The problem continues according to DeNeen L. Brown of the Washington Post in her February 25, 2010 article titled "Single black women being urged to date outside race". There is a sentiment among African American women that African American men are taking far too long to get their lives in order for sustainable relationships and marriage. This sentiment is new material for columnist outside the African American community, but women within it have dealt with this situation for decades. Brown's article addresses some of the frustrations that single black women have in waiting for that "good black man" to come along. For some, patience has melted like ice on a warm summer's day in the Mississippi Delta. The unspoken tradition in the community was for the women to save themselves for the male. Family and social pressures made this a reality for many African American women that aged and wound up with a host of prospects and no real gold to speak of in their quest. The term men, women, male, and female refers to African Americans unless otherwise specified in this article.
Today, many of these younger professional women are throwing the old taboos aside to pursue a life of happiness outside their own hue. The commonality of seeing a male athlete, entertainer, politician, or minister date or marry an Asian, Caucasian, or Latin female is a well-established social reality. However, eye-brows continue to lift as more women opt to do the same as men by dating outside their race in larger numbers than before. It is difficult to get substantive numbers on just how many are embarking on this new approach to fulfilling the desire to be happy in a relationship, but judging by the number of social groups, dating services, and blogs online, it is definitely popular.
During the 1990's we saw an influx of men dating Latin women in places like in the Southwest. The African American female was not as popularly sought after by these men, and this remains unclear. Now, we must understand that one region does not a country make. There are various elements that contributed to this gap between African American men and women and it all did not come about in one decade. A good percentage of males strayed from the path of prosperity in the 1980's due to the introduction of quick and easy money stemming from the drug trade. Thug-life was celebrated and later commercialized in music, and television. Hundreds of thousands of men fell victim to the lure and found themselves either behind bars or on the sideline of life watching others prosper. The women pushed themselves to attend school, rear children, and assume the roles of both father and mother. Others abstained until finishing school to find "Mr. Right" after going through or avoiding "Mr. Right Now". The number of men that might have had the aptitude to complete college experienced difficulty in qualifying for financial assistance due to prior convictions or being labeled as a felon. The opportunity arose to speak with some of these men who made it through the 1980's and 1990's to become successful unmarried professionals.
During informal discussions with several of these gentlemen, the subject came up about dating African American women and the responses were interesting. Physical features were never brought up such as good hair, lighter skin-tone, or incorrect grammar usage, common factors that some men who will not date African American women mention from time-to-time out of bias. The way they were treated in the past by other African American women during their earlier years seemed to have left a subtle residual anger. This lingering pain manifested into a preferential taste to respect them, but devalue them in respect to having a reminder of a not so pleasant experience in their lives. The interesting aspect of it all was that they would have intimate relations with them, but not marry or have children with them. So, from this perspective we can summarize that there are varied reasons that this romantic disconnect exist between the educated classes of African American men and women when it comes to relationships.
This leaves the professional black woman with limited options in that she is 3 times more likely to attend and finish college than an African American male according to United States Census 2008. And as of May 29, 2010 at 1:44 am, there are approximately 309,376,250 million people in the United States of which 37,131,771 million are African Americans. About 18.5% of females have at least a bachelor's degree with only 15.7% of males with degrees. The implications are that 2.80% of the female population with at least a bachelor's degree may be in search of a partner of sorts roughly. The total African American population with a high school diploma through a graduate or professional degree over the age of 25 years is about 22,166,023 million in the 2008 Census. From that group is where the aforementioned percentages are derived. This means that about 620,649 thousand women with bachelor's degrees or higher are in that pool of professional African American women without mates. So now there is a bit more clarity in respect to the imbalance in the male to female ratio of college educated African American females.
Now what does this mean? This group of 620,649 thousand women are faced with three options, either date a man that may not have the same educational level, remain single, or date outside her race. Statistically, it is logical that there is a shortage of men graduating from college to keep up with the demands of females. However, there is another factor that has to be considered, the current state of the economy that knocked many of these men out of positions in firms. This means that a more centric focus of personal survival is more appropriate than starting a family that could be seen as a liability from his perspective. Demographically, the bulk of these men and women are based east of the Mississippi River. So it could be further stated that the women that are opting to date interracially are from this group of 620,649 thousand women.
