Ask Lemmy

Asian people are good at Maths

I would argue that this is not a positive stereotype, based on your own arguments and the fact that it stereotypes ability based on genetics. My own? "Sikhs are awesome people". They do a lot of community outreach and help/feed absolutely anybody. That's an example of a cultural stereotype that's entirely based on the documented positive things they do as part of their identity, not how their blood relates to their ancestors. I mean, what's the counter-point, "some Sikhs are assholes?" Maybe, but that applies to everyone...

The Asian/math example is often called ‘positive,’ yes, but I would never call it constructive. There’s a reason I chose the wording of my post. Same goes for Latine/x people and “hard work”—that’s ‘positive’ but in no way constructive (and in fact is hateful and detrimental) and so outside of my question altogether.

I am encouraging people to think of stereotypes that are both “positive” and constructive. I often find they apply to children. Like “mushrooms you find on the ground are poisonous,” or “all bears want to eat you.” But… people aren’t taking to my description I guess.

I watch a youtube channel where a male asian streamer grew up being a semi-notable streamer in his community of skyrim mods. Some of which are a bit adult in nature.

In real life, he's Chinese. And through that streaming "career" he met, and has been dating a korean woman. That all happened 6-7 years ago.

Since that time, they spend all day, everyday recording and editing youtube videos where they react to various reddits. Some are cute, like /r/aww, and some are just basically adult content that they have to censor for youtube, but show on patreon.

If you just watch one video, you'll just see a video with clickbait thumbnails/titles, and 30 minutes of random content. Usually with an ad in the first 2 minutes.

However, if you watch over the coarse of a month, or a year, you begin to pick up on their personalities. First off, their reactions are either fake, or they have bad memories. Either one is plausible. I've seen them react to a video, and a year later the same content video gets reposted on reddit. They then react to it again. Completely unaware they already did this one.

You also pick up on the fact ghat Henry is completely unable to identify animals. And at this point I think he leans into the joke. There was a possum on screen, and he says "Look at that racoon!!!"

I mean it started off with him getting obscure animals confused, but now he's at the point where he needs one of those toys where you pull the string, the spinner spins, and then "The cow says, MOOOOOOO". Otherwise he might see the cow, and call it a rooster.

The other thing you notice is his girlfriend Geanie is REALLY bad at basic math. Whenever they have to do basic math, Henry has low self esteme, and assumes Geanie will smarter than him. Only for her to give an answer so dumb that her own boyfriend openly laughs in her face, as she sinks into a blanket.

Essentially, they're both really talented at creating content. Henry is really good at manipulating the google/youtube algorithm. He's also really good at managing a small team of editors, streamers, and content production. Decent at cooking.

But ask him to do basic tasks away from a computer? He's lost. He has no idea how to tie a tie. Geanie has no idea how to be social to the point she relies on Henry to do all her public talking. Henry even fell for the "blinker fluid" gag.

But these aren't featured parts of their streams. Its just things you pick up on watching over time. They're great at streaming on twitch. They're great at youtube content creation. They suck at living.