> The oblique or slash doesn’t imply they are the same thing, it stands for “or,” meaning the preceding predicate applies to both, i.e., they are treated the same way essentially in this context

But you shouldn’t treat them the same way. They’re fundamentally different. You can be perfectly happy being Bangladeshi as a matter of DNA, while hating the culture of the country. Shit, that’s like half my extended family. We all got the fuck out. How many people are there in NYC or Chicago from the redneck parts of Alabama who hate the culture back home? It’s the same thing! Those people aren’t “self hating white people.” They are just people who think there are better ways to live and act than the way their ancestors did.

> Lastly, I have this nagging feeling you’re not actually born/raised in the US, because I know a lot of desis like myself who are

Haha, that explains a lot. You’re surrounded by white people, so you feel this affinity to your co-ethnics, which compels you to defend a culture that you didn’t even grow up in. That’s irrational. You’re an individual. You can look at the world and just see who is doing stuff that works and who is doing stuff that doesn’t work. You don’t have to yoke yourself to people you have nothing in common with other than skin color.

You’re correct, I wasn’t born in the U.S., and neither was my mom or my dad. So we actually understand the problem with the culture back in old country. We lived there. We’re not analyzing it through the lens of white people from the other side of the world. You don’t need to psychoanalyze me to understand why I like Japan and dislike Bangladesh. I have eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell. This is objective stuff. The people who talk quietly, cross at crosswalks, queue up, etc., have a better culture than the ones that don’t. And they have every right to be afraid of immigrants from places that don’t do that.