The Asexual Community is Predominately White. Why?
According to a recent survey conducted in 2014 by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network of over 10,000 asexual people, 77.3% of the ace community identifies as White and “NonHispanic.” 5.2% identified as White and “Hispanic,” 3.9% identified as Asian or Pacific Islander, 2.5% identified as Black or African American, 0.5% identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, 6.8% identified as Mixed Race, and 3.8% identified as “Other” or did not respond to the question. Aside from the problematic and messy categorizations utilized in this community census (which are based off the U.S. census), one thing appears to be clear: the asexual or ace community is overwhelmingly white racially (as well as “NonHispanic” ethnically).
Whiteness is dominating the ace community, but the question is: Why?
Asexuality as a contemporary identity originated within highly white and highly selective online spaces, such as email lists and blogs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, at the inception of the internet’s ascension into widespread usage. So it really is of no surprise that it has largely remained within these spaces, at least, on some level. “Asexuality” is still a relatively elusive and esoteric term that maintains a strong positionality within highly selective and highly white online spaces. It’s not a word (or, at least, identity) that one…
