When we talk about race it's almost always institutional, about hiring and real-estate trends and government policy. We rarely look at it in terms of our personal lives.

Earlier this month, though, OKCupid, a free online dating service, scoured through the messaging trends of more than one million of their users and found that online dating is riddled with the same biases as the real world.

In short, black women are slighted the most and white men have a bountiful harvest.

Using their "picture-rating utility" the analysis made sure that a person's looks didn't play a role. The data used came from people whose pictures were rated about the same. Still, they found that Caucasian women preferred white men over any other race. That same preference was more patent in Hispanic and Asian women.

to read the rest of the article:  http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2009/10/yes_race_matters_in_online_dat.html?sc=fb&cc=fp