ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a number of factors that are related to Black women's decisions to be in interracial relationships. This includes discussion of the factors that contribute to the likelihood of them being involved in an interracial relationship (initiating factors) as well as the factors that make being in an interracial relationship (inhibiting factors) less likely. Although few actually pointed to Black men's greater rates of involvement in interracial relationships as the sole reason for their own interracial relationship, several of them mentioned that this was one of a constellation of variables responsible for it. Whether loyalty is actually manifested in one's resistance to interracial relationships is obviously a matter of debate, but what is clear is that corresponding norms valuing Black women do not appear to be inculcated in the Black male socialization experience. Results of a study examining the profiles of an Internet based dating site provides further evidence of Black women's collective resistance to interracial intimacy.
