At my very first meeting with my fiancé’s family, his mother suddenly flung a glass of wine in my face and mocked me, sneering, “Just cleaning off the poor. If you want to marry my son, hand over $100,000 right now.” When I turned to him for support, I saw him grinning right alongside her.

Diana West had walked into her first dinner with her fiancé’s family expecting discomfort, not cruelty. She had anticipated courteous probing, polite smiles masking judgment, and questions about her upbringing that sounded kind but were meant to measure her worth. What never crossed her mind was being publicly degraded, as if humiliation were part of the meal.

The Ellis family …