“Ethnic dating” is something of a blanket term that can mean many things to many people. But what exactly is ethnic dating? What can it offer you? And what are some of the pitfalls to avoid if you are planning on going down this road?

First of all, try performing a Google search on “Ethnic Dating”. What do you find?

The search engine comes up with some interesting results, not necessarily what you might expect. So let’s take a look at what comes up on the screen.

Basically you will see a number of alternative dating sites, including (amongst others) websites for black dating, Indian dating, African dating and Asian dating.

You might expect these websites to be tailored specifically for members of their targeted cultural and ethnic groups. And many of them are. They can provide a valuable service, linking single people from these groups up with potential partners, thus giving them the opportunity to meet other singles from the same, or similar, ethnic culture.

Which is all good. If you come from a particular cultural background and want to find a date who shares your heritage, but you are living somewhere where this is difficult (through the course of your normal daily life), then ethnic dating websites like these can be great. They can introduce you to like-minded potential partners, partners with whom you might have a lot in common.

But dig a little deeper into the Google search results and you will discover a different type of site. You will see that not all “ethnic dating” services have the same goals in mind. Take a look at some of the search results for “Asian Dating Sites” for example, and you may be surprised to discover that many of them are focused not on Asian singles, but on Western men looking for a Chinese or Thai partner!

While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it can be a little misleading.

So our advice is to take a good look at the various results that come up when you do a Google search on “Ethnic Dating”, because some of the websites might not be exactly what you expect! If you are a young Chinese girl looking for a young Chinese guy for example, you might want to make sure you don’t mistakenly sign yourself up for a service that leads a procession of middle-aged Western blokes to your door! And vice versa of course!