestige, and compliance/power.

• Foa & Foa (1974, 1980): Love, status, services, goods, information, and money.

• Merton and Davis (1941): Race and caste

• Gonzales & Meyers (1993): Attractiveness, financial security, expressiveness, instrumentality, sincerity, and sex.

Exchange Theory“Humans seek rewards and avoid risks/punishments”

Actors behave in ways that increase outcomes they positively value and decrease outcomes they negatively value


Social Acceptance

Exchange Theory“Humans seek rewards and avoid risks/punishments”



Exchange resources at riskin interracial relationships

Social Approval

Respect/Prestige

Status

Security

Methodology

San Francisco, CAPhoenix, AZDenver, CODallas, TXHouston, TXKansas City, KSSt. Louis, MOMiami, FLBaltimore, MD

Collection of nearly 7000 personal advertisements from the personal ads sections of ten cities’ free newsweeklies (i.e., City Papers):

Chosen for their regional Chosen for their regional diversity and ethnic diversity and ethnic

makeupmakeup..

New York City, NY

Methodologycont’d

• Newspaper• Gender• Sexual Orientation• Race• Age• Race Desired• Age Desired• Type of Relationship

Desired• Gender Role For Self• Gender Role For Other• Mentions of HIV, Drugs,

Children, and Religion• Resources Offered/Sought

– Physical Attractiveness– Financial Security– Expressive Traits– Instrumental Traits– Sincerity– Interest in Public and/or

Private Relationship

Trained coders recorded both objective information (e.g., race, age) and specific

content categories (dichotomous, frequency,

specific words) to be included in the analysis.

Desired Personal Characteristics

This is the usual trend discussed in the literature

Offered Personal Characteristics

This is the usual trend discussed in the literature

White Heterosexual Men

Race Of Desired PartnerWhites, Anglo-American

R Will Date This Race R Exclusively Seeks This Race

“Just the term ‘black women’ conjures up thoughts of an overweight, dark-skinned, loud, poorly educated person with gold teeth yelling at somebody in public. I hope that doesn’t make me racist but honestly

that’s the 1st thing I think of.”

“Sexual attraction for me is a combination of physical and personal attributes. If I find a Black woman attractive, it is because their hair type and facial features are more representative of the Caucasian race. If that aspect is attractive, then their speech and intelligence

level would have to be more representative of that found more prevalent in other races such as Caucasian or Asian.”

From Brittany Slatton’s Mythologizing Black Women

The Ten Most Commonly Selected Traits About American Women(256 White College Students)

IntelligentMaterialistic

SensitiveAttractive

SophisticatedEmotionalAmbitious

Career-OrientedIndependent

Talkative

[From Weitz and Gordon 1993]

The Ten Most Commonly Selected Traits About Black Women

(256 White College Students)

LoudTalkative

AggressiveIntelligent

StraightforwardArgumentative

StubbornQuick-Tempered

BitchyToo Many Children

[From Weitz and Gordon 1993]

Documents

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner Now Race and the Mating Marketplace