My sociology professor never fails to stir up debate among his students. The other day he posed a unique scenario, and now I pose it to the rest of Elon: If a white male doesn’t find black females sexually or romantically attractive, does it make him racist?

Note that this situation is open to alteration of the involved people’s skin color. It doesn’t have to be a white person and a black person; the specific races involved are not crucial factors.

Our class was reasonably split in the debate. Ten people agreed that anybody who didn’t find individuals of other ethnicities attractive were racist, 15 people said that the individuals weren’t racist and the rest of the class was undecided.

Are you racist if you don’t find other people attractive because they are of a specific race? Is it just a matter of preference? Is it so different to be attracted to one race instead of another than it is to find people with red hair more appealing than those with blonde hair?

To me, I don’t see any difference between the preferences. The same way that a girl can prefer skinny guys or muscular guys, she can prefer one race instead of another.

I have a friend who doesn’t find the stereotypical “attractive” guys attractive at all. She opts for guys who would be stereotyped as nerdy. It’s what she finds attractive. Is there really a difference between a girl finding nerdy males attractive and black males not finding white females attractive because he prefers Asian females?

I know I’m going to get some reaction from this one, but is a gay man sexist against women because he doesn’t find them sexually or romantically attractive? Simply because he doesn’t find females attractive, is he a bigot?

People may argue that gender is different from race, but is the preference of one for another really that different?

The fact of the matter is that we all find certain features more attractive than others. A female may be more attracted to black males. She may be more attracted to Hispanic males. It’s all just based on individual definitions of attractive.

I think that labeling one person’s definition of attractive as racist is both unwarranted and close-minded. Considering how arbitrary all attraction is, I don’t think that we can do this fairly.

Columnist: David Koontz - 11/14/07