Stephen Bush: Hah, well, precisely, I think it runs 'British Asians are doctors - doctors are good at maths' whereas I think the US stereotype just runs 'Asians are good at maths'.

Completely agree with John. Relatedly, and maybe I am being over-sensitive, but I feel like the 'Rishi Sunak is a technocrat' is a kind of benign racism among upper middle class racism, like, you see an Asian guy with a suit and a neat haircut and you go 'oh, yeah, we've got one of those at work'.

100%, and I fully agree that bringing in Hendy to the DfT as a transport ops expert with a lot of industry goodwill is going to hugely help the DfT deal with the transition it's already de-facto made to running services, badly, under a government that specifically didn't want it to

'A kind of benign racism among upper middle class racism' should be 'among upper middle class PROFESSIONALS' sorry. Like, what you mean is that he faintly looks like your brother in law Vijay who actually *is* competent and across the detail.

is this the "asians are good with math" trope?

No, that's a stereotype about a different group of Asians. This is I think about a general 'my doctor/my dentist/my pharmacist/the guy on the trading floor is a well-spoken Indian'.

Um I'd disagree with that - us brown British Asians are usually expected to be good at maths

Expected to be good at maths but I think rooted in a broader set of stereotypes, if that makes any sense?

Only in so far that becoming a doctor is the highest status career 😅

Hah, well, precisely, I think it runs 'British Asians are doctors - doctors are good at maths' whereas I think the US stereotype just runs 'Asians are good at maths'.

Engineer is also a solid option though - I think that's where the maths stereotype really comes from

Potentially also due to maths being easier for the combined immigrant parent+child unit to compete on relative to other subjects like English/history, although this is not brown British Asian specific

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