Come read about my faults - my admittance to precieved "racism", for instance. And my lack of remorse for them!

So, yeah. I planned on writing this for almost a week now, but have either been too lazy, or too busy - either because I'm working, or because I failed a willpower save, broke down, and bought a DSi with Pokemon HeartGold. This means I've been extremely preoccupied with my Pokemon. With 1 badge and 20 Pokemon acquired, I feel it's time to really start their training. Pokemon in which I capture, and are deemed worthy of being a prospect for my Party are to be trained with a Military-style regime. They will come to despise me, and then they will love me for all the pain I put them through.

I will love them - or, at least the ones that prove themselves worthy of being loved. The others are expendable, and even favored Pokemon are expendable. Natural selection, my friends. Love it, embrace it, and kick your own ass to prove you're worthy of living through it. =P

... So, while doing that, I've been thinking about some things - I realized that, as a minority, I've come to have a small prejudice against the majority (aka: upper-middle class white people). This bothers me, but not as much as it should - I doubt I'd be bitter about anything if I didn't have reason to be... er, not when it involves this sort of thing, anyway.

I've finally /really/ seen the difference between someone raised purely as an American, compared to those whose families insist on holding onto some old rituals/cultural-norms from past generations. Things like Marriage, and gender-roles in the family. Stuff like that. It came as a shock to me that, really, it wasn't something that just appeared on TV.

This needs a bit of explaining, before I get attacked.

You know how America is "A Melting Pot of Cultures"? Yeah, well - that's good, and bad. It combines all different things together, mixes them, and everybody becomes one big pot-o'-good-tasting-sex, right? It also creates its own culture. By mixing everything together, old things combine into new ones, and the old ingredients sort of get diluted - to the point that you'd have to work really hard to go back in time and find out what those ingredients once were, individually.
And, that's the problem. I've seen a lot of people confuse racism with culture.
Even on Mibba, I've seen people accused of racism, when, really? They're just making assumptions about culture. Mexicans, for example? Native-Americans? Puerto Ricans? Irish, even? Yeah.

It's not a crime to assume that some people will hold onto cultures. Stereotypes are not all bad. For instance - I am a Mexican, and we still hang onto some things, even if they aren't spoken of as loudly as they once were.

For example! : Asking a girl if she's going to have a Quinceañera if she's Mexican, is not racist. Stop assuming it is.
(I use this example because it's one I'm comfortable making, and have seen made. Obviously not to myself. >_> )

In fact, its hard to judge just what kind of bad thing you're committing by accusing the person who asked. I've discussed it with others, and there seems to be some form of logic to my thoughts, here - since they've agreed if I explain myself well enough. Though, maybe we are just too bitter.
But, still! For making an assumption - a completely logical assumption, based on the person's ethnicity? Yeah, no. It's okay. It is!

"That's racist!"
"Why is it racist?"
"Because, you're assuming they're going to do it, just because they're Mexican!"

Why, yes. But it was never an insult, to begin with. It was an honest question based on a stereotype that is justified. Some families chose to hold onto certain rituals. With a bit more thought, you'll realize the question was asked because you're not going to entirely assume that they will, only because stereotype says so.

Political correctness can be taken too far.

I say that because... it's what that is about. It's extremely awkward to hear that something you, and many others of the same family background, still celebrate based on tradition can be automatically be connected to racism. To suddenly jump the gun like that is silly. Why?
Because, it implies that - to have equality - there will be no individuality. No pride in your cultural background. Even your nation! (All of them have faults, guys - not just first or third-world countries. Or first. We all have faults, but you can still take a little bit of pride in who you are, where you came from, and yourself as you are today without being a bigot.)

That's not Equality, kiddos. Equality is accepting people, and what they do. Somewhere along the way, especially in this generation - it seems equality has come to a warped concept. Somebody no longer has to pull something out of their ass to be accused of being prejudice. There's no respect in it, when people are more likely to automatically associate a question based on the common culture of a specific ethnicity... with bad.

Am I making any sense, or am I still sounding like a jerk?

Just consider that pride can still exist with equality. People seem to forget that. If a person can have Gay Pride, why can't it at least be assumed that people might have some ties to the lives their family had, before they joined a melting-pot?

Generalizations are not always racist. They are sometimes generalizations that are not meant to be insulting, and are in fact completely logically based.

The irony here? I find that more "white"-people; those whose culture and family life is based more on what is normal after the blend, rather than before - are usually the first ones to accuse others of being racist. In good reason. They're scared as fuck of being accused of it just for being white.
That's where PC is a dangerous thing. When people are so scared of stepping out of line that they' rather not even take a moment to think about different ways of life being acceptable.

Of course, I could go on. I had the marriage/family thing brought up in a discussion last week, too - and it showed different views on the matter due to religious/cultural background... not all of them were unreasonable thoughts, nor derogatory - but, they were still not exactly... uhh, fair? To some extent.
Being raised on some of those, I see the logic in them that others don't. It's a long explanation about how, despite the improvises and developments in the old-school thinking that my family came to have? What's left of what is now considered out-dated, 'wrong' thinking is hard to shake, due to the way I was brought up.
I find it hard to think of what's left as a bad way of thinking, but apparently it is. I'm told it is.. . I was raised to think of being a gentleman as a courtesy thing - because women deserve it.
I've been accused of being sexist for that. For thinking that it's a man's responsibility to treat a woman nicely, just because she's a woman.
Treating men nicely, too - but especially a woman, just because she works hard, too. A woman is often responsible for the upbringing of children, and by extension - myself. Why not treat her as politely as I *should* treat my own Mother?

Yeahh, again - I'll go into that last block of text in a later journal. When I explain how a person's upbringing really does affect how they view things, and it's not their fault. It's not always their fault when it's hard for them to learn to think (and embrace) anything otherwise.

So, am I a racist/chauvinist/wrong in my thoughts, or am I making at least a bit of sense? (While still being a bigot of some sort.)