Interracial divorce, the matrix of sex & race

[phk]

It has been known for years that interracial marriages have higher than expected divorce rates. But I did not know that the rates varied quite a bit contingent on the combination of race & sex. A blogger has a post up, Interracial Divorce in the U.S. - Statistics and How Much They Matter:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The higher divorce rates for white female/non-white male dyads somewhat surprised me, but perhaps I shouldn't have been. There seems a robust body of social science that white women in the United States are particularly race conscious. I stumbled onto a paper which emphasized this point, and its subtle nuances, recently. I didn't blog it because the sex difference in racial mating preference is such a robust finding that it doesn't seem noteworthy (though perhaps racialist message boards should focus a bit more on male rather than female  "race traitors," as it is the XY who are more open to sullying the purity of the volk). In any case, the paper is Gendered racial exclusion among white internet daters. Here's the figure which stood out to me:



The big finding is this: among white women who stated a racial preference on Yahoo Personals, 73%, 64% of these selected that they wished to date white men only. In contrast, among white men who stated a racial preference, 60%, only 29% of these stated that they would like to date white women only. In other words: men who expressed racial preferences were excluding particular types of women, while women who expressed racial preferences were doing so to include only men of their own race. This seems to comport with previous work which suggests that once you control for perceived physical attractiveness men do not discriminate much in dating, while women continue to discriminate even if they assess out-group males to be physically attractive (e.g., one would conclude from this that the white male aversion to dating black women has to do with assessments of physical appearance, as much of the discriminatory effect disappears once you control for assessed attractiveness). This makes some sense, men generally weight physical appearance higher than women in the calculus which determines their preferences.

What can you infer by combining the findings of the two surveys? I'll leave it up to readers. I am struck though by the low divorce rates in the pairings of white males with black women. This is a combination against general social expectation. There are a fair number white men who prefer to date and marry black women, Robert De Niro and Roger Ebert are two prominent instances. One might guess that these men go through a "social filter" whereby their pairings have to be strongly favored for them to be continue onto marriage. But how to explain the high divorce rates of white women who marry Asian American men? The same logic should apply. I suspect that a general model may not be helpful here, and that particular cultural and social dynamics may differ across all the pairs (e.g., I assume Gori Girl expected higher divorce rates for Hispanics who marry whites than those who in-marry because Hispanic Catholic culture frowns against divorce). In contrast to this complexity, there are now a large number of studies which suggest that women have a stronger endogamous preference than men. This holds true in elite Ivy League samples, and more general population samples. Though the magnitude may vary by race (white women are invariably extremely race conscious, black women seem to be more varied according to study demographics, and in some cases Asian women are not racially discriminatory against white males, though they do not prefer them) the male-female gap seems to persist robustly. I'll withhold from offering an evolutionary psychological explanation lest "miko" unleash his wrath :-)

[Torie]

Well in Michner's novel Hawaii, he commented that the most successful marriages where white military men marrying Japanese women. And the guys after WWII had easy pickings, because a lot of Japanese women were delighted to have the chance to escape the fate of marrying a Japanese chauvinist male pig. And there you have it.

[Lunar]

Men on Yahoo personals are by definition more desperate than the male body at large...who would they be to discriminate against someone else?

[Lunar]

Men on Yahoo personals are by definition more desperate than the male body at large...who would they be to discriminate against someone else?

And so is the male body at large.  When they are young (and I presume internet dating skews on the younger side), women have all of the power in terms of who they select.

[Boris]

well, fuck

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And so is the male body at large.

Quite.

[Lunar]

well, fuck

I would say two things to comfort thee:

1) It's hardly surprising that most white women who are uncomfortable around other races/not comfortable in an ethnic boyfriend would also include "East Indians" ...not because East Indians are necessarily the least attractive, but rather they are the most foreign-sounding. 

2) It's Yahoo personals, srsly, who goes there?

[phk]

well, fuck

I would say two things to comfort thee:

1) It's hardly surprising that most white women who are uncomfortable around other races/not comfortable in an ethnic boyfriend would also include "East Indians" ...not because East Indians are necessarily the least attractive, but rather they are the most foreign-sounding. 

2) It's Yahoo personals, srsly, who goes there?

If Sanjay Gupta could hook up with a white girl. So can you!

[Padfoot]

Well in Michner's novel Hawaii, he commented that the most successful marriages where white military men marrying Japanese women. And the guys after WWII had easy pickings, because a lot of Japanese women were delighted to have the chance to escape the fate of marrying a Japanese chauvinist male pig. And there you have it.

The opposite explains why divorce rates are so high amongst white female/Asian male couples.  Asian men are far less likely to be accepting of women working outside the home or being independent in any way.  Most Western women would likely be very unhappy in such a relationship.

[Lunar]

One important point to remember too is that there are ALREADY many ethnic minority based dating sites.  There are sites for blacks to find other blacks, etc.  There isn't a place for whites to find other whites.  Thus, you're going to find more whites that display racial preferences and discrimination because they don't have a non-nazi "white singles" site that would otherwise provide an outlet for those whites with explicit racial tastes.

And, yeah, and younger or financially insecure men cannot be as picky when it comes to race.  Even if a guy has an explicit racial preference, say, he prefers an Asian 7 to a White 7...he's still unlikely to turn down the White 7 (if that's his standard) while semi-attractive women on these sites are bombarded with creepsters and get to be very selective.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yahoo Personals? Should at least study something like eHarmony or match.com or even OKCupid or Plenty of Fish.

[phk]

The point isn't Yahoo Personals.

Its...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I really don't see the issue of interracial divorce rates and racial preferences in dating being related. If you have a strong racial preference, I would think you are quite unlikely to marry outside of it.

I would guess a fair amount of what we're dealing with here is socioeconomic and cultural, with race being correlation but not causation.   It seems likely to me for example that a white man / black woman couple is would be more educated, and/or more economically stable on average than a black man / white woman couple, since black women currently have higher rates of graduation and professional attainment than black men.

[opebo]

And so is the male body at large.  When they are young (and I presume internet dating skews on the younger side), women have all of the power in terms of who they select.

Only in America - not here, for sure.

Basically legalized or tolerated prostitution can equalize the unfair balance.

But regarding the original question - this is as much based on class as race, or at least the two are mixed up.  Basically women marry for money/power/security/prestige, all of which are provided better by a higher caste white than a lower caste black or other.  Maybe they get excited for a while by the better sex or some such minor issue, but after a few years of facing financial challenges they drop the less-usable mate like a hot potato.

[phk]

well, fuck

I would say two things to comfort thee:

1) It's hardly surprising that most white women who are uncomfortable around other races/not comfortable in an ethnic boyfriend would also include "East Indians" ...not because East Indians are necessarily the least attractive, but rather they are the most foreign-sounding. 

2) It's Yahoo personals, srsly, who goes there?

If Sanjay Gupta could hook up with a white girl. So can you!

Just show them this.

[Guderian]

This is an interesting analysis, especially since I will enter an interracial marriage in June.

[Vepres]

And so is the male body at large.  When they are young (and I presume internet dating skews on the younger side), women have all of the power in terms of who they select.

Only if the man is a shallow and/or lacks confidence with women, which basically sums up 95% of young males

[dead0man]

And so is the male body at large.  When they are young (and I presume internet dating skews on the younger side), women have all of the power in terms of who they select.

Only if the man is a shallow and/or lacks confidence with women, which basically sums up 95% of young males

FTFY