"The Real Stuff White People Like" Talking About Race, Ethnicity, & Relationships [Interactive Data]

Today in class, my students and I were talking about race, ethnicity, friendships, and dating.  Our discussion centered on how cultural norms in different communities could influence people's likes and dislikes. Because we look for friends and romantic partners who share out interests, these likes and dislikes can affect who we choose to form relationships with it.

In order to get the students involved in talking about this without feeling like they were stereotyping people, I showed them some data collected by the fine folks at OKCupid.  The OKCupid staff looked at unique words and phrases used in the dating profiles of their site users and created interactive graphics showing the results.

The students got a kick out of this activity and it definitely broke the ice. After I showed them these examples, we had some great conversations about we find friends and dating partners and how/why these things matter to their lives.

Link to the site: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-real-stuff-white-people-like/