Judging: Fear of doing something you don't want to

One day you meet this person going bowling.  Over time you go bowling more often and become friends with this individual.  The person seems like a great individual; kind, good sense of humor, helpful, etc.  Then you find out that they are really good at bowling because they are the child of the evil super villain 'Red Velvet' who is not such a great fellow (super villains are secretly really good at bowling).  With this new information you suddenly have these new feelings of breaking said friendship all because of the father's tarnished reputation.  The person seems nothing like the father but you can't shake these feelings to run the other way.  You know that judging someone by a completely different person's actions is foolish.  Even though you know this you fear that you don't have the strength to NOT let it get in the way; that it will come up in a conversation and you will eventually 'burn a bridge.'

"Uh your dad is an evil super villain, how do you feel about that?"  Not really a good conversation topic.

Obviously this would never happen because I just made up the super villain Red Velvet, but have you ever had this feeling?  Fearing that you will do something, even though you know it's not right?  For example, like judging someone unfairly without even knowing them.  All my life I have been taught to treat people equally; to give everyone a chance and the benefit of the doubt, and I make an effort to do this.  Then I learn something about someone and it has the chance of affecting the relationship I have with them, if I let it.  From all my experiences with them I see the person is nice, kind, and good, but if I didn't know this one piece of information, that's not necessarily about them but involves them, then I wouldn't second guess my friendship.

Sometimes I truly think ignorance is bliss, because they haven't done anything wrong and they absolutely DO NOT deserve to be treated poorly.  No one does.  That's what I fear, treating someone poorly who doesn't deserve it.  Don't misunderstand, I avoid even getting close to being unkind to others.  I only hope that if I have done it that I have apologized and made amends.

May we all do a little better about learning about a person, truly, before burning bridges, because some chasms only get deeper and longer with time.