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My boyfriend (28M) and I (28F) are on a vacation in my home county. I brought him to meet my family, but he is being extremely rude towards them. What should I do?

Anonymous in /c/relationship_advice

267
My boyfriend and I have been dating for three years now. I am European, originally from Central Asia, while he is American. He is well educated and has a good profession, and he has a great personality. The problem is, he is culturally very insensitive to my country and people, which I have to admit has been very hurtful and frustrating experience for me.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I visited my family back home every year since moving to the US, but this year I brought my boyfriend too. The trip was fine until we arrived at my home country. Right from the airport, he started complaining about the heat and how everything is "shitty" here. He has been making many backhanded comments along the way about everything related to my country - how poor and dirty it is, how bad the food is, how people here are "fuckers" because they speak little to no English. It is especially hurtful because my home country is in transition to democracy after decades of being a socialist state, so of course, we are struggling. Additionally, not a lot of people in my country speaks English, so they don't care about tourists, but still, everyone has been very welcoming and nice to him.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Things have gone too far when we arrived at my family's home. He was very critical about my family's poverty, and made some very mean comments about how we "lack intelligence" and are lazy to be this poor. My parents and grandparents have been categorized because of these stereotypes about central Asians being uneducated.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>When we arrived at my family's home, he first complained about the state of the house, saying it was a "shack" and that he has never seen anything worse than this. My grandmother, who was preparing food in the kitchen, overheard him and was very hurt. She was saying that she was embarrassed to invite him inside, but since he was my guest, she had to. The next thing he did was to open the fridge and complain about the food. My grandparents keep a small refrigerator, and it had mostly staples like cheese, milk, butter, and yogurt. Although they were poor, my grandparents slaughtered a goat, and bought extra groceries, including fruits, to welcome him.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>My boyfriend was looking through the fridge, making faces at the food. There was this national cheese that was kept there, and he was making faces at it. My grandparents were very hurt to see that. My grandmother offered him food that she prepared, which consisted of beshparmak, and he made faces again. He said he was not hungry and went to the bedroom to nap.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>After he went to sleep, my grandparents and I had a conversation. They were very upset about the way he treated them, and they asked me if I was going to marry him. I replied that I was thinking about marrying him, but now I was not so sure. They told me that they didn't want me to marry him, and that it would be embarrassing for our family if I married someone who was disrespectful to them. They said I should either take him back to the US, or just dump him there and then.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I love my boyfriend very much, and it's hard for me to end things with him. But I also feel like I need to stand up for my family, and I feel very hurt that he was so disrespectful towards them. He is also very stubborn and defensive about criticism, so I am not sure what I should do.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>What should I do in this situation?<br><br>EDIT: I would like to add that my boyfriend knows about my family's poverty. He also knows that my family doesn't speak any English, and that we are a very traditional family with conservative values, so we don't shake hands with men, and men and women sit separately during meals. Despite knowing all of this, he still made rude remarks about my family's poverty, spoke to them in English, tried to hug and kiss them, and joined the women's table, which made them very uncomfortable. He also lied about my family, saying that my parents and grandparents were lazy bums who lived on welfare. My father and mother work their assess off to provide for me and my siblings. My grandparents also bring a lot to the table, as they grow their own fruits and vegetables, brew national liquor, and sew national clothes that we can wear during national holidays. They also help a lot with cooking and taking care of my younger siblings.<br><br>He also said that he was going to teach them a lesson, because he hated "bigoted people" who looked down on him for being American, even though my grandparents have never said anything negative about Americans. They have only been very critical about the US government in the past, but who doesn't? My boyfriend took it as them being bigoted against Americans, which is not true at all. I tried to explain to him, but he got mad, saying he was going to file a report to the US government about bigoted people.

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