Guest Post By Josh About Online Interracial Dating

Earlier this week I was contacted by Josh, a regular commenter at Diversity Ink. He asked if I'd be interested in featuring an article he wrote for about how online dating has impacted interracial dating. Since I have been wanting to post something about interracial dating for quite some time, I jumped at the opportunity. The following article was written by Josh for Datingsites.org: 

Internet Dating Shrinking the Racial Divide

Would you date a person of another race? For many people today, that question is rarely pondered. In a culture where melting is as acceptable in the mainstream as actually being a member of any particular race, we’re inundated with images of interracial couples, children and celebrity figures.

The commonness of dating outside of one’s race is a reassuring breath of fresh air to anyone who has experienced discrimination. But watching the world go by doesn’t make one a seasoned traveler.
What about you in particular? Would you? Have you? Will you?

Thankfully, the majority leans toward indifference on the issue. They’re not crusading for more acceptance of interracial dating; they’re not picketing against the evolution of humanity and our inherent drive for communal lives regardless of color. They’re just taking life as it comes.

Interracial dating—its increased numbers and wider realm of approval—appears to be a natural byproduct of an integrated society. People sharing the same soil, enjoying the same freedoms, attending the same schools, enjoying the same hobbies – desire and love see past immediate appearance and even of lingering taboo.
According to the Survelum Public Data Bank, only a very small percentage of those surveyed about interracial dating opposed the idea, while other numbers indicate healthy indifference.

Roughly 250 people were surveyed, all over the age of 15, with a racial makeup slightly similar to the United States’ population: African-American, 11%; Caucasian, 73%; Asian-American, 3%; Hispanic-American, 3%; Other, 5% (4% unchecked).

Asked if they approved of interracial dating, 42% of the survey’s participants selected “strongly agree,” while 43% chose “agree,” and only 2% checked “strongly disagree.”

The acceptance levels are very high among those surveyed, but what’s more satisfyingly optimistic about this study is that only 38% of those surveyed had ever dated an individual outside of their race, while 54% had not. When asked if someone’s race was an issue at all, 57% disagreed while 25% agreed it was even an “issue.”

This is the indifference on display. Most people carry a shoulder-shrugging attitude about races mixing, and that’s actually the healthiest we can ever expect racial relations to be. Is it not?

When “So what?” is the reaction to the (non) issue of races mixing, it becomes clear that the natural seed, planted through immense struggle generations previous, has taken root and has grown tremendously.

In today’s modernized, mobile world, there is no better evidence of the spread of interracial dating than within the online dating genre. The king of all dating sites, eHarmony, has a widely popular interracial-specific branch, while other sites like InterracialPeopleMeet, InterracialDatingCentral, InterracialMatch, BlackandWhiteSingles, and dozens more, have a very large market share in the genre.

Opinions and polls may be misleading, but the money never is.

As for the smaller percentage of individuals choosing loathing over life, clinging tightly to pointless and damaging stereotypes and misconceptions, it remains unclear what it would take to sway their opinions closer to rationality’s roost.

The hope is that their children will experience a modern world in which “interracial dating” doesn’t need to be an issue—or term—at all; it can just be “dating” and allowed to be as natural in practice as it is in premise.