Assalamu Alaikum - My family won't accept the man I want

Assalamu Alaikum, I need some advice. I am Bengali and I want to marry a man from a different ethnic background. He intends to come to our home in a few months to ask my father for my hand. My mother refuses even to meet him or his family and keeps pushing me to marry another man who is also Bengali. For the past 7–8 months I have said no many times, but she still insists and tells me, “don’t you want us to be happy as well,” making me feel guilty for turning it down. She told me she will cut ties and never speak to me again if I marry the man I love. She judges his job as not good enough and says I’ll have a “low-quality” life if I marry him. She even says she won’t give anything or help with the nikah if I go ahead. I believe her objections are mostly about his ethnicity and what people will say, though she won’t admit that. He is the same age as me and my mother worries that if I marry someone near my age he might leave me for a younger woman. I’m not comfortable with much older men, and they don’t understand that. We are not in a haram relationship - we have stopped talking for now out of respect - but he plans to come to ask my father for my hand soon. I feel lost. I’m seriously considering going along with the family’s choice so they will be happy and so I won’t lose contact with my younger siblings. I don’t know how to balance my own feelings, my faith, and my family’s pressure. Please: if anyone has experience or wise guidance from an Islamic perspective about handling family pressure, approaching parents gently, or ways to involve a trusted elder or imam to mediate, I would appreciate your thoughts. JazakAllahu khair.