I Asked Real People To Share Their Best 'Dating While Black' Advice

Dating in general can be overwhelming, but dating while Black has its own share of complexities. From societal and preconceived expectations to past experiences, finding your person can be quite challenging. As someone who has been in the “dating scene” for some time now, but who has also experienced love, what I thought to be love, a few heartbreaks, situationships, and the constant battle of going back and forth with what and who I wanted, pursuing a relationship felt like a tug of war between what I knew I deserved and what I was accepting. In simpler terms, this s**t was, and still somewhat is, a headache.

After sharing countless dating stories and pet peeves with friends who were going through some of the same situations, I realized that the dating scene was just as complex for others as it was for me. Dating can lead to a beautiful love story, but it does require each person to put in work to make it happen. What better way to find out what the Black community expectations were than to personally ask.

I approached real people with this one comment: I’m writing an article on dating while Black. Give me one piece of advice. Their responses were sincere, direct, and spoke about the dating pool in the Black community.

Here's what they had to say...