It’s mainly about associations.
The outgroup is bad. There are beliefs and behaviors associated with the outgroup.
Therefore these beliefs and behaviors are bad. If I show any of these beliefs and behaviors people might think I’m bad.
Fair, but I mentioned examples where the (not necessarily outgroup in an rivalrous way but non-ingroup) outsiders are not seen as bad per se, but neutral whereas the ingroup is good.
For instance a local citizen might not be seen as “bad” for being interested in foreign stuff (if the foreign countries in question are not seen as bad, just “other”, or possibly fargroup, or even viewed positively just “not us”), but this would still take away from perception of patriotism (here, assumed as positive trait) that a similar local citizen who all else being equal totally lacks interest or curiousity in foreign stuff.
Also, men and women aren’t each other’s outgroups usually (barring some more radical views) but a man who in too interested into “girl stuff” or vice versa can be seen as bad even in situations where there is no confusion where the ingroup can’t be confused with the other group. I suppose the “outgroup stuff is bad” still works if you define “bad” relative to the person’s social role. Such as “girl stuff” is “good” for girls”, “bad for boys”, even if boys and girls are equally good. “French stuff is good for French people but bad for British people”, even if British and French folks are equally good.
Then it’s about transgression of roles I guess and policing which stuff are for what people.
The opposite is also true, I’ve known some people who seriously neglected their health because they associated exercise with not-so-bright folks. Notice how it has the same process behind it, but it’s not related to knowledge the same way your example was.
I would agree that that reversed example of the nerd and jock is also bad, and perhaps could generalize that to avoid learning skills/abilities/things, instead of just intellectual knowledge, that would benefit you because it’s associated with the other outgroup/non-ingroup members.
I know this wasn’t the main point but some thoughts on this.
There is a secret game Asian-Americans play among ourselves called the “What kind of Asian are you?” game.
This is a topic that is much discussed (often labelled under the term “microaggression”) but I get the impression in contemporary American society, it’s increasingly seen as rude to ask in an unsolicited manner about someone’s ancestry in that way. Perhaps it’s different among familiars than strangers.
Whenever an Asian-American meets another Asian-American we try to guess each other’s nationality. If you guess right you gain charisma points. If you guess wrong you lose charisma points. Of course, you don’t literally say “I know you are a <whatever>.”
That’s easy. They’re American, by definition! Okay, I know what you mean, but in many settings commenting on someone’s ancestry at all unsolicited makes one lose charisma points. You have to know the context.
That is a faux pas. Instead you imply it by demonstrating common cultural understandings not shared by the wider Western world.
Is this really particular to Asian Americans though? Do Americans of European, Latin American, African or other continental ancestries differ in this way? Plenty of European-Americans go around discussing if someone’s Irish or German or Italian or whatever in origin because of some residual old-country cultural trait that is still perceived as distinctive (“Oh, my grandma’s Italian and also does so-and-so”).
And yes, I know obviously due to the history of slavery in the US, it would be seen as awkward to ask many Americans of African descent their particular old world ancestry (though there are still many who descend from voluntary African immigrants).
You have to read subtle cultural cues.
That’s assuming culture aligns with place-of-ancestry origin, an increasingly less accurate view as people in many societies become more mobile and culture spreads around even within a generation. An African American and Asian American born and raised in the same town attending the same high school, college and then working in the same industry, would likely share much more in common with one another—in fact it’d be surprising if this what not true—than an African immigrant or Asian immigrant who shares more of their genealogical ancestry but just stepped foot in their town last week.
When I want to look white I use words like “Manuchuria”
I don’t see what’s “white” about this. Yes, westerners use it, but anyone nonwhite socialized in American culture could pick it up from American pop culture (e.g. the Manchurian candidate), or another English-speaking social milieu just as well.
From the Wikipedia article on “Manchuria”, “First used in the 17th century by the Japanese, it remains a common term elsewhere but is deprecated within China, where it is associated with ethnic chauvinism and Japanese imperialism.”
So, it’s more about an insider view of China vs. outsider and says more about knowledge of or lack thereof of China that I don’t think follows racial lines or “whiteness”, unless your default person who knows enough about the topic but has an “outsider” view is white (yes, I realize many people will imagine the default person as “white” if they are living in an English-speaking white-majority society simply because they don’t have any indications of the person’s race otherwise).