How internalized racism shapes the Black dating experience

This post was originally published on Word In Black.

by Apryl Williams

Dating while Black can be a fraught experience — especially online. Black daters — particularly Black women — have to navigate apps and algorithms rife with racial bias and sexual racism.

Is it any surprise, then, that dating apps like BLK and BlackPeopleMeet have found an audience? Black daters turn to these apps because the mainstream alternatives, such as  Tinder and Bumble, so often fail them. These community-focused apps allow users like myself to seek romance without having to grapple with sexual racism, harassment, or racial fetishization quite as often as we do on mainstream dating apps.

Community-focused apps reduce some of these issues — but not all.