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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026

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I stopped reading the article when I reached this point:

shaped by history, power and context.

I interpret this to mean "What follows is a bunch of Leftist sophistry in defense of double-standards, hypocrisy, and general dunking on one or more of the outgroups of progressives"

Anyway, one thing that's interesting to me about Indians in the United States is that they are facing a similar issue to Orientals (i.e. East Asians). Which is that by and large, their daughters seem to have little problem dating white guys and in many cases actually prefer white guys over men from their own race. At the same time, white women seem to have comparatively little interest in dating Indian-American guys. It seems some Indian guys are able to overcome the negative stereotypes around Indian men -- for example if the guy is tall, strong, assimilated, and works as an analyst for Goldman Sachs. In that case, there's a good chance he will go for a white girl.

In other words, there seems to be kind of a self-hating element in Indian behavior when it comes to dating and mating. From that perspective, it does make sense for Indian parents to urge their children to marry other Indians. I myself don't have a problem with it, I just wish people would be more tolerant of whites who prefer to maintain their European heritage.

As a side note, it does seem that generally speaking white people more or less represent the standard of attractiveness/desirability in the world and have for some time. With respect to white women, I recall reading somewhere that during the days of African piracy, lighter skinned women carried a higher price in slave markets. I'm not sure about men. Perhaps after Europeans conquered and dominated the world, women of all races started associating white men with power and status.

As a side note, it does seem that generally speaking white people more or less represent the standard of attractiveness/desirability in the world and have for some time. With respect to white women, I recall reading somewhere that during the days of African piracy, lighter skinned women carried a higher price in slave markets. I'm not sure about men. Perhaps after Europeans conquered and dominated the world, women of all races started associating white men with power and status.

I think it's even more soft than hard power, nowadays. In my observations, those who prefer East Asian media over American media also tend to value partners of the corresponding ethnicity higher, which is relevant as the bubbles in which this preference has reached fixation keep getting bigger and more mainstream. I have already seen social groups in which the (comparatively handsome, successful) white guys quietly mald as the resident loose girls openly prefer to chase mediocre Japanese and Korean guys.

Which is that by and large, their daughters seem to have little problem dating white guys and in many cases actually prefer white guys over men from their own race.

Really? South Asian female spaces frequently complain about lack of interest from non-South Asian men relative to East/Southeast Asian women. And while they're probably doing better than the guys, dating =/= marriage, which is an important distinction. Actual intermarriage rates are the lowest out of all Asian American groups, across both sexes.

Really? South Asian female spaces frequently complain about lack of interest from non-South Asian men relative to East/Southeast Asian women.

Yeah, when I said "little problem," I mainly meant "little objection to" That being said, my sense is that in the United States, a South Asian woman who is otherwise attractive will not have much difficulty attracting a white man. Although perhaps an Oriental (East Asian) or white woman would have even less difficulty.

Actual intermarriage rates are the lowest out of all Asian American groups, across both sexes.

I'm not surprised about that at all. I think young South-Asians in the US are -- generally speaking -- put under a great deal of family pressure to refrain from marrying out.

Yeah I'd agree with this. All things equal, South Asian men are dealing with a -5 modifier in the market and South Asian women are probably dealing with a -1 modifier. The market skews female controlled, though

Precisely this. East Asian men, by contrast, have something like a -2 or -3 handicap on average* while the women have a +5 buff

*though these days it is very context-dependent; e.g., Korean men have a big advantage with white female K-pop fans