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How many points is your ethnicity worth in this Craigslist ad?

This guy on Craigslist may be right up your alley. You've just got to make sure that you're Asian (and the right kind of Asian) enough to date him. 

 

Chase Hoffberger

Internet Culture

Posted on Jun 20, 2013   Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 1:05 pm CDT

Hey, fellows, you Asian? Want to get to know an Asian man in San Francisco, one of “smooth built” who’s “young looking with fit”?

Great news: There’s a guy on Craigslist who may be right up your alley. You’ve just got to make sure that you’re Asian (and the right kind of Asian) enough to date him. 

This aforementioned Asian man has no name, or at least none that he’s so willing to provide. (Could he be foolin’?) He’s a 37-year-old hiking enthusiast who’s 5’11” and 155 pounds, a photographer who enjoys “Discussing subjects from social issues, arts, philosophy, [and] politics” and gets down with “both Western and Chinese culture.”

But mostly Chinese! The dude who posted this personals listing is really, really into the Chinese—and the Koreans, and the Japanese, and the Singaporeans, and the Taiwanese, and the… 

He’s even gone so far as to valuate each stereotype. If you want to be this dude’s boyfriend, you’ve got to pass a certain test. You know those “How likely are you to…” tests they run in Esquire and Cosmopolitan? That’s what we’re dealing with here. So being “Ethnic Chinese” is worth 20, and having “two or more generations of  your direct family” hold bachelor’s degrees is worth 15. Experience in a long-term relationship with another Asian is another 15, and holding a job in certain fields nets potential suitors 8. 

Here’s a screenshot to show you what we’re dealing with. 

See how there’s all those pluses and minuses? Twelve points for having a solid socio-economic standing. Minus 6 points if your parents were divorced. Dude’s tough. You have to wonder why he had to turn to Craigslist.

The most interesting stipulation comes close to the bottom: just two points up, the Asian dude claims that, though he’s a Democrat, it’s actually a positive if his suitor’s a Republican. 

All told, potential applicants must maintain a final score over 35 if they want to date this chump. 

And if you think it’s discrimination, it’s not. “It’s personal preference,” he writes. “It’s not your worthiness being judged here… our compatibility is.”

Tell ’em, big man. 

Photo via seeminglee/Flickr

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*First Published: Jun 20, 2013, 8:49 am CDT