AITA for calling out my friend in public after he made an ignorant remark?
I (29M) am from the UK originally but live in Canada now. A few nights ago me and my girlfriend went out for dinner with one of my mates and his girlfriend.
When the server brought us to the table, my friend looked at the guy’s nametag and immediately went “oh brilliant, an Indian. They always mess up orders and can never understand what you’re saying.”
I told him straight away that was ignorant. He rolled his eyes and said it was “just true from experience.”
I explained that I grew up in the UK around loads of people of Indian background and people there generally understand South Asians are not all the same thing. I pointed out from the surname on the nametag the server was probably Gujarati and in my experience Gujaratis are usually quite professional and educated people.
I also explained there are massive cultural differences between regions and communities. Like Pakistanis are different from Indians, and even within Pakistan there are groups like Mirpuris, Punjabis etc with completely different cultures and backgrounds. You cannot decide to think less of Gujratis if you had bad experiences with Mirpuris for e.g.
My friend basically shrugged and said “they’re all the bloody same when it comes to customer service.”
At that point I told him loudly that he was being ignorant and sounding racist. He got quiet after that and dinner became awkward.
Later his girlfriend told me she agreed what he said was wrong, but that I should have spoken to him privately instead of calling him out at the table, especially with Indian staff around who could probably hear us. My mate says I embarrassed him on purpose to act morally superior and that friends are supposed to correct each other privately.
My girlfriend says if someone says something racist publicly then they can be corrected publicly too.
AITA?