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.
As long as both parties have knowledgeable consent, then what does the label really matter? You like what you like(legally speaking). The only people who should feel ashamed of what they’re into are furries. Filthy things…
(I kid, but only just.)
Because we are the wolf we feed, or the monster - if we lean into fetishizing entire races, we justify that behavior and reenforce it, normalizing reducing an immutable trait into a sexual characteristic. Vs thinking “hey maybe I shouldn’t be spending all my time looking at only BBC-worship photos because it fucks up the way I treat black men” etc (to use one that comes up in the gay community a lot).
I am of the mind that it’s not healthy to be ashamed or upset by what turns us on, but that we shouldn’t intentionally try to get problematic with it either, as sex can get compulsive pretty quick. So don’t fetishize races.