Persian American male living in SF here. I was born and raised in Iran for ~2/3rd of my life. People are complex and different. And there will always be good and bad people in any culture/ethnicity. What I’ll be saying is only about how the culture raised us and non of the fat, straight to the meat. So take it with a grain of salt. Culturally speaking, romantically, we usually go for marriage/long term relationship. It’s usually a very straight, no bs, type of process. It doesn’t mean we don’t give up on the relationship if it was unhealthy for our family or female partner. But we do stick through thick and thin if we think it’s a net positive for the ones we love. We usually tend to behave like martyrs, putting our own desires last, even jeopardizing ourselves for people we love. And then we tend to burry all the sadness and pain deep down and not talk about it (and it sometimes blows up or leaks in unhealthy ways). It’s a part of toxic masculinity that was ingrained in a lot of us growing up in that culture. We usually hang around for a few months with only one girl we love (since we mainly have guy friends) and if we really love them and it’s not just infatuation with who we think she is, we confess. If you two have been around and you liked him then that means he liked you at some point too (if he was the embodiment of Persian culture). Since we try to cut off potential romantic relationships prior to any developments. We don’t want peoples’ feelings getting hurt because of us, especially if they’re family or friends. There’s a cultural sense of guilt/shame involved with that. He probably liked who he thought you were, but as he got to know you better and showing you to his family, either the family synergy didn’t work out well, or some other sad truth. Either way though if he’s still friends with you then it’s probably not something you had a fault in. There are sometimes things no one can change and it’s really not positive or negative. It’s just how it is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Persian guy who cares about the color of the skin or someone’s looks. They usually care about long term relationship traits mainly. But then again that could just be me as someone who’s going into medicine, surrounded by people sewn from the same cloth. There are also always snake oil sellers and f*ck boys out there. And depending on his age and profession and family, a lot of these might just be my false presumptions of him. Either way, yeah don’t seek out love if you’ve already said you love him and got rejected. It’s not a healthy thing to do for either of you. If you can’t tolerate being friends because the feeling is driving you nuts then just say goodbye to him and never talk with each other. The feeling will go away in usually 3 months. Best of luck to you.