The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions • Hacker News Board

Re: The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions

#121

Post by gizmomagico » Sun, Mar 07, 2010, 2:28 AM UTC

People please, stop being so goddamn politically correct and admit that most white men just don't consider black women all that appealing.

I know I sure don't. Seriously, a black woman has to be Naomi Campbell to pique my interest, and even then she'd need to be.. less black. Halle Berry? -To use an annoying expression: "meh".

That's just how it is. This is not racism, we're just wired this way. It's lame to wax poetic about what could theoretically be "wrong" when we all know the deal.

White women are desired by men of all races, just like Asian women. Black women are mostly desired by black men.

Re: The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions

#122

Post by byrneseyeview » Sun, Mar 07, 2010, 12:48 PM UTC

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #62

byrneseyeview wrote: post #20

It's more parsimonious to just assume that black women have fewer options. Black men between 20 and 34 (prime mate-choosing years) have an 11% incarceration rate. The unemployment rate and median income among (unincarcerated) black men is also low. So black women are more likely to need to look for people of a different racial background. That means that if everyone has a slight bias towards their own ethnic group, i…

It would be a pretty strange mutation if you didn't have that bias Since this is potentially a sensitive subject, I'll preface my question with the assertion that I'm not offended, just curious. I have no such bias; why do you consider it a "strange mutation?"

Sokoloff's post pretty much nails it, but I'll add that it's not just about sex. Before the invention of trade, there was basically no way for one tribe of humans to profitably interact with another tribe. So anyone who has the trait "Treat my genetic relatives (my tribe) nicely; be hostile to anyone who looks different," will have more material success (and more kids) than someone with another set of genes.

Give civilization another couple thousand years, and this might change. But if you look at the results of the Implicit Association Test, and the continued popularity of ethnic conflict, you've gotta assume that evolution has a big lead on political correctness.

By the way, have you taken the implicit association test? I highly recommend it for those of us who aren't biased. It's often illuminating.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Re: The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions

#123

Post by byrneseyeview » Sun, Mar 07, 2010, 12:49 PM UTC

count wrote: post #106

byrneseyeview wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. In some conservative circles "SWPLs" is a shorthand for "White people who like sushi and NPR (and decry racism despite living in gated communities)".

Common misconception: Gates don't keep black/colored people out, they keep poor people out.

In my experience, modulo cleaning staff that's the same thing.

Re: The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions

#124

Post by byrneseyeview » Sun, Mar 07, 2010, 12:54 PM UTC

aristoxenus wrote: post #36

byrneseyeview wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that because it's not nice, or it's not accurate?

Because by being so strong and unkind, it amplifies the recognition of a material or perceptual accident of nature into a needless conceptual flattening of a person's entire presence in the world. Depending on the self-esteem of the person it may be referring to, it's impolite at best, and cruel at worst. What I think Chris forgets in his writeups is that actual individuals who may fall into those regions of his char…

Ugliness is not a nice thing to have! Like stupidity, or unfriendliness. At the extremes, words for those traits are also generic insults: words like "hideous," "retard," and "asshole" all describe people. And they're often used as more generic pejoratives.

These words are all relative. If you decide that "asshole" is simply too cruel a term, people end up using the next-cruelest term as the cruelest-possible one. So maybe if someone cuts you off in traffic, you say "Jerk!" But now "jerk" can't be used to categorize someone, since it's the worst word.

You'll just be forced to keep making your language more and more bland. There's no logical point at which your argument stops applying: "He's very special, and doesn't play well with others. And he's a more authentically handsome person," will eventually be wordy way to say "He's a hideous, retarded asshole."

There's no loss of meaning, but there's a profusion of syllables. Let's just say what we mean, and assume that people with unfortunate traits have gotten used to hearing about them by now.

Re: The Black Damsel In Dating Distress: A Response to OkCupid's Conclusions

#125

Post by byrneseyeview » Sun, Mar 07, 2010, 12:56 PM UTC

psyklic wrote: post #52

byrneseyeview wrote: post #20

It's more parsimonious to just assume that black women have fewer options. Black men between 20 and 34 (prime mate-choosing years) have an 11% incarceration rate. The unemployment rate and median income among (unincarcerated) black men is also low. So black women are more likely to need to look for people of a different racial background. That means that if everyone has a slight bias towards their own ethnic group, i…

Using broad statistics to say that black women have fewer options may not be the right approach. Black women who use the Internet and OKCupid are probably far less likely to have incarcerated, unemployed men in their social circles. If you look at dating sites in general, there aren't many users who live in dangerous or poor areas.

Ignoring those statistics doesn't help, either. Maybe a lot of people working on the Netflix prize said "But maybe IMDB and Netflix target a completely different audience." But those people didn't win.