when I think of the word “fetish” I’m thinking about people who are into feet, bdsm, femdom, cuckolding or MDLB. Not someone who just finds X ethnicity more attractive on average than any other ethnicity. Nobody for example is going to say to a white man that he has a white girl fetish simply because he finds white women more attractive on average than any other ethnicity. Because it’s completely understandable that most people prefer to date with their own ethnicity. But the minute that white man finds a black women more attractive on average suddenly that’s fetishization. It’s completely ridiculous.
I think its one of those spectrum things. Preference <—> Fetish.
If you are interested in the person as well as the attribute, its probably more on the preference end, but if all you care about is the attribute, that’s when it strays into fetishisation?
Also matters how you express the preference. If your tinder profile says “women of colour only”, thats gonna come across more creepy than if you left that out, and just matched with whoever you found attractive.
I like your explanation. I think its like anything else. Is it a fetish to be a boob man or a but man or to like them big or small? To like athletic or lavashish? I think it comes down to how absolute it is. Its like on the ones side its hey I prefer so your sorta gonna get some points for features I like and on the other is like I will only date people who are or have X or something.