In regards to my "You know how I know you're Mexican?" video...

A lot of you already saw my most recent YouTube video. (If you haven't, click here and watch it before reading the rest of this post.)

I was in a good mood, so I decided to make a fun video. And I did have fun making it. I even asked my dad for ideas, and he gave me a few. He found it funny that I would talk about common occurrences within our family and culture.

Somebody with a similar ethnic background as mine commented on it asking why I would "make a video with that many degrading comments." They also said that a lot of the situations I mentioned applied to many other hispanics/latinos and that not all of them are Mexican.  Of course I know they're not all Mexican. I used the word Mexican because it is the one that applied to me and the community I grew up in. Of course, there are Central Americans and people of other nationalities in the area too, but I hate having to sound so politically correct sometimes.  It's like "you know what I mean! jeeze!" The person also said that calling them all Mexicans was degrading. I do it for the lulz, not for the respect. People shouldn't think something like the fact that I didn't make a conscious effort to be PC is demeaning and just learn to tolerate it.

Maybe it's just the way I grew up, though. It used to bother me too when people would say little things like those, whether it was in regards to a certain ethnicity, activity, book series, or anything. Then I learned to get over it because really, what's the point of trying to change it? People will say what they say and think what they think. If they're not part of it, it shouldn't really make a difference. After all, I know who I am and how I am perceived by others. That was the reason I made the video to begin with. To have some fun with what society thinks of people like me (Mexicans... or hispanics/chicanos/latinos).

But not everyone's the same. Maybe the person was at one point given a bunch of crap for who/what he is, and finds little generalizations like those insulting. Perhaps he has a lot of pride in who he is and where he came from.  If that's the case, I still don't see why one would feel so strongly about little corrections. I don't know how they see it as something demeaning. I dunno about you guys, but I think that if you can't look at yourself and the person you are without finding something funny, then there's something wrong with you.

Perhaps this is because I was made fun of a lot during elementary and middle school. Mostly middle school. It was such a hellhole. I hated the people there. I'm not gonna lie, I did cry about the things they told me sometimes.  After a few years, I decided that I was stupid for caring so much about the crap people back would give me. They did it for the laughs, and I was the only one that wasn't laughing because it was at my expense. I learned to have this mentality when people made fun of me where instead of feeling crappy about it, I would just think something like "haha, that's true." I'd rather laugh at the person I am than feel crappy about it. Sure, I always bitch about how I'm fat or how ugly my teeth are, but fuck. I know that if I really wanted to change that much, I would make a greater effort.

I think that he and I just see things differently because we grew up in very different communities. Anyone who went to Garfield High School could probably just laugh at the things I said or say something like "omg, I do that too!" Let's face it, a lot of us fit the stereotypes whether we want to or not. And because we as a whole can relate to them, we don't find it all that insulting.

A lot of people get the idea that I'm not proud of who I am and where I came from because I make so many jokes about it. Of course I'm proud! My parents didn't bust their asses off to come to the states for nothing. They didn't have much money back in the day, and decided to risk a lot to make a better life for their their family. I have no idea what motivated them to go through so much crap, but I definitely respect them for it. I love it in the states. I'm glad my family has come a long way (both literally and metaphorically). I make little jokes and comments about beaners because I like to laugh. In fact, I can laugh about a lot of things that people don't usually find funny. As negative a person as I can  be, I know that laughter can always make me feel better about a situation.