I’m not even going to attempt to answer the question I pose in the title because I can’t. Even though I am a stew of Puerto Rican, Black, and Japanese cultures and bloodlines, I have no idea what it’s like to date women of different backgrounds because 97 percent* of the women I’ve dated are Black**. But this post isn’t about me and what kind of women I prefer to date. What I want to do is get to the bottom of the question: How do people of different races date? If I did a search on Google, I’m sure information like this can be found in some scientific study, but I don’t want “data”. I want testimonials from real people who date exclusively within their race, which is something I believe is perfectly fine. The way I see it, if we’re exclusive to our own groups, we shouldn’t hide it. We should be comfortable with sharing it.

I understand for some, race is a difficult topic to discuss and I have no idea how to start this conversation, so don’t expect any instructions from me, but I do have one suggestion: Ask simple but direct questions. For instance: Would a white man ever take a white woman to a poetry slam for a date? I see white people at poetry slams, but they never look like they’re on a date. They’re always in large groups, and most of them are the support crew for their white friend who’s performing that night***. One thing I love about dating Black women is we usually have a mutual love for soul food, and we don’t even have to ask other people where to go, because we already know our favorite spots, which begs the question: Do Japanese men and women have that same connection over sushi spots? When a Latin woman says her ideal date involves dancing, should I assume she means going Salsa dancing?

I understand these questions may seem basic, elementary even, but hey, what can I say? When it comes to learning how people of other races date, my curiosity is kid-like. I rarely will ever take up space in my post to ask readers to pass my blog around to other people, because you all do that anyway, right? Right. But I am going to ask anyone reading this to send it to their one friend of another race (some of us have a lot, but everyone has at least one), because I would love for them to comment and hear their own thoughts on this topic. Leave a comment on the blog or message me on Facebook (facebook.com/jozenc). White, Latin, Asian, even Black people I have never met and talked to, no matter where they’re from in America, I just really want to hear what dating life is like for people from different backgrounds.

And to be clear, I have no hidden agenda here outside of learning about others. People interest me in a variety of ways, and this is one of them. At the most, maybe I can learn about a couple of good sushi spots. Discuss. ————————————————————– * I went through an exploratory phase in middle school and high school. ** Please understand this doesn’t make me a racist, though I am a preferist (yes, I just made that up), which means, I prefer to date black women. *** I attend enough poetry slams to feel comfortable making this statement.