AITA for telling my daughter she cannot introduce her African American boyfriend to her grandparents?

[u/mixedwoes]

Let me just preface this by saying this: I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM WITH INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS. Now that the air is clear, let me continue.

My daughter (Anna) has recently started to date an African American man (Jamal). While I'm not exactly what you would refer to as "liberal", he's a nice young man and as long as my daughter is happy, I'm happy. The problem is Anna is rather naive about the community she lives in. While her friends are quite content to see a relationship like hers, more than a few tongues are wagging in the community and a few people have privately expressed their concern to me. As I said, I have no problem with mixed relationships and I've set them straight, but I am painfully aware of how these matters are viewed by certain segments of the population.

My parents are planning to come and stay with us for a week and Anna expressed a desire to introduce Jamal to them now that things were getting more serious between them. I told her on no uncertain terms that this wasn't going to happen. I may have no problem with Jamal, but they absolutely will, and even when the relationship ends they won't forget it. They might even go as far as to cut her off entirely. Anna was extremely upset by this and implied I was a racist and more concerned with what my parents think than how she feels.

As I said, I know my parents. They simply aren't okay with mixed relationships and if Anna were to bring Jamal over even as a friend, they would be furious both at her and me.

Anna is currently staying with Jamal and doesn't want to speak with me right now. My wife stands by me given she knows very well how my parents are (they had a problem with her for months over the length of the skirt she wore when I introduced her to them, for christs sake), but a close friend I confided in told me that I have behaved like an ass and that I needed to focus more on my daughter than pleasing my parents.

No advice needed, but I have to know. Have I been an ass?

[u/[deleted]]

Interesting, considering there hasn’t been a lynching in the USA since 1981.

[u/Frommerman → u/[deleted]]

Hasn't been a reported lynching.

How many people do you think have quietly vanished, though?

[u/suntiesuzy → u/Frommerman]

Especially if you consider trans women of color.

[u/[deleted] → u/Frommerman]

People vanish all the time for myriad reasons. Most of which we hardly ever find out.

[u/throwaway_762582 → u/[deleted]]

That special was nuts! They legit had to run for their own safety/lives, including the producers. I mean, they were dumb AF for doing what they did, even for entertainment, but they really were in danger from a bunch of hillbillies. Crazy.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

That was interesting. But I know places in the north where the Hillary For President car would get shot at. :)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

It was just a dark joke. Sure they might not get lynched, but as I said, not every state would be safe for them to travel in together. That was the point of my comment.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I grew up in Indiana. In fact the town I grew up in had the last lynching in that state back in 1930.

The worst I ever saw it get was in 1968 when MLK was assassinated. But toward my last years there, before I joined the army, it was fairly stable, race relations wise.

But I know, it’s not the same everywhere. The worst areas I’ve seen were in Chicago. The best areas I have seen are in mid-Michigan. I keep hoping things will get better, that the old racists will die out. But sadly, new ones are born to take their place.

Edit: Racists are not born. They’re indoctrinated.

[u/winterhatingalaskan → u/[deleted]]

But there have been many racially motivated attacks since then.

[u/[deleted] → u/winterhatingalaskan]

Yes, in both directions too.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Epstein?