I don't work in SF, but the last time I visited and was walking down the streets of SF with my friend (both Asian American), I had someone tell us to go back to our home countries. I haven't experienced that in Seattle, so I chalked it up to high economic tensions in SF (this was back when the Google Bus protests were a thing).

> Yet somehow I still often feel like an outsider.

As I've started becoming more aware of how race affects how you get treated in America, I've given up on identifying as American, despite growing up here, being a citizen, and not speaking my parent's native language very well.

I find it much easier to identify as Asian-American now, and there is a sense of comradery, especially in cities with smaller AA populations. A nice side effect is that I no longer get bothered when someone asks me that oh-so-annoying question "where are you from" meaning "what ethnicity are you".