Comment by lappet
4 days ago
Fellow desi here, and I am happy for you, but I haven't had the same experience at all in the Bay. Imo, there is something in American culture which makes people very incurious about other cultures...because there are so many immigrants from all over the world, Americans find it hard to relate to anyone not American. My favorite example to illustrate this is how "where are you from" is everyone's favorite question in South Asia and often asked with good intentions, but it can be considered rude in the States.
Asking in the US seems to risk a faux pas these days. "Why do you assume I'm 'from' somewhere else?"
Haha, the only time someone has done that to me they were doing it tongue-in-cheek. I’ve never encountered an actual problem here but also recently I’ve found the “Did you grow up here?” or “How long have you been living here?” questions much more fun. They have more conversation forks in them and I like that style of conversation where each interaction increases the conversation cone.
FWIW here in San Francisco I have found many people it’s fun to be around.
I guess some people are just looking for something to be offended about. People move around so much pretty much everybody is from somewhere else.