Blogging Elsewhere: Think Like a Dummy, Date Like a Foolio- The Myth of the Great White Hope

In the wake of all of the media attention aimed at Black women, which included but wasn’t limited to: ill-advised dating advice from comedians turned quasi-relationship experts, speculation about why we’re single and unmarried, No Wedding No Womb baby-mama campaign, why we are supposedly threatened by Kim Kardashian’s elegance, grace, and beauty, and play-play scientific charts documenting why we’re unattractive, many of us were flustered by the Tragic, Angry, Single Black Woman trope and exasperated with defending ourselves. 

The Black woman’s reputation definitely took a bit of a hit in the press and in popular culture. At Ariana Proehl’s (of Know This! TV) urging, I also resolved to put the tired trope to rest.  I didn’t want to lend the insanity any more credence or energy.

Despite my resolution, no agenda geared toward Black women is equally as annoying as the Black Women Are Better off With and Simply MUST Date White Men or Will melt Into a Sticky Puddle of Nothingness and Despair propaganda pushed by a certain sector of Black women. 

Lately, articles are cropping up using another angle to access and publicly analyze our dating lives. There have also been videos featuring groups of giddy Black women promoting bulleted lists of reasons why dating white men is somehow essential to our survival and livelihood. And it has to absolutely be white men and none other, or else we’re doomed!

Author Niki McElroy has been making the social media rounds to promote her book A Black Girl’s Guide to Dating White Men and espousing attributes that will supposedly get Black women picked by a trophy husband (let’s cut the double-standard and call it what it so obviously is). In a video clip from a web series called Everyway Woman, McElroy suggests that her current dating choices are relegated to white men and she wrote the book to pacify her curious girlfriends’ questions. 

While I have no issue with interracial dating and believe in dating with an open mind, and have done so several times for no particular reason or sans any ulterior motives other than shared interests/mutual attraction/because I just wanted to make-out with a willing partner, I do take issue with people who date others purely for opportunistic and superficial reasons or to prove some shortsighted argument. READ THE REST...