African Americans and Interracial Dating: Who's Dating Whom?

A Look at Recent TV Programming Shows that a Shift is Occurring.

In the world of interracial dating, just who are African Americans in particular dating and marrying?  A previous trend that established a substantial gender gap seems to be shifting, and this shift is reflected with increasing frequency in popular television programs that have aired over the last few years.

The release of data from the 2000 Census showed that the gender imbalance experienced by African American women in terms of interracial dating and marriage had remained substantial.  It supported what had frequently been discussed on daytime talk shows and in popular magazines:  African American women were frustrated in their quest to find men to date and marry, and gender imbalance within interracial couples as a group was a contributing factor.

In short, white women were more likely to date and marry African American men than white men were to date and marry African American women.  In 73 percent of African American/white interracial couples, the husband was black and the wife was white.  This translates to African American men having white wives more than 2 1/2 times more frequently than African American women had white husbands.  The imbalance was even more striking among African American/white couples who were living together without being married;  African American men lived with white women five times more often than white men lived with African American women.

Since the 2000 Census, the annual Current Population Survey reports issued by the Census Bureau have indicated that the total number of white husband/African American wife couples was increasing, but they have cautioned that these are estimates only and that they are based on sample sizes too small to be statistically reliable.  Having said that, a recent small survey of college students seems to support the idea that a shift is occurring in the gender balances of African American/white interracial dating couples.