Query for gamers, particularly inexperienced ones

[gothwalk]

Is there something counterintuitive about the principle in RPGs of race and class? I've been dealing with a number of newcomers to RPGs recently, and no matter how carefully I explain that you choose a race and a class, I get people wanting to play one or other, a gnome or a wizard, an elf or a rogue, and so on. These people are smart, and get the concept of roleplaying, and so on - it's just this one bit that seems to defy understanding.