We clearly have different definitions for the term. Also, I don't see your argument - you just mentioned how political correctness annoys you, but I don't see where you said it causes hate, much less racism.
The whole deal about Christmas is probably so that other religions feel comfortable about it - a lot of people are actually offended if they celebrate other religions' festivals. Kinda unnecessary, but you can't just disregard their discomfort. Unless everybody thinks like you and takes action, I hardly think it raises the tension or hate in any way. And I can't believe you'd ask why they're doing it now when they haven't before. They're trying to be better people than before - such a bad thing, right?
I've always seen political correctness as a stretched out way of saying politeness, something that people very much lack these days. For your second example, couldn't Person 2 have described him with "he had black skin" rather than as "black guy"? In a way, it's double standards to do so for "black guy" and not "white guy", but please keep in mind that in actual recent history, blacks have suffered more as a minority and are naturally more prone to taking offence that way. If you can prevent offending someone by saying two more words than you normally would, you should seriously stop whining and freaking do it.
“These are my principles; if you don’t like them, I have others.” – Groucho Marx
