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More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

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Daanyeer
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More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby Daanyeer » Sun Aug 05, 2007 9:32 am

Source: TBO
August 5, 2007 Author: DIONNE WALKER



RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- For years, Toinetta Jones played the dating game by her mom's strict rule. "Mom always told me, 'Don't you ever bring a white man home,'" recalled Jones, echoing an edict issued by many Southern, black mothers. But at 37, the Alexandria divorcee has shifted to dating "anyone who asks me out," regardless of race.

"I don't sit around dreaming about the perfect black man I'm going to marry," Jones said.

Black women around the country also are reconsidering deep-seated reservations toward interracial relationships, reservations rooted in America's history of slavery and segregation.

They're taking cues from their favorite stars - from actress Shar Jackson to tennis pro Venus Williams - as well as support blogs, how-to books and interracially themed novels telling them it's OK to "date out."

It comes as statistics suggest American black women are among the least likely to marry.

"I'm not saying that white men are the answer to all our problems," Jones said. "I'm just saying that they offer a different solution."

She reflects many black women frustrated as the field of marriageable black men narrows: They're nearly seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and more than twice as likely to be unemployed.

Census data showed 117,000 black wife-white husband couples in 2006, up from 95,000 in 2000.

There were just 26,000 such couples in 1960, before a Supreme Court ruling banished laws against mixed marriages.

Black female-white male romance has become a hot topic in black-geared magazines and on Web sites, even hitting the big screen in movies like last year's "Something New."

That film centers on an affluent black woman who falls for her white landscaper, a situation not unlikely as black women scale the corporate ladder, said Evia Moore, whose interracial marriage blog draws 1,000 visitors a day.

It features articles like "Could Mr. Right Be White?" and pictures of couples like white chef Wolfgang Puck and his new Ethiopian wife.

"Black women are refusing to comply with that message about just find yourself a good blue-collar man with a job, or just find a black man," Moore said.

She pointed to low rates of black men in college, a place where women of all races often meet their spouses.

Black women on campus largely are surrounded by non-black men: In 2004, 26.5 percent of black males ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college versus 36.5 percent of black women that age, according to the American Council on Education's most recent statistics.

Even after college, Roslyn Holcomb struggled to meet professional black men.

"I wanted to get married (and) have children," she said. "If I was only meeting one guy a year, or every few years, that wasn't going to happen."

The Alabama author eventually married white.

"I think a lot of black women are realizing or feeling that the pickings are slim," she said.

They're made even slimmer, grumble many black women, by high rates of successful black men choosing blondes. For some, they argue, white wives are the ultimate status symbol.

"They don't want a dark chocolate sister laying around their swimming pool," Moore said.

Nearly three quarters of the 403,000 black-white couples in 2006 involved black husbands.

Meanwhile, psychological barriers have discouraged black women from crossing racial lines.

"Black women are socialized to stick by their men," explained Kellina Craig-Henderson, a Howard University psychology professor who studied 15 black women dating interracially.

She said modern black women agonize over breaking male-female bonds forged in slavery and strengthened through the Jim Crow era.

"It may be even more of an issue for educated black women who have a sense of the historical realities of this country, where black women often were abused at the hands of white men," Craig-Henderson said.

Jones remembered being troubled when a white man politely approached her around 1990. Her stance softened years later, after a sobering party experience.

"All the black men literally pushed (us) out the way to talk to the blondes," said Jones, who soon declared, "I'm going to date whoever."

Black men and women have openly feuded before.

At places like Atlanta's Spelman College, black women have rallied against black male rappers characterizing them as promiscuous.

But black men are voicing their own frustrations with women they feel regard them with suspicion. "They treat us all the same," said W. Randy Short, a Washington writer who dates across races. "The rapist on the TV is the same as me."

It's a frustration director Tim Alexander tackles in "Diary of a Tired Black Man," a frank film covering everything from black women's demeanors to their weight. Frustrated by black women, the main character dates a white one.

"To a certain degree, black people are sick of each other," Alexander said. "It would be better for black men and black women to open their options."

But Ayo Handy-Kendi, creator of Black Love Day, argues blacks are simply reacting to messages linking success with whiteness. She referred to a string of successful athletes with white partners, including golfer Tiger Woods.

