Dem white suthernurs shore are smart!

[Al B. Sure!]

He's not from Des Moines. He's from some small hick town of 500 or something.

[The Mad Monk]

Des Moines, right?

At the 2005–2007 American Community Survey Estimates, the city's population was 82.2% White (75.6% non-Hispanic White alone), 9.5% Black or African American, 0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 4.2% Asian, 5.6% from some other race and 2.3% from two or more races. 10.2% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.[37]

As of the census[38] of 2000, there were 198,682 people, 80,504 households, and 48,704 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,621.3 people per square mile (1,012.0/km²). There were 85,067 housing units at an average density of 1,122.3/sq mi (433.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.3% White or Euro American, 8.07% Black or African Americans, 0.35% Native American Indian, 3.50% Asian American, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.52% from other races, and 2.23% from two or more races. 6.61% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 20.9% were of German, 10.3% Irish, 9.1% American and 8.0% English ancestry, according to Census 2000.

Granted, it's no Kansas City, but it has a respectable mix.

[MrFun]

yes - encountered, befriend, interacted, talked with . . . .

whatever ****ing word you want to use.

[Al B. Sure!]

In Iowa, Illinois, and Washington DC area. I've encountered blacks, Asians, Indians, and others in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

encountered...

[MrFun]

In Iowa, Illinois, and Washington DC area. I've encountered blacks, Asians, Indians, and others in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

[Al B. Sure!]

Once again, you're wrong about me. I have and still do, interact with people from different racial minority groups.

Where? Not in Iowa

[MrFun]

It's more that I get the impression that you've only ever interacted with hypothetical non-white people.

Once again, you're wrong about me. I have and still do, interact with people from different racial minority groups.

[SpencerH]

I think there are all sorts of people of all sorts of backgrounds debating these things over at wiki. In fact, having taken part in a few discussions I know there are. Go advanced and start looking at random wiki pages if you don't agree with me.

I think wiki is a fabulously powerful idea. That said, without appropriate context and criticism wiki comments are meaningless.

[Al B. Sure!]

One caveat with this is 'approval' doesn't mean would you do it yourself. There's a difference between being cool with an interracial marriage with other people and you yourself willing to marry someone of another race.

[Al B. Sure!]

70% of Black women with undergraduate degrees or above are unmarried

That is actually an astounding statistic.

[Al B. Sure!]

To add to Oerdin, the disparity in relative socio-economic successes of Black women and men as a whole has contributed to that issue. Heraclitus posted a few months back, graphs showing average children for individuals with different IQ's and it was consistent with research and just general knowledge that more intelligent, educated, etc. Black women just aren't marrying and having kids, which could be partially explained by the fact that Black women generally significantly outperform Black men in educational and career attainment so they would be more likely to have to marry outside of their race to marry someone of similar achievement/background. As a result, the unwed rates among Black women are astronomical but not on the low end with unwed mothers, as it may have been at one time, but among the educated and high-income. Call it the Oprah Winfrey or Condi Rice effect.

[Dinner]

So you think there is a cadre of wiki-reviewing republicans out there correcting disingenuous liberal wiki postings?

I think there are all sorts of people of all sorts of backgrounds debating these things over at wiki. In fact, having taken part in a few discussions I know there are. Go advanced and start looking at random wiki pages if you don't agree with me.

[Dinner]

This is somewhat of a tangent and based on my own observations, it's just rare to see an Indians who marry outside of their own castes or religious orders let alone outside of their race. There are tons of small insular groups like the Anglo-Indians (descendants of British men who married local women) and Parsees (descendants of 7th century Zoroastrian refuges) who basically never marry outside of their communities.

I've heard the same from my Indian friends though one Sikh friend (really my best Indian-American friend though I have three others I regularly hang out with and sometimes even go on vacation with) does have an uncle who married a white woman. That said he moved to the US in the 1970's and is a professor at Northwestern (which is why my friend later went and got his MBA from Northwestern, family connections do help you get in) so given his age and the circles he traveled in when he was of marriageable age (university professors in the mid west in the 1970's) it's not all that surprising he married outside of his race. I know my Sikh friend had a girlfriend who was Chinese but he kept saying (even while the two were dating) that she would be completely unacceptable to his parents and his parents were at least sort of liberal since his dad's brother married a white girl (so white girl looked down upon but still some what ok but east Asian girl absolutely not ok). He ended up marrying an American born Sikh girl he met on a Sikh marriage site mainly because his parents/grandparents told him if he didn't get married by 28 they'd find a wife in India for him. BTW his wife is fighting tooth and nail to keep his parents from moving in which would normally be his job as the only son. Apparently she might be nominally Sikh and her parents were from India but she has some very American ideas.

[SpencerH]

No comment on the studies cited by wiki? This is hardly a hot button issue where partisans run around editing the wiki pages.

So you think there is a cadre of wiki-reviewing republicans out there correcting disingenuous liberal wiki postings?

[SpencerH]

Gribbler, this is anecdotal but my personal experience is that black men are fine with marrying white women while most whites don't care one way or the other (if other whites marry blacks or Asians or Hispanics or native Americans) but Black women seem to take a huge exception to white women marrying black men. Their thinking goes there are only so many "good" black men and all to many of those seem to prefer white women when they get a chance; that leaves fewer "good" black men for black women forcing them to accept less good black men or even bad black men if they don't want to marry outside of their race. Yes, obviously some black men also have feel the taboo about marrying white women other wise there wouldn't be such a high rejection of intermarriage by blacks as a whole. That said, black men (especially financially successful black men) are way more willing to marry outside of their race, on average, then black women are.

I think that's part of a long term historical theme of bias in American history. White women were held up to be the most desirable of all females while black women were seen a playthings for white men or for black men who couldn't do better (like get a lighter skinned mate [one of the elusive light skinned black women] or best of all a white woman but failing that an Asian or other nonblack mate). There is a ton of research about how even black men prefer light skinned black women to dark skinned black women and white women above both and I think that has left a historical mark just as similar thinking has left a legacy in Latin America. Hell, even South Asians and East Asians have a bias towards lighter skinned mates so talk about internalizing foreign racism.

Tanned skin is the mark of a laborer so light skin has always been viewed favourably amongst Europeans and Asians (I dont know so but I assume so in the middle east also).