Notes From D.R. | Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene

I don’t usually read the newspaper advice columns, but a Boston Globe "Ask Beth" article caught my eye a couple of days ago, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

"Ask Beth" responded to a 18-year-old woman who was troubled by her family’s reaction to her decision to date an African-American man. The woman claimed her mother was horrified by her new boyfriend, and even wanted her daughter to see a psychiatrist. Her sisters also openly mocked her for dating an African-American.

"Beth" suggested that the woman talk to her mother and sisters to determine why they were so reluctant to have her continue her relationship. It was fine advice as far as it goes. However, there was one critical issue that was left unaddressed.

The young woman’s implication, of course, is that her mother’s a racist moonbat harridan a la Shelley Winters in A Patch of Blue. I won’t deny that this could be the case. However, is it possible that there could be another explanation for her behavior?

Last year, Bill Cosby was denigrated in PC circles for condemning antisocial behavior in young African-American men. There were a lot of people who silently applauded Cosby for his statements: they were likewise troubled by the antisocial behavior demonstrated by some young African-American men in recent years, but could not articulate their thoughts lest they be branded as racist.

If the boyfriend of the young woman who wrote to "Ask Beth" does not engage in the sort of antisocial behavior Cosby condemned, then it is the young woman’s mother who needs to see the psychiatrist. But if the lady’s paramour does engage in the sort of antisocial behavior Cosby condemned, and she goes out with him because she’s attracted to "bad boys," then can it not be argued that the lady’s mother is merely practicing what author Dinesh D’Souza once famously labeled "rational discrimination?"

Obviously, this is sheer speculation, not knowing any of the particulars involved. However, it’s a self-evident truth that if the young man in question adheres to the antisocial, then the mother is not the female Robert Byrd her daughter suggests she is.

Now, for all we know, the young man could be all sweetness and light, a straight-A student who helps little old ladies across the street and volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. If this is the case, then the mother’s objection to the relationship is illogical, since such an objection is based solely on ethnicity. However, as Cosby noted, there are sadly too many young men of color who embrace an antisocial worldview–and if the lady’s partner is one of those men, then her mother is not the ogre described in her letter to "Beth."

This is not in any way to diminish the real difficulties faced by those in interracial relationships–just to acknowledge that race alone may not be the reason for the mother’s apparent disapproval.