May 03, 2006

Stigma not racism related

In his Letter to the Editor on Monday, Clinton McClure expresses his belief that the reason why there is a stigma attached to interracial dating in the black community is that blacks delude themselves into believing that all white people harbor prejudicial feelings toward blacks. This statement is completely off-the-mark. I, along with several of my black friends, would never date a white person and can assure you that it has nothing to do with believing these people are all racists. My preference is derived almost purely from a reflection of the culture of the place in which I was raised, and it is not merely a foolish belief that white people are all evil. It’s offensive for McClure to assert that black people who do not support interracial dating only do so because of a lack of understanding of the situation at hand.

McClure concludes his argument by stating that race is not the central issue to be debated when debating interracial dating, that it is gender wherein the heart of the problem lies. He says that black men feel “emasculated” because of the advances in professional fields that black women have made and asserts that if black men make the same advances, then they shall “fly right.” This is pure nonsense. I, as a black man, have never, nor shall I ever, see any advance attained by a black woman as emasculating and shall never use such a ridiculous excuse to date a white woman. Such advances are often celebrated in the black community and are rarely if ever seen as emasculating to black men. While it’s true that the genders are still not equal in social standing, this is not a valid reason to take the key issues of race and culture out of the interracial dating debate.

— Eric Parker,
Weinberg sophomore
Daily Northwestern