Left, right, Black, and White: how White college students talk about their inter- and intra- racial swiping preferences on Tinder

Abstract

Previous studies reveal that Black women are the least likely to be selected or matched on dating/hookup apps, followed closely behind by Black men. Our study seeks to better understand how, when asked to confront their preferences, white heterosexual college-aged students justify their racial tastes on the popular dating app, Tinder. Drawing on data from 137 peer-to-peer interviews with students at two large universities in the southeastern United States, our findings reveal that heterosexual white interviewees justified their reasons for swiping left (i.e. rejecting) on Black potential matches in multiple ways. Where a small handful responded using overtly racist language, the overwhelming majority embedded their responses in colorblind racist rhetoric that drew upon language couched in cultural incompatibility, relied on stereotypes and generalizations that often conflated race with social class, and attributed their racial preferences to family values and regional demographic restrictions. Situating our findings within the “white racial frame” and sociological scholarship on new racism, we argue that white respondents’ evasion of honest racial language in their responses perpetuates ideologies of colorblind racism. Additionally, our findings contribute to how sexual and colorblind racism is reinvented and perpetuated in online spaces through the dissemination of neoliberal discourses around personal preference that both disguise and normalize racism in internet dating. We discuss the implications of our findings for sociological research on race, gender, and intimate marketplaces.