"They normally rejected their culture and they went to the acceptable standard of success - a white woman," said Handy-Kendy, who thought it ironic high-achieving black women were mimicking the behavior.

Back in Virginia, Jones feels life is too short to ponder race when it comes to love.

As for mom, Jones figures, "she really admires the fact that I did something she may have really wanted to do, and never did."

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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby shidow1 » Sun Aug 05, 2007 10:23 am

Ones you go black, you dont go back........

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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby Grant » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:43 am

There is a large sign under one of the freeway overpasses here in Oakland that I have always liked that has been there since the early Seventies. It says:

[size=24]Eracism[/size]

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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby #1baller » Sun Aug 05, 2007 12:36 pm

I'm seeing alot of interracial couples here in Toronto. Is this tha norm here?

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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby shidow1 » Sun Aug 05, 2007 12:40 pm

I think interacial is a bad Idea........

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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby Grant » Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:14 pm

Compare the article above to this one:

For these Muslims, polygamy is an option
Pauline Bartolone

Sunday, August 5, 2007


Clad in his Sunday sweatpants and a long blue Pakistani-style shirt, Ali, a 59-year old African American Muslim elder, popped in a DVD of "Big Love" - the HBO series about Mormon polygamists in Utah.

"Dude's not handling this well at all," he says as he watches Bill Paxton play an overburdened husband with three wives. "You know, I feel sorry for dude."

Ali - who prefers to only use his first name - faces the challenges of polygamy every day. For 10 years, he's been religiously married to two women, and lives with them under one roof in a working-class neighborhood of San Diego. Tuesday through Thursday he sleeps with his wife Hasanah on the first floor, then Saturday through Monday it's upstairs with his second wife Asiila. That leaves his office, cluttered with photocopies of Quranic sayings and dusty pictures of relatives in hijab, as his only private room in the house.

"We get our time off, we got a sisterhood thing going on," chuckles Asiila, 50, Ali's wife of 15 years. She crosses her ankles underneath her overhead khimar, a black dress that covers her from head to toe. "To me, polygyny (polygamy) is for the woman. It's really for the woman."

This San Diego family's life is part of a small but increasingly visible phenomenon of African American Muslims practicing polygamy, according to Debra Mubashir Majeed, associate professor and chairwoman of philosophy and religious studies at Beloit College in Wisconsin. For her research, she surveyed more than 400 Black Muslims and interviewed more than 15 polygamists.

"Most African American women who are into polygyny do so by choice," says Majeed, adding that their reasons range from their interpretation of the Quran, to desire for independence, to needing a father for their children.

She says that a shortage of marriageable black Muslim men may be one reason polygamy is embraced.

"With the high number of African American men in prison, on drugs, out of work, or unavailable in some other way ... the options are limited," Majeed said.

African Americans are not the only Muslims who practice polygamy. Plural marriages exist in majority Muslim populations of Africa and the Persian Gulf states, and immigrants continue the practice in the United States. In May, the Times of London reported that as many as 1,000 Muslim men are living with multiple wives in the United Kingdom. There is no projected number of Islamic polygamous unions in the United States, but Majeed says the number of Muslim polygamists in the United States may be fewer than 1 percent of the Muslim population.

In a spring survey conducted by the Muslim magazine Azizah, 150 Muslims - mostly women of all lines of thought and ethnic backgrounds - were quizzed about their experiences with polygamy. Editor in chief Tayyibah Taylor said perspectives ranged from "it was the cat's meow" to claims it was "tantamount to abuse." The majority said success hinged on the seeking of spiritual enhancement by all involved, and the male's ability to "handle" the situation. Taylor said polygamy among non-immigrant Muslims may be more visible because they are more outspoken about it.

Mohamed El Sheikh, executive director of the Islamic Jurisprudential Council of North America, said that many American converts to Islam, of all races and ethnicities, are already accustomed to having multiple sexual partners.

"After accepting Islam, some have continued this practice by giving the status of spouse to their sexual partners using the Islamic law," El Sheikh said.

Most Muslims do not seek legal recognition or benefits in their plural unions, according to Majeed. She says that for many, "The religious importance will supersede the legal issue." When polygamous Muslims do have legal unions, it typically involves the first wife.

