ABSTRACT
A structural explanation suggests that as Black men achieve parity with Whites on important social indicators of progress, intimate interracial relationships with women from other races should become increasingly likely. When the interracial relationship is believed to result primarily from large-scale changes in patterns of interaction between people from different racial groups, external factors are said to have played a role. If progress towards social equality influences actual patterns of interracial intimacy, and if there are more interracial relationships now than ever before, then relevant social indices should reveal equality between racial groups and the absence of widespread anti-Black prejudice. In comparison to a structural explanation for interracial relationships, a psychologically based theory about these types of relationships focuses on an individual’s conscious consideration of racial differences. In its extreme form, this explanation for interracial relationships has typically been viewed as a “solution” to the inherent problems associated with a racially and ethnically diverse society.
