Stephie Jo, a social media influencer, explains that her interest in Black men has nothing to do with ethnicity; she is attracted to the chemistry and bond between two people, and that her page caused discussions concerning interracial relationships due to a video related to her boyfriend and an explosion of hate comments.
In a TikTok video called “The ‘Truth’ About Me Liking Black Men,” Stephie Jo explained that she had already talked a lot about her dating preferences in her videos.
“I’ve talked relentlessly on this account about why I prefer to date Black men,” she said. “There is no solid reason. I have always just found myself more comfortable around Black men and women and more attracted to Black men and women organically. Not because they’re Black, not because I wanna be Black.”
She explained that the attraction is about chemistry, not skin color.
“There’s attraction, there’s chemistry, there’s connection,” Stephie Jo said. “There’s a vibe and energy that just matches for some reason. I’m not blind. I would know if a man or a woman I was talking to was Black, but I wasn’t talking to them because they were Black. I just have eyeballs, and I could see.”
Also, she added, this kind of attraction can exist in relationships regardless of ethnicity.
“And guess what? This chemistry and energy exchange that happens, it happens with all races,” she said. “That’s why I said I am not the girl that’s gonna be like, ‘Oh, I’ll only date a Black man.’ I’ll date a man of any race, actually.”
But the discussion starts only if the person Stephie Jo is interested in dating is a Black man, she added.
“But the thing is, no one seems to care when it’s a man of any other race,” she said. “Just when it’s a Black man, then it’s a problem,” she said. “Then I need to explain why.”
To defend her position, she created a list of the characteristics of the type of people whom she finds attractive, she explained.
“So that’s what I did, guys. I did a five-part series, and it was so much fun because everything I said was absolutely correct,” she said. “But of course not every Black man is like that. And you can find the traits I mentioned in other races.”
“So I give a list, and then they’re like, ‘Nope, the list is wrong.’ I didn’t give those part series because I was trying to justify it,” Stephie Jo said. “It honestly was just fun. It was a fun thing to really think about. Ooh, what really attracts me to Black men and women.”
However, this series of videos provoked numerous letters from non-Black men.
“But the problem becomes is that when you hype Black men up, those that aren’t Black start to feel left out,” she said. “And so then my DMs became a bunch of non-Black men screaming how they’re these characteristics too; they’re worth something too. And a lot of (explicit) photos that I just can’t get out of my head.”
These men were very eager to pull Black men down, she said.
“It’s like you’re so determined to try to prove that you’re better than Black men while screaming that Black men aren’t worth anything,” Stephie Jo said.
Stephie Jo also responded to viewers bothered that her account focuses on interracial relationships, adding that the page began with an innocent video about her boyfriend.
“For everyone that is bothered about my account being about interracial relationships, you need to remember that I was just a girl that was making a cute video about my boyfriend, and then it became racists blowing up my account and I was just like, ‘What are they talking about?'” she recalled.
Stephie Jo explained that the comments relied on stereotypes, which she knows are false, so she began responding publicly.
“It was stereotypes that I was like, ‘This isn’t true. This is weird.’ I started calling them out,” she said. “I’ve said it so many times. Stephie Jo did not become an interracial rac*st account. Like, that was not my intentions with this.”
Also, she added that her page was initially a personal one.
“This was a personal account. I was just a girl that was doing a cute video that other people have done,” Stephie Jo said. “It’s just a problem apparently when a white girl’s talking about a Black man.”
