(INSIDE EDITION) - A Tennessee teenager has raised more than $25,000 after she said her parents cut her off for dating her black boyfriend.
Allie Dowdle, 18, took to GoFundMe to share that her parents had refused to pay for college and had taken away her car and phone because of her relationship to 18-year-old Michael Swift.
"About a year ago, I told my parents that I'd started dating a boy named Michael, pictured with me above. Hoping to share him with my family, I showed my parents his picture, and the conversation was over before it even began," Dowdle wrote on the campaign page. "My dad did not give me an option: he told me that I was not allowed to see Michael ever again. Why? Strictly because of skin color."
Dowdle went on to say that she has been dating the teen for a year and has fought hard to "make her parents see Michael as a human being instead of just someone who is African-American."
"All of this because I love another human being, as I was taught to do. How could my love for another person be wrong because of his skin color?" Dowdle continued in the post.
According to the NYDailyNews, Bill Dowdle, Allie's father, said that his daughter dating a black man may not be his "preference" because of "issues" involved with biracial dating in the South, but that it is not his place to pick who she dates now that she is 18.
Bill continued to say that he is not racist and that he disapproved because his daughter started dating Michael in secret.
Dowdle did not immediately respond for comment.