The daily practice of Islamic polygamy varies greatly. Most often, according to Majeed, the husband will take on two wives who live separately. The second wife may forgo financial support and a dowry. Other times, two wives may live together in one house and a third wife may come in and out of the situation.

Shiite Muslims even have a temporary marriage, or mutah, where a man may enter into a sexual union with more than one woman. The arrangement need not involve an imam and could last anywhere from one weekend to several years.

There is no consensus among Muslims about how polygamy should be carried out, although the Quran tells Muslim men that they may marry up to four wives only if he treats them equally and fairly. One passage implies that additional wives must be widows or orphans. Some religious scholars say the aya were written during wartime, and should be practiced only when there is a shortage of men.

Thirty-eight-year-old Azeez of upstate New York says the current shortage of eligible African American men justifies his plural Islamic marriage. The former Olympic wrestler converted to Islam 18 years ago and works as a technician.

"You have all these women out there," he said, "and Allah has given a remedy to a situation."

Azeez splits his week between two wives, who live half an hour away from each other. He fully supports his first wife, and is a father to his second wife's son from another relationship. He says he didn't consider taking on more than one wife, until he got a raise and the second wife agreed to help financially support herself.

"If it's for you," he said, "then Allah will make it easy for you."

His 22-year-old first wife, who refers to herself as Miz Azeez, recently published diary-style writings about her marriage in "Polygynous Blessings: Musings of a Muslim Wife." Her love for Allah, she says, frees her from dependence on her husband.

"With passionate love, and the whole concept of love in American culture ... They put (their husband) up to a status like Allah. Like this is their life source, like if that person leaves, they're dead - that's it, life can't go on. I don't have that type of love for my husband."

Miz Azeez says sharing her husband brings her closer to him and to God. After a year and a half of living in polygamy, she says she would never live any other way.

It wasn't as easy for one anonymous 53-year-old American Muslim woman in the Washington, D.C., area to share her husband. After they had five children together, he took on other women, a total of four on separate occasions. When the international entrepreneur married a woman in a Muslim country, the first wife found herself financially insecure and alone for months at a time.

"I was just not prepared to include another family in that struggle," she said, about her decision to divorce her husband after 10 years of polygamy. "I felt forced to rise to the occasion, and I felt I as the current wife had some rights."

Women have few protections when entering an Islamic polygamous relationship. The Quran says the husband must care for his wives equally, but there is no universal Islamic law or accountability mechanism to define or enforce that. Under some lines of thought, the husband need not notify the first wife that he is taking another, and he may even withhold a divorce.

For second wives not married under U.S. law, this can mean difficulty claiming financial support and legitimacy for their children, according to Kecia Ali, author of "Sexual Ethics and Islam" and assistant professor of Religion at Boston University.

"I don't think polygamy should be romanticized as a solution to man shortage problems," she said. "It is dangerous for women, in many contexts."

The lack of state regulation of polygamy, especially in times of marital disputes, concerns El Sheikh of the Islamic Jurisprudential Council of North America. "The spouse and her children may not be entitled to many legal rights. This is against the principle of equality and thus polygamy is not practical in the United States."

He adds that even the Quran states that men will never be able to do justice between wives "even if it is (their) ardent desire."

Ali's two wives in San Diego would disagree; they say their husband is a fair and just man, and they've figured out a family model that works for them.

Hasanah works full-time as a social worker and savors her alone time. Asiila takes care of her and Ali's 10-year-old son, and "plays hostess." Ali is the head of the household, spending most of his time writing about Islam and providing spiritual counseling.

"I helped him ship out and go get the sister," jokes Hasanah, recounting how, 15 years ago, she wrote Asiila a nine-page letter asking her to join the family.

Nearby, Asiila pretends to complain. "You gave me six months with Ali when I first got here, but you won't take them back."

Ali, realizing he's being picked on, responds with a joke that he is going to take on another wife.

"You have the computer," says Asiila. "That's wife No. 3."

This story is one part of a larger "News 21" reporting project at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. To see more stories on "God, Sex and Family," go to www.newsinitiative.org/ucb. Contact us at insight@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... R8OJC1.DTL

This article appeared on page E - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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shidow1
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Re: More Black Women Consider 'Dating Out' !!!!!!!!!!

Postby shidow1 » Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:23 pm

How did we get in to this polygamy thingy...........


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