Freitag Essay Examines Whether White Men's Preference for Black Women Is Fetishization

In an essay for the German weekly Freitag, author Edna Bonhomme examines the question of whether white men who date only Black women are expressing a preference or acting on a racial fetish. Bonhomme writes that few people would admit to holding a racist fetish, and even fewer would call themselves racists. She describes her own reaction to a white man who says he dates exclusively Black women: she would pause, first wondering how she, as a full-time author and mother of a small child, could find time for dates at all. A second reason for hesitation, she writes, would be the question of whether she is the man's dating preference or his fetish. Such a man may believe he is complimenting her because she is a wonderful person, Bonhomme notes, but some researchers argue that a preference specifically for Black women is racist in nature. The essay connects these dating dynamics to historical roots and asks why such preferences can be problematic in partner selection. The full text appears in the current issue of Freitag.