There is something to be said for being an "exotic minority". To be found attractive for what you are takes the pressure off being rejected for your personality or any of the other lesser-than-obvious flaws you most certainly possess. A white or Asian woman who finds my brown skin the most attractive thing about me has already said "yes" before I can show her anything she might not like. I have been given a headstart. It's almost like being a pretty woman. You are in a state of being perpetually forgiven. I am well aware that what it is is another form of racism, call it "positive racism", but it's the emotional knee-jerk caused by seeing the differences between someone else and yourself. Ascribing qualities based on nothing more than stereotype or limited experience, perhaps, secretly, a longing for it to be so.

It is addictive. That kind of advantage is intoxicating. Being found attractive is a rare thing for most of us, and being found attractive regardless makes most people feel like pop-stars. A white man in much of the Third World will be Tom Cruise no matter what he looks like. He will be seen as a better man for qualities linked specifically to the color of his skin, rather than to ones that he himself shows.

It is all very logical, very human. Familiarity only breeds contempt when there is something to compare to the familiar thing. In many places interracial marriage has stopped being a shocking aberration and has become an acceptable alternative to the familiar. People will always crave acceptable alternatives.