I was doing my usual morning scroll through Instagram and a video M.I.C. posted caught my attention. The video was about Asian people trying to put an end to the way people look at them based off stereotypes of their people. The video got me interested immediately because other than "they are terrible drivers", "a fetish", and "they discriminate against black people" I've never really heard any negative stereotypes of Asian people. To my surprise neither of these were in the video. What were the stereotypes that they were trying to break? According to the people interviewed in the video they were trying to break the stereotypes that they were smart and successful. I promise you I'm not making this up. If you're as baffled as I was I'm pretty sure if you do a google search you can find the video. I have to admit that I'm still confused by the video.
I realize that you are not allowed to tell someone what they are allowed to be offended by. I also realize that a stereotype doesn't have to be negative. What is confusing to me is typically if you want a stereotype changed/broken it's because it's detrimental to the way you are seen by other people. I attributed the video to what's been happening lately, I battle for which minority group has it "worse" in America. The last thing I would be offended by is someone thinking I'm smart and/or successful. In fact I would welcome it. I would rather people prejudge me based off them thinking positive things about me. If we want to play the who has it worse game if I was Hispanic people would think I was illegal, "taking jobs from hard working Americans", apart of a cartel, refuse to learn English, don't pay taxes, and cost taxpayers lot of money. If I was Muslim I would be a terrorist, dirty, wear a turban, hate Christians and Jews. As a black woman, my children should each have different fathers who are dead beats, mooching off welfare, too lazy to get a job, if I'm educated it's because of affirmative action, loud, angry all the time, unmarried, a crackhead, not know who my father is, ghetto, and a name you can barely spell let alone pronounce. I could go on but I think you get the point.
Sometimes we need to know when to pick our battles. In my opinion there are a lot more things that you could be upset about or what to change. Being considered smart and/or successful is the least of anyone's worries and should be taken as a compliment not an insult.