And, if the last few years have done nothing else, they should probably have taught us to be wary of “popular press accounts” of, well, anything.

Lemuel Pitkin, your link does not work. But googling I found a Pew survey that said much the same, or exactly the same if that was the link you had. I stand corrected. And surprised – because I have read quite a few complaints, particularly by black and ethnic minority women, that their choice to date men of another race had been regarded unfavourably by relatives. Maybe I got particularly interested in that type of story.

I have been wondering how this ties in with the survey Slocum quoted. I think the difference might hinge on the meaning of “approve” and the difference between approving of inter-racial dating and feeling inter-racial attraction oneself.

I note the Pew survey referred only to blacks and whites. Too tired to think what effect this might have.

There are also questions of compatibility between couples of different religion, class and culture which partly overlap with race and partly don’t. Was that what you were referring to, Abb1?

I dunno, Squander Two. One of the most depressing* observations I made when teaching was that when it came to knowledge, “to those that hath much, more shall be given.”

*Do I mean that?

It’s all very well feeling superior for knowing stuff about physics that some Americans don’t, but are you confident that you know more than all of them on every other subject as well? If not, your feeling of superiority isn’t going to last long when you find out that they’re far better than you at quoting Shakespeare, or can play the stock market more effectively, or know more about the history of architecture.

But you would be wrong. From the same survey:

“In 1987-88, fewer than half of whites (44%) said that interracial dating was acceptable; that number has nearly doubled (to 81%) in the current survey. Two decades ago, about three-quarters of blacks (74%) felt interracial dating was acceptable. Today, nearly all African Americans (97%) believe that interracial dating is acceptable.”

Ajay,

The thing that brought the thought to my mind was this recent thread from the Volokh Conspiracy, although that was about preferences for or against inter-racial dating rather than approval or disapproval of it. Other than that, just things I’ve been told and read. I realise that that is not very scientific but that’s why I referred to it as my guess. Although you say that the cliche “would you want your daughter to marry one” is not aimed at black fathers, it’s not that unusual to hear of exactly that situation – from brothers, too.

Also racial prejudice between different ethnic minorites might be a factor.

I did not intend to derail this thread. If my guess is correct, no doubt there are multiple reasons, such as the fear of a minority group losing its identity if too many members marry out. Certainly, I might be wrong in this opinion but I’m surprised that you are so surprised at the idea.

#27: If it’s true that white men are the most tolerant of interracial dating, I surmise it’s because they have the least to lose. White men don’t suffer the opprobrium that white women or non-whites still sometimes do when they date/marry outside their race; they can afford to be tolerant.

I have no idea – none – why you should think that.

Because minorities are typically more worried about marrying outside the group? Because of popular press accounts of black women worrying about a shortage of marriageable black men being ‘taken’ by white women? Or maybe because of data:

“Over the years there have been studies and investigations conducted to discover the public opinion on this controversial topic and reasons why people decide for or against interracial dating.”

“Many of these studies have found that Black women are the least accepting of inter-racial dating than any other racial group”

“White men were the most accepting group. In this study conducted with California college students, White men were more positive in attitudes about interracial dating (Fiebert, 2000). This same study reported that 81 % of White men were willing to date outside of their race (Fiebert, 2000). However, none of these studies seemed to have stated why White men are the most accepting.”

http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/314.asp

White men are the most tolerant of interracial relationships and black women the least? Well now that can’t possibly be right, can it?

I have no idea – none – why you should think that. The cliche “would you want your daughter to marry one?” is not aimed at black fathers worried that their girls will come home with some white boy.

I taught physics once. The cleverer kids could contribute to a discussion of the sort above, such as points about common centres of mass, or how any reference point could be considered as static. For others it was a triumph just to get them to remember the basics. I think a lot of people have trouble with the rock bottom concept of “A revolves round B” when both A and B are in space. They lose their bearings when they try to picture it. The problem may be as much visuo-spatial as anything.

Certainly the distinction between, say, the Earth revolving round the Sun and the Earth revolving on its own axis had to be re-inforced with satsumas and lamps ad nauseam.

Kieran and several commenters here seem to have assumed, or pretended to assume, that the American result was the result of considered heliocentric views rather than ignorance – or just picking the wrong answer through inattention. I doubt it very much. I’ve scarcely ever heard before today of any US Christian fundamentalist who believed in heliocentricism, but I’ve heard of many a survey in the UK and the US that revealed distressing levels of public ignorance about science, history, current affairs, and geography.

Incidentally, on the cross-racial dating question, does anyone know what proportion of those disapproving were non white? My guess would be that a higher proportion of non-whites than whites would disapprove, and a higher proportion still would be willing to admit they disapproved.

Answer: yes, everything in the solar system orbits around the common centre of mass of the solar system, which is pretty close to the centre of the sun, because the sun is much more massive than everything else put together. The common centre of mass isn’t always changing – unless you add in another planet from somewhere.

You can work out the Earth’s orbit pretty accurately by just considering the Earth and the Sun, because the rest of the system doesn’t have much of an effect. Similarly, you can work out Jupiter’s orbit while ignoring Earth, because Earth doesn’t affect matters much either – too small. However, if you look at an asteroid that orbits near Jupiter, you can’t ignore Jupiter – every time the King Planet swings past, it will disturb the asteroid.

Suddenly my comfortable assurance doesn’t seem so perfect after all (and I didn’t even have to get all relative). Mark me down for “refused to answer.”