A shocking new study from the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships says that white men who make a big deal about how much they’re open to dating women of color are actually not really that open to dating women of color. But the results are more specific than that: men who believe in racial “colorblindness,” or men who claim to somehow not see race at all, are less likely to want to date women of color at all. But that’s definitely a coincidence because they can’t any see race, right?
Probably not. After surveying 124 college-aged heterosezual men, 62 black and 62 white, the study found that while subjects in general tended to be attracted to women of their own race, those who endorsed multiculturalism, or the idea that different cultures and races can co-exist (therefore acknowledging their existence to begin with) were more likely to be attracted to another race. The men that believe in colorblindness, AKA denying acknowledgement of race in a (deeply misguided) attempt to somehow treat every single person the same way no matter what, were less likely to be attracted to black women. Interestingly, the colorblind ideology had the same effect on both white men and black men, who were also less likely to find black women attractive if they “don’t see color.”
The authors of the study, researchers at Tennessee State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted that the study shows that trying to ignore the existence of race not only doesn’t work, but has the opposite supposed intent of racial harmony.
“These results are important because they suggest that it is more than a mere absence of prejudice that can foster interracial attraction but that a conscious commitment to the recognition and valuing of difference across race may be what is influential in interracial attraction,” the authors wrote.
The results are evidence of a phenomenon where white people claim to be above acknowledging any racial difference because white people truly can float through their day-to-day life without ever feeling the effects of racism. Assuming everyone else is experiencing the bliss of your own ignorance, however, is completely useless and ultimately harmful, as this study proves.
This post was originally published on Teen Vogue.
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