Today, many of these younger professional women are throwing the old taboos aside to pursue a life of happiness outside their own hue. The commonality of seeing a male athlete, entertainer, politician, or minister date or marry an Asian, Caucasian, or Latin female is a well-established social reality. However, eye-brows continue to lift as more women opt to do the same as men by dating outside their race in larger numbers than before. It is difficult to get substantive numbers on just how many are embarking on this new approach to fulfilling the desire to be happy in a relationship, but judging by the number of social groups, dating services, and blogs online, it is definitely popular.
During the 1990's we saw an influx of men dating Latin women in places like in the Southwest. The African American female was not as popularly sought after by these men, and this remains unclear. Now, we must understand that one region does not a country make. There are various elements that contributed to this gap between African American men and women and it all did not come about in one decade. A good percentage of males strayed from the path of prosperity in the 1980's due to the introduction of quick and easy money stemming from the drug trade. Thug-life was celebrated and later commercialized in music, and television. Hundreds of thousands of men fell victim to the lure and found themselves either behind bars or on the sideline of life watching others prosper. The women pushed themselves to attend school, rear children, and assume the roles of both father and mother. Others abstained until finishing school to find "Mr. Right" after going through or avoiding "Mr. Right Now". The number of men that might have had the aptitude to complete college experienced difficulty in qualifying for financial assistance due to prior convictions or being labeled as a felon. The opportunity arose to speak with some of these men who made it through the 1980's and 1990's to become successful unmarried professionals.
During informal discussions with several of these gentlemen, the subject came up about dating African American women and the responses were interesting. Physical features were never brought up such as good hair, lighter skin-tone, or incorrect grammar usage, common factors that some men who will not date African American women mention from time-to-time out of bias. The way they were treated in the past by other African American women during their earlier years seemed to have left a subtle residual anger. This lingering pain manifested into a preferential taste to respect them, but devalue them in respect to having a reminder of a not so pleasant experience in their lives. The interesting aspect of it all was that they would have intimate relations with them, but not marry or have children with them. So, from this perspective we can summarize that there are varied reasons that this romantic disconnect exist between the educated classes of African American men and women when it comes to relationships.
This leaves the professional black woman with limited options in that she is 3 times more likely to attend and finish college than an African American male according to United States Census 2008. And as of May 29, 2010 at 1:44 am, there are approximately 309,376,250 million people in the United States of which 37,131,771 million are African Americans. About 18.5% of females have at least a bachelor's degree with only 15.7% of males with degrees. The implications are that 2.80% of the female population with at least a bachelor's degree may be in search of a partner of sorts roughly. The total African American population with a high school diploma through a graduate or professional degree over the age of 25 years is about 22,166,023 million in the 2008 Census. From that group is where the aforementioned percentages are derived. This means that about 620,649 thousand women with bachelor's degrees or higher are in that pool of professional African American women without mates. So now there is a bit more clarity in respect to the imbalance in the male to female ratio of college educated African American females.
Now what does this mean? This group of 620,649 thousand women are faced with three options, either date a man that may not have the same educational level, remain single, or date outside her race. Statistically, it is logical that there is a shortage of men graduating from college to keep up with the demands of females. However, there is another factor that has to be considered, the current state of the economy that knocked many of these men out of positions in firms. This means that a more centric focus of personal survival is more appropriate than starting a family that could be seen as a liability from his perspective. Demographically, the bulk of these men and women are based east of the Mississippi River. So it could be further stated that the women that are opting to date interracially are from this group of 620,649 thousand women.
James Adams is a seasoned professional with over twenty years of industry experience in the areas of Information Technology, Broadcast Media, International Business, Marketing, Public Relations, and Entertainment combined.
James has several years of personal experience as a personal match-maker and informal relationship adviser with a successful track-record. In his twenty plus years in the aforementioned fields, he has mastered the realm of social networking by engaging in topics, and subject matter after extensive research.
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