Statistics and Attitudes

In the Sunday edition of The Boston Globe, under "Uncommon Knowledge", is an item, "The persistent dating color line".  The blurb talks to the resistance amongst Caucasians to dating people of color.  The story says that 46% of Caucasian "men say they would be completely open to a relationship with a black" partner.  The number is 62% re Asian women.  For women the numbers are lower.  The blurb has additional statistics, but they all relate to attitudes of Caucasians.

So, what is the standard?  Is it 100%?  Maybe.

But, besides wondering about the standard, one wonders about how we Caucasians stack up against other groups.  I remember a coworker, back in 80-82, when I was stationed at Clark AB, in the Philippines.  He was part Japanese, originally from Hawaii (Or was he part Hawaiian, or a European, Japanese, Hawaiian mix?  Mox nix.), and had married a Philippine woman.  My friend told me his father was not reconciled to the marriage until after the first grandchild.  How do other groups stack up?  And what about religious, political, educational and city/country borders?  This link actually has a broader swath of statistics.

At some level, who cares?  What does this really tell us about ourselves?  We tend to confront this issue, today, as individuals and families, and not races, creeds or ethnic groupings.

What the blurb tells me is that with most social issues it takes a lot more data to gain an understanding than is usually available.

The author of this item is Mr Kevin Lewis, at Kevin dot Lewis dot ideas at gmail decimal com.  Incidently, I like this part of the Ideas Section.  It is a place to learn and Mr Lewis generally does a good job sparking interest.

Regards  —  Cliff