Disclaimer: At the risk of sounding racist or too race sensitive, I ask this question withno intention of offending anyone, but rather to gain insight for myself...
Background: The media, especially black media, makes a huge to-do about the number ofAfrican American women who are single and have never been married, fueling the panick withstats about there being fewer eligible black men. As a result, culturally, Black women in thepast and, even more so, now, have been pressured to settle for any man they can get and those whoare single are accused of having too high of standards.

QUESTION: Here's my myquestion. Are women of other races encouraged to abandon their standards, hopes, and dreams of aparticular type of man either by family or society? Are other women who aren't African Americantold to not be picky, take what you can get, be happy you've got a man, who cares if he (blah, blah,blah) you've got someone to curl up with at night or at least pay the bills?
Hypothesis: My suspicion is that this is not a universal thing. I think some girls whomay be stuck-up or who may put too much pressure for perfection on themselves might hear thattheir standards are unrealistic and should be lowered. However, I think the majority of womenfrom other races aren't being told by talk show hosts to date down socially, educationally, to dateoutside of relgious beliefs, chose a man you might not find attractive, date a man with a felony,bad credit, lots of kids, low ambitions, etc. all because you're probablybeing unrealistic to think you can do better than that.

[Disclaimer: NOTthat I think little of the men that list describes, nor am I trying to group or lablea race of men with that list. I'm merely saying that a lot of black women are beingtold to lower standards in ways that I don't believe other women are.]
Question: Am I right? Am I wrong? You might not care, but I do, so please humor me byanswering the question: Are women of other races encouraged to settle? If so, in what ways andfrom whom?