Perceived Race and Racial Preferences of Multiracial Daters

• In Event: 322 - Regular Session. Multiracial Identity, Beauty, and Dating

Abstract

Immigration and increased intermarriage have led to a growing multiracial population in the United States, whose place in a changing U.S. racial structure is debated. This study examines how self-identifying with more than one racial group relates to racial dating choices – an outcome that has implications for assimilation trajectories and reveals multiracial individuals’ agency in that process. Analyses of data from online dating profiles reveal divergent patterns in stated racial preferences among multiracials who identify as Black compared with those who do not. Non-Black multiracials express racial preferences that are more similar to Whites than to minorities, while Black multiracials’ preferences are more similar to Blacks, consistent with Whitening and Black exceptionalism theories. However, regardless of their racial self-identity, online daters vary in their exclusion of Whites depending upon how they are racially perceived by others. Further, self-identified Black multiracials who are perceived as non-Black are much more accepting of Whites as dates than those perceived as Black are, suggesting a decline in the salience of the one-drop rule.

Authors

• Cynthia Feliciano, University of California, Irvine

• Jessica Kizer, University of California, Irvine