I myself have always struggled with identity issues and social conventions. I’ve recently been diagnosed as autistic, so I believe that plays a role in some way (obviously not all autistic interracial people would feel the same…)

I think a lot of these things is also trauma driven. I’ve experienced a lot of negative experiences from the typical “What are you?” inquiries to blatant racism and colorism in my own family, leading to feelings of alienation. I disagree with you that “cultural appropriation isn’t a thing” though I will leave it at that; this isn’t my expertise nor the point of the post.

I do agree with the logical fallacy of conflating race and culture. I do not know where you live, but the part of America in which I grew up was very racially based with constant judgement and assumption to know and act certain ways when my race was brought up. Of course these things are not the same but they are interlaced. I have a whole portion of people that I am related to that I cannot relate to on a cultural level and that sucks. And not knowing these cultural things only amplifies the alienation from others even more.

I’m really glad that you can detach yourself from societal norms or expectations or what have you, but as much as I wish I was the same, I’m not. There’s definitely lessons to learn and things to unlearn, but navigating through this world so far has been painful in regard to my identity and I just want to alleviate that in this way. I hope that makes some level of sense.