ethnocentric - good or bad?

So I was having a conversation with someone the other day.  This person was convinced that every TV show and movie about XYZ city was about the neighborhood she was raised in.  And by extension showed a certain ethnic group which she happened to be part of in a bad light.  My initial reaction was she was delusional and I made the mistake of telling her so.  I explained this was like saying that every TV show, movie and book about Rome could only focus on the Trevi Fountain.  Forget Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, the beautiful piazzas, the Vatican, pasta, pizza, well you get the idea.  It’s not possible, unrealistic and just plain stupid.  Well, this started her on a 2 hour rant about how I was wrong because I was from Podunk holler.  And thus by extension know nothing.  Fine, tell me I’m stupid just because of where I was born and raised.  But I was so sure I was right after she left I decided to prove it.  I watched a few selected episodes of several of the TV shows she mentioned.  I watched a few of the movies she mentioned.  Even knowing what to look for, I didn’t see it.  Yup, she was seeing things a certain way because of how and where she was raised.  It had nothing to do with what was being shown in those shows.  Now being in love with who you are is a good thing.  Being blind to the reality of how your particular ethnic group is viewed by the rest of the world could be rather dangerous.  So here’s to being honest about who we are, where we came from and how we’re viewed because of it.  It’s so much easier than getting your blood pressure to sky high levels over nothing.