To me, 'preferences' were always like-- where I'm concerned, I prefer dallying with creatives; I prefer painters, musicians, and sculptors; I prefer people who are well-read. While I can respect some types of preference, the ones I don't respect are the ones that smell like "nah, you don't have a preference; you're just saying that so a Black person-- or even just a person with exceptionally dark skin-- can't romantically get close to you".

That just reeks of uninvestigated bigotry to me-- and note; I don't say this as a 'we should be able to hook up' kind of thing-- if anything, I don't believe the uninvestigated bigot deserves to be with anyone, really.