Chocolate Shortage

There's not enough chocolate in the city of Chicago. Or at least that's what one commentator would have me believe. After reading my post last week on Chitlin' Circuit ALAN and my earlier post on Chocolate Chasers, it seems that a white 40-something reader of Sex and the Second City was a little annoyed at my honest and accurate negative categorization. He wrote a letter (which I've edited to protect his privacy) to object to some of my views:

Dear Bernard:

I just discovered your site... As a fellow Chicagoan, although a white North Sider, I find your site compelling.

I know there are people out there that are "Chocolate Chasers," and I imagine that you would probably consider me one of them. Because you took a somewhat negative view of the practice in your article, give me a couple of minutes of your time to rebut some of the objections that I sensed from your article.

The Machine Shop episode (see Chitlin' Circuit) is indeed creepy and indefensible, but I couldn't figure out if that was what really bothered you or if white people exclusively (or almost) seeking sex with black men is the issue that offended you-- but I got the feeling it was the latter.

I can only speak to my case. Growing up, I lived on the white side of town but was bussed across town to a mostly black school in an all black neighborhood. When I witnessed the overt racism of the people on the school bus, I began to make friends with the black kids. I was one of the few white kids in a single parent household, so I felt an additional kinship with the black kids-- or perhaps more accurately, a greater sense of alienation from the white kids.

As I grew older, I alternately found myself drifting away and then back toward identifying more closely with black folks. On several trips to Brazil...I saw a different kind of society, one in which blacks, whites, asians, [sic] and others intermingled more freely, both sexually and socially.

When my homosexuality emerged, I at first gravitated toward whites because it was more convenient at that stage of my sexual development. But most of my firends [sic] were still asian, black or Hispanic. As I gained more confidence in my sexuality, I found that the merging of my social and sexual relationships became extra powerful in combination.

You can dismiss people by calling them "Chocolate Chasers" if you'd like, but I also had an 10-year plus co-habitive relationship with a black man, minored African-American Studies in college...and currently work for a school with a large African-American student body.

Next, let's look at reciprocity. Which do you imagine to be more prevalent: gay white men that mostly or exclusively seek the company of black men, or gay black men that only go for white guys? My guess is that a higher percentage of gay black guys look primarily for white guys than vice versa. It's also my experience that within the gay communities of both races, the cross-racial stigma is more pronounced among blacks. Just a guess, based on nothing more than my own experience.

Finally, let's look at the demographic aspect. If you're a gay white guy living in Chicago looking for a hookup or relationship with a black guy, the numbers say that you should seize every opportunity. There are 2.9 million people in Chicago, about 48% of whom are male. So now you're down to 1.392 million. Thirty-five percent are black. So now you're down to 487,000 black men in Chicago. Let's say-- and this is an enormous stretch-- that 5% are gay. Now you're down to 24,360. If you figure that the numbers are spread evenly for every year between ages 21 and 70 (this might lead to some wide discrepancies but at least it seems logical) and you're willing to consider people five years older or five years younger, you're down to 4,971 potential partners.

Now conjecture and guesswork and estimation are really looming large, but let's say that 25% are willing to consider an interracial encounter. We're down to 1242. Maybe a third of those are involved with someone, so now we're down to 820. This means that the entire pool of optimal guys for a gay white man looking for a gay black man in Chicago is 820 people scattered over the 270 square miles of the
city--leaving completely out of the equation factors like politics, musical taste, appearance, education, income, health, common interests, cuddler/non-cuddler, op/bottom, etc. I figure that when those filters are applied, there is one gay black guy left for me in the entire city of Chicago--maybe it's you, maybe not. But you have to give it a try.

Thanks for your time.

Forty-something White Guy (FWG)

Did FWG break that shit down or what? Is he convinced that if he doesn't push up on every black man he sees that he is going to miss out on that "one gay black guy" that is reserved "left" for him? I don't think I have ever heard someone (in contemporary America) give such an economic supply/demand rationale for the exploitation of to date black labor men.

I'll post my response tomorrow.

TO BE CONTINUED