Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
Just because I want to understand and be learned on other cultures doesn't mean I have to saddle myself with dating them.
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Didn't you marry someone who is of a different ethnicity than you?
-----Added 8/9/2008 at 01 : 34 : 26-----
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeboy
Preferences on ethnicity is a pretty narrow mind view. People should be more concerned about personality, body types, cuteness, etc.. rather than skin color. If you want to learn about as many other different people as possible why not date them?
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I would not call it "narrow minded"... more than that, it's just plain human. (I would even argue that focusing on "body type" or "cuteness" is just as arbitrary as focusing on ethnicity, btw.) People like to be around people who look, act, and think like them, in general... and that comes right down to class and religion as well. Is this surprising to you? Humans like to feel comfortable more than they like to take risks.
It is the rare person who decide to go outside of that circle to make friends with those who are different. But it is even rarer to date, and perhaps even marry, someone from a totally different background. I would not say that the rest are "narrow minded," but that they are merely normal in this sense--the vast majority of the world's population is endogamous for that reason (marrying within their own "group"). It's just the way it goes--and for their part, it also tends to produce more stable unions, which means that their offspring will be more successful (if you think about this behavior in an evolutionary sense). I don't necessarily like it myself, but I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with it, and it makes sense overall. People are people. For me, I'm just weird because I always had great examples of exogamy (marrying outside of your "group"), so I think that influenced me very strongly. But not everyone has the same influences--and that's really just fine.
But isn't this thread about friendships, not dating? Or else it really is just copying the other thread's theme, mentioned earlier.