What do you figure is behind the professional African American women dating drouth?

I would never be so presumptious as to hazard an opinion on such a broad topic about which I have no knowledge.

Now that is a seriously loaded set of questions!

I stopped reading at ”...can’t seem to wrap their head around…”

I came to this thread cause I just had to know what drouth meant :P

Most business professionals don’t hook up with your average cabby, burger flipper or janitor. That part isn’t a race thing.

The business world however does place the black woman at a disadvantage.
If you believe there is a glass window for women in corporate America, that ceiling is even lower for black women. There are very few african american women in executive levels in the US.

Maybe there’s a link between those two circumstances, maybe not. I’d be interested in what the demographic singled out here would have to say about this statistic.

Captain_Fantasy “*Most business professionals don’t hook up with your average cabby, burger flipper or janitor. That part isn’t a race thing.*” Agreed (Nightline) but by their own admission Black women rarely swim in different waters. So a white or Hispanic middle manager, biochemist, or investment banker would be in maybe worse shape then the African American cabby, janitor, or burger flipper. I take it as more of an imbalance in income and professional status.

*” There are very few African American women in executive levels in the US.*” That would leave them very few chances to meet and befriend African American men in their educational and economic sphere I would think; a very small pool to say the least.

Yeah, I just came here to find out what “drouth” meant too. I wouldnt even hazard a guess, but will note (after observing you stumble through your question with a mouthful of “African American” preceding every phrase) that it would sure be cool if the whole nation could come up with some other descriptive term to replace “African American”. What a friggin mouthful, especially since the
Black Americans I know are a helluva lot more American than they are African.

And I have become even more aware of the issue now that I have a military son who is working regularly with military leaders in numerous African nations. HIs comment, and this from a savvy guy (hey, he’s my son) is that there is no resemblance whatsoever between an American who is Black and a true African (who are differentiated much more by their countries of origin) who is Black.

And to draw the line even more clearly, throw in the Black US military men who are working with the Black African leaders (of more than 20 countries) and it becomes even more clear that there is no common relationship whatsoever.

So I will continue to believe, as I have from the first time I heard the term, that African American is a bullshit political tag for just another American.

didn’t kanye right a song about this?

1. Grouping people by skin color is stupid.
2. I can’t answer this because of #1.

@plethora “*I wouldnt even hazard a guess, but will note (after observing you stumble through your question with a mouthful of “African American” preceding every phrase) that it would sure be cool if the whole nation could come up with some other descriptive term to replace “African American”*” Sadly enough even on the enlightened Fluther you have to dumb it down some less people who can’t fill in the gaps correctly get off on thinking the question drifted to Cubans, Haitians, swap creatures or what have you. We can all nit pick something (I could play spelling sergeant but I won’t)

If you found some other term everyone knows and likes rush it to those boys at ABC, Ebony magazine and the likes, if they like it and use it they may even pay you for it.

We can also spend the time nit picking “white America”. Seeing that a good number of them were born in Italy, Germany, Sweden etc and only became Americans after the fact but we don’t dissect every one as “are you German American or Italian American?” Maybe while you are at it you can find a better replacement for Caucasian.

@Facade *”Grouping people by skin color is stupid.*” And thinking everyone came from the same cookie cutter is eve stupider. If a Hispanic man in a black jacket stabbed an Asian man and to catch him the new just said some “MAN” in a black jacket near the Pizza Hut on Blah Blah street was stabbed another man. I guess the cops will be chasing a lot of innocent men because everyone who seen ANY guy in a black jacket will think HE was the stabber.

But that is not the case here. The situation is indicative of African American women in professional jobs you can’t just say “professional women” because some professional women are not having that problem. If you can point that out with out naming a nationality get to ABC I am sure they might get a hoot out of it.

@Hypocrisy_Central White and Black is fine with me…in the US, that is. Hispanic, whatever. One word identifies. It’s this long political phrase “African American” when there is nothing “African” about it that’s crazy.

Maybe they all just took one look at Oprah and said: “Uh uh, no way…”

Culture, maybe.
Subculture?

There are far too many factors that come into play.

As far as I have ever known, the black American culture has been very socially conservative. Many are of a strict-ish Christian faith, either by practice or family tradition, and that faith does hold a male-dominant viewpoint. So the question of the man “bringing home the bacon” does hold some merit. The question of professional black women possibly not being interested in dating outside her race also holds merit. There is also a question of social class, and that transcends race. Many, many people of a “higher” social class wouldn’t dream of seeking a mate – or even a business partner outside that class. For example, think of the special career websites for ”only over-$100,000 jobs and over-$100,000 people”. What makes a person worth that? Your guess is as good as mine.