Few of whites' best friends are black

Friends for better or for worse: Interracial friendship in the United States as seen through wedding party photos (pdf):
Four findings stand out. First, the few survey estimates of close adult interracial friendships may overstate their actual prevalence, especially whites’ reporting of close friendships with blacks. My results show that very few whites have black friends who are close enough to be in their wedding party (3.7%), less than all previous estimates among adults. I reasoned that estimates of cross-race friendships for whites based on the wedding party photos would be lower than those based on existing survey measures because wedding parties include only the closest friends who may often have to conform to intergenerational norms about racial contact and the expectations of extended family. Wedding parties also limit the pool of friends to a small number and cannot be exaggerated out of normative pressure. Compared with what would be expected if there were homogenous opportunity for friendships, whites are most likely to have a close E/SE Asian friend and least likely to have a black friend. These results suggest that Jackman and Crane’s (1986: p. 460) declaration using data from 1979 still rings true: “only a tiny minority of whites could rightly claim that ‘some of their best friends’ are black.”

Second, I hypothesized that there would be an asymmetry, by race, of inviting a friend to be in the wedding party and being invited to be in a friend’s wedding party, with whites being invited more than they invite friends of other races. Adjusting for group size, whites and E/SE Asians are equally likely to invite and be invited, but whites invite blacks only half as much as blacks invite whites, and E/SE Asians invite blacks only one- fifth as much as blacks invite E/SE Asians. This finding is consistent with the notion that whites are less accepting of interracial friendships, a finding that is no longer detectable in survey-based attitudinal data.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

and E/SE Asians invite blacks only one- fifth as much as blacks invite E/SE Asians.

East Asians and Southeast Asians must really not care for Black people.

Odd the study ignores this and instead calls out Whites for their hypocrisy:

These results suggest that Jackman and Crane’s (1986: p. 460) declaration using data from 1979 still rings true: “only a tiny minority of whites could rightly claim that ‘some of their best friends’ are black.”

Maybe it's the hypocrisy which helps get Whites in trouble.

Since Indians and Chinese don't go around saying their best friends are Black, nobody cares that on average they try even harder than Whites to keep Blacks out of their wedding parties.

Anonymous said...

Since Indians and Chinese don't go around saying their best friends are Black, nobody cares that on average they try even harder than Whites to keep Blacks out of their wedding parties.

Not only that Bro, but I've personally (and often) encountered Asians and Asian Indians being quite proudly explicit in their not associating with Blacks and Mestizo-Americans.

(Realistically, for that matter, this attitude pretty much applies to nearly all foreigners with the pervasive exception of foreign-born Northern Europeans in America, especially if they're Scandinavians - anyone have an explanation for this?)

Anonymous said...

"anyone have an explanation for this?"

Confirmation bias, bro. You're anti-black rather than a true racialist, and in your mind you construct a vision of the noble Asian.

Contrary to the fantasies of HBD wankers, the reality is that Asians and Indians are much more likely to be white-hating, anti-racist negrophiles than "proudly explicit" anti-black racists.

Anonymous said...

Confirmation bias, bro. You're anti-black rather than a true racialist, and in your mind you construct a vision of the noble Asian.

Absolutely not, my friend, I am pro-White, pro-Northern Northern European 100%.

I in no way am saying that Asians and Asian Indians are "noble" in any way, shape or form.

In fact, I am calling them out for their hypocrisy on racial matters.

Contrary to the fantasies of HBD wankers, the reality is that Asians and Indians are much more likely to be white-hating, anti-racist negrophiles than "proudly explicit" anti-black racists.

Totally agree.

Anonymous said...

The reason why surveys over-estimate the number of whites having black "best friends" is "social desirability bias", ie: people will often report what society expects or demands them to in order to make themself feel as if they aren't "racist".

Anonymous said...

What do you all think is the difference between various White sub-races and ethnicities in who most proclaims their "best friends" are Black?

In descending order, is it Northern Euros, Southern Euros (yeah, I know 'swarthoids') or Eastern Euros.

My bet would be with the Eastern Euros being the least likely to claim to have Black "friends", "best" or otherwise -- but I would like to hear others' opinions (and explain as to why you feel the way you do).

Anonymous said...

The reason why surveys over-estimate the number of whites having black "best friends" is "social desirability bias", ie: people will often report what society expects or demands them to in order to make themself feel as if they aren't "racist".

Also many of these surveys are not objective and have agendas.

What people perceive as a "best friend" varies.

In general, even those who had a non-white "best friend" during their teenage years grow apart from them. The racial divide increases as we become adults. Even those I know of who look back fondly on their black or non-white best friend during their teenage years have all white friends as adults.