As the title says, I am ethnically Bengali (as in Bangladeshi Bengali) and throughout my life (I'm 20 now) I've found it really difficult to get on with some other Bengalis. Now before anyone calls me a coconut, I do have really close Bengali friends who I have no problem getting on with (probably because they're my parents' friends) and I actually am really close with my culture and I love it. However, throughout secondary school, sixth form and even now in university (guess where I go, lol), I just find it very difficult. I've tried to get on well with everyone and they just don't like me. I'm really close to Pakistanis and Indians and they don't seem to have a problem with me.
I was talking to my cousin about this the other day and she was saying how because a lot of Benglais in East London are from working class backgrounds (nothing wrong with that) and they just can't handle it when someone is supposedly "better than them" (as in because both of my parents have been university educated and we don't live on a council estate). Now, I would never look down on someone because they live on a council estate or any stupid reason like that. I just find it so shocking that as soon as people from my uni ask me questions about my upbringing and my parents' wealth (like we even have any, I'm not a billionaire's daughter for god's sake), that they get really offended and keep interrogating me about it as if I'm lying. What's even worse is when they assume that I'm just like them and I supposedly relate to everything that has gone on in their lives. For example, the Bengali girls in my uni assumed that one of my parents married the other just to be legal, when they were both born and brought up in the UK.
Can someone give me some genuine advice? If I'm wrong then please do say why. I just want to get one well with everyone. If you want to know anything else, do leave a post and I'll reply to it.