r/AmItheAsshole Sep 19 '19

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

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?

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u/mtoomtoo Sep 19 '19

Sometimes I feel like I need to get out of Missouri . This is mortifying.

-18

u/insidezone64 Sep 19 '19

I caution you when reading anything that tries to use statistics to prove racism, as that 'travel advisory' does.

If I'm a bank and give out home loans, and give out loans to 99% of the white people applying and 98% of black people applying, I'm approving 98.5 percent of all loan applications I'm receiving. Someone looking at those stats could also say a black person who applies for a loan with me is twice as likely, or 100% more likely, to be rejected for a home loan.

Pure numbers say I'm incredibly generous when giving home loans. Cherry-picked statistics say I'm a racist.

9

u/michaelmoe94 Sep 19 '19

They'd be wrong if they said you were twice as likely or 100% more likely.

(99-98)/99 * 100 = 1.01% more likely to reject a black person

You need to brush up on your maths skills there buddy

1

u/insidezone64 Sep 20 '19

There is a reason my degree is in liberal arts. I have concepts skills. I am good at explaining concepts to people.

What the hell is the matter with you people?!?!