I saw a sign on a bulletin board yesterday asking for research participants from the "Asian Community" to answer questionaiires about whether they or their children did well in math.

Someone wrote on the sign that assuming people of Asian extraction do well in math is racist.

Okay, so maybe it is, and maybe it's a stereotype, but isn't it a GOOD stereotype?  I'm not going to say what my ethnicity is, but the common stereotype for people of my ethnicity is that we're lazy, stupid, shiftless, and violent.  I've spent years trying to distance myself from that stereotype.  I would think that, if my ethnic stereotype was that people from my ethnic group were super-smart, hard-working, good in school, and especially good at math, I would EMBRACE it.  I would say, "Yes!  I'm all of those things!  I'm also fluent in a language for which you would need to spend years of study just to be able to ask for directions to the bathroom (and in which you would nearly need a doctorate to read a newspaper), and yet, I'm also fluent in YOUR language.  In a lot of cases, I'm even more fluent in your natiove language that YOU are.  That's because I AM SO MUCH SMARTER THAN YOU.  . . . I'm also a master of both the Crane style and Drunken Monkey style of Kung Fu."  What's not to love about that? 

Let me say it again - I would love, love, love to have that stereotype instead of mine.

Seriously, if you don't want that stereotype, can we go to the stereotype people and ask to trade?

Note - you know who also has a sterotype I envy?  Italian-Americans.  Also pretty much anyone from the British Isles.  Germans, as well.  Russians are pretty cool too.  In fact, just about everyone has a better sterotype than me, so I don't understand why the people with good sterotypes can't just enjoy them.