Who Interracially Dates: An Examination of the Characteristics of Those Who Have Interracially Dated

Interracial romantic relationships are useful as a barometer of macrolevel race relations (Gordon, 1964; Lewis and Yancey, 1995; Yancey and Yancey, 1997). Members of different groups that have sufficiently reduced social distance between each other can easily enter into dating/marital relationships. An assessment of who is willing to engage in interracial relationships is important for evaluating who tends to support cross-racial social interactions. Research examining who enters into interracial relationships focuses upon marital relationships (Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan, 1990; Crowder and Tolnay, 2000, Sung, 1990; Kouri and Lasswell, 1993). While this research is useful, there is little work on who interracially dates. The scant research that has been conducted on interdating does not utilize national probability samples (ex. Yancey and Yancey, 1998; Fujino, 1997; Harris and Kalbfleisch, 2000) and is not generalizable to the larger society. It is a mistake to assume that the same individuals who interracially marry are those who interracially date. This research is the first national attempt to discover which Americans tend to interracially date. INTERRACIAL DATING AND RACE RELATIONS The study of interracial unions is important for understanding the nature of race relations (Aldridge, 1978). Stember (1976) contends that negative majority group attitudes towards racial exogamy illustrate the degree of American sexual racism. Barriers to interracial romantic relationships are mechanisms for maintaining a racially stratified society (Lewis and Yancey, 1994-1995). Thus prohibitions against racial intermarriage can be seen as societal attempts to keep blacks, especially black men, "in their place" as it regards sexual interactions with majority group members (Ferber 1998; Hernton 1965; Spickard 1989). While some social observers advocate pluralism as the proper social relationship between majority and minority group members (Glazer and Moynihan, 1975; Greeley, 1974), others contend that assimilation provides a realistic way to create racial equality (Myrdal, 1964; Patterson, 1977). Understanding who engages in interracial romance is important for assessing the possibility of racial assimilation. If Americans are unwilling to enter into romantic endeavors with members of other races, then racial assimilation is unlikely. In fact it has been argued that American blacks are unassimilateable (Glazer 1993). The relative inability of African-Americans to assimilate into the dominant culture is likely associated with the relatively low percentage of blacks who outmarry. It is unlikely that the process of racial assimilation in America is occurring at the same rate in all social populations. It has been argued that Americans with higher levels of education are more racially progressive (Farley, Steeh, Kryson, Jackson and Reeves 1994; Jorgenson and Jorgenson 1992; Kluegel and Smith 1986; Case, Greeley and Fuchs 1989). If this observation is correct then highly educated Americans should exhibit more acceptance of interracial mixing. Research has indicated that education is positively correlated with acceptance of racial exogamy (Glick 1988; Wilson and Jacobson 1995). Yet attitudinal studies should not be the only way to assess the possible effects of education or other demographic/ social characteristics on interracial romance. Emerson and Sikkink (1997) illustrate that despite claims of well-educated whites that they support residential and educational integration, the actions of highly educated European-Americans exacerbate residential and educational segregation. Likewise, to assess which social characteristics are correlated with romantic interracial relations it is also important to determine who actually engages in those romantic relations. PREVIOUS EFFORTS TO ASSESS ROMANTIC INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS Several studies have evaluated which structural factors are associated with increased occurrences of racial intermarriage. …