Am I ignorant or oblivious?

I have lived in East L.A for 16 years with a very active childhood by playing at night and sometimes far away from my house. My home community has always been a safe and fun area but going into high school has changed that perspective. I never saw my neighborhood as a ghetto until today. My fellow peers described the area to be, cheap, dangerous, and run by thugs. My brother says I have to prep up my street skills and I am severely outdated with the gossip/news. The people in my school describe their homes to unlimited potential parties because all they need is "paisa" music to start the party and some carne asada. Everyone also appears to know each other too. I just don't understand it. My parents are Mexican too and we have the same culture but why am i learning this barely now? It's not like I'm a loner either, i have a lot of friends too but our conversations never included ghetto, territory, rasa etc... I'm confused..... am i retarded or something?