General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ‘No Blacks’ Is Not a Sexual Preference. It's Racism. [View all]Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)It's been a while since I've last read up on the psychology of attraction, but I think you'll find that individuals' aesthetic preferences are largely shaped by those who preceded them. The individual's contribution to their conception of sexual beauty might actually be rather small.
We can't discount that, especially when we are talking about the perceived attractiveness of people of color. Throughout much of our society's history, stereotypical "black" physical features were constantly described in popular media as ugly. Conversely, features strongly associated with northern Europeans were considered the height of beauty. Essentially, popular concepts of beauty could be summarized, more or less, by the following continuum:
White------------------------------Black
______________________________
Beautiful---------------------------Ugly
When people say "I' don't find black people attractive", I will grant you that it might simply be a matter of personal taste, but I cannot discount that it is an attitude produced by hundreds of years of systemic racism. And again, this isn't an indictment of individuals so much as it is an indictment of society. Those who do not find black people attractive are not likely to change their minds any time soon; the best we can do is take a long hard look at how our popular media outlets shape our conceptions of beauty.