Meg, I see your point, now that it is put that way. Unfortunately, I have lost many friends this way. Friends who dated outside their race and enjoyed the stereotypes and negative things their men had to say about black women, which included me, their longtime friend. These were the reasons that these men approached these women in the first place and it caused their heads to swell up and crowd our relationship. I had to shut it down. I did feel sorry for them, though, because this particular crowd had already given them the “hoe” stereotype before they’d ever met. Was this stereotype mentioned in the Op Olympics? I didn’t see the episode.

It also excludes other people who don’t conform to that - take mixed race people who identify with different ethnicities but are not allowed to “claim” one or the other because of how they look/act.

Since when is a commment/attitude that puts someone else down a compliment “hey babe you’re great cos you don’t talk and have opinions like those other girls” excuse me while i puke. I’d be concerned if guys spoke to me only cos they had a general dislike of anyone who didn’t have
dark hair/eyes

Best composed throughout this whole weird show: (tie) “Latina” and “African-American” participants from “oppression olympics”

Most stomach churning moment: “White Woman” participant breaking down in tears from the strain of the whole show, especially after (a) recounting how her black roommates and their friends ganged up on her simply for being “white”, and (b) the snarky comments some members of the audience had flung at her throughout the taping, and (c) the focus group.

Least necessary conflict: “Middle Eastern” panelist standing her ground against antagonistic “African American” audience member refusing to hear about how bad Middle Easterners claim discrimination is for them.

Complaint With “the intra-racial pairs” piece: Would have been better to have a consistent dynamic– maybe “sisters” or “cousins?– with an actual conflicting point of view regarding their race or ethnicity, going beyond mere skin tone, and looking for women who were maybe a little more…hmm, secure and interesting in their intransigence?

Biggest gripe with “the experiment” overall: Many, if not most, of the “snap perceptions” were made based upon physical appearance tied to clothing.

All the women were beautiful to be sure, but they were weighed according to whose “objective” standard– their own “natural, cultural look” or that of the “common” focus group before which they were appearing?

They were nowhere near similar to one another in height/weight, so any one of them would have been perceived as physically different from the other at the outset.

If the focus group was not as diverse as they were (and it wasn’t) it throws off the balance of the questions they would be asked (and it did).

The five women were therefore either dowded down or thugged up and put into “everyday urban wear”. This had the effect of making them more accessible or attractive to some people than they might have been otherwise, based upon things like class.

When you see them on stage after the experiment, they are definitely glammed up again, and in a more “exotic” look to us.

But it’s that very look that’s actually natural to who they are. So wouldn’t have skewed the experiment results if they were simply being themselves, and appeared they way the group wanted them to appear?

This was a flawed experiment, well-intentioned, but messed up from the beginning.

Negative result:
An Asian student may be accused of being lazy or a slacker when they really have a learning disability or a problem w/ math.

A teacher may be biased TOWARDS one set of students, giving them the benefit of the doubt, over other students.

A parent or other person of authority may have heightened expectations about a kid based on ethnicity, leading to increased pressure on the child, and if the child “fails,” self-esteem issues.

An adult may feel pressured in the workplace to be the one w/ the solution or be regulated to only certain roles in the company (accounting, or asssitant, rather than people-person leader) based on ethnicity.

How is ANY of that really a positive thing?

As for the Asian female stereotypes:

I’m going out on a limb and going to say that none of the Asian women that you know who LIKE the stereotypes are over 30 and/or married. What works when you’re 22 and a party girl looking for guys in a nightclub is LOADS different from attitudes/prejudice you may realize as you mature. According to your list of stereotypes, God HELP the woman who’s built more like Margaret Cho than Lucy Liu, who doesn’t need a man for approval, who is not promiscuous, who is not self-effacing and is bold in her opinions (wow… I just described most of the Asian women I know).

Your stereotype combines both sexism and racism… potent stuff.. and far from positive.

So, you can see that, after conversing with them, I STILL don’t understand what’s so bad about “positive” stereotypes. Is it because everyone “expects” the stereotype to be true? Like people “expect” all black men to be good at basketball? Someone please explain what asian women (in the US) have to complain about. I am just not getting it. Thanks!

*sigh* and you hit on 2 of my pet peeves at once - racism and… what’s a word for “white-collar-centrism”?

I come from a mixed family (that is, blue collar, white collar, and something in between). My husband, a commercial driver, makes more than I do. Guaranteed that after all those loans, a good roofer is probably taking home more than the average doctor (at least for the first 10 years), and learning a skill that can’t be taken over by techs or computers to boot.

On the “all Asians are smart” stereotype, an Asian that was a Roofer came by my office and a few of the employees were saying “how’d you get to be a Roofer??” (translation: You’re SUPPOSED to be a doctor or scientist, etc)

He was nice and basically responded that he gets that all the time. I can only imagine that it must irk him sometimes.

After he left, I had to take the opportunity to explain to the ones asking the questions that yes indeed, Asians do blue collar work too.