Gendered Black Exclusion: The Persistence of Racial Stereotypes Among Daters

Constrained desires: The romantic partner preferences of college-educated Latinas

“…As Latinas at PWIs, their preferences were also constrained by the racial boundaries that characterized the spaces they inhabited, requiring them to negotiate a color line that deemed them desirable to date or not (Rodriguez 2000). These findings are consistent with prior work showing how racialized and gendered stereotypes about women of color inform interracial dating preferences (Bany et al 2014). …”

“…Although none of our respondents dated Afro-Latinos, which we attribute to the ethnic origin of Latinos in the western United States rather than a lack of interest, some had dated African Americans or indicated they were receptive to doing so. For those who had dated Black men, respondents were inclined to describe the relationships as casual and short term (Blackwell and Lichter 2004;Joyner and Kao 2005), consistent with other studies showing Latinas receive messages and sanctions from parents and other third parties about interracial dating (Morales 2012;Bany et al 2014;Vasquez 2015). Latinas in our study also did not typically date Asian men, which they attributed to personal aesthetic tastes.…”

“…These patterns parallel research on interracial dating, which shows white Latinos are open to dating non-Latinos but have strong preferences for dating whites rather than African Americans . Latinos are also more likely to exclude non-Latino Blacks as potential mates because of perceived social disapproval from friends or family (Morales 2012;Bany et al 2014). Together, these findings suggest Latino-white boundaries may be less rigid than Latino-Black ones, especially in regions where both preferences and opportunities drive relationship formation processes ).…”

“…In terms of interracial dating, Latino parents' attitudes are more consistent, viewing Latino-African American relationships more negatively than Latinowhite and Latino-Latino relationships, with Latino men being especially critical (Garcia et al 2012;Bany et al 2014;Vasquez 2015). Morales (2012) finds Latinas' romantic preferences are shaped by parents who sanction them for dating African American men through gendered and racialized messages about the consequences of having mixed-race children or emphasizing perceived cultural differences and disapproval by societal institutions (see also Rosenblatt et al 1995;Childs 2008).…”

Boundary crossing in first marriage and remarriage

“…Notwithstanding secular improvements in attitudes toward interracial couples, there remains considerable resistance to mixed-race unions, with the strongest opposition toward those involving Black partners and least resistance toward those involving White partners (Bany et al, 2014; Johnson et al, 1997; Wang et al, 2012). A recent report by the Pew Research Center, for example, reports that two-thirds of US adults said that they would be “okay” if their family members dated a Black person; however, 81 and 74 percent of US adults, respectively, said that they would be if their family members dated a White and Hispanic person (Wang et al, 2012).…”