[Axxon]

Dola,

Don't know why this didn't come to me but I'm reading the following book ( for fun no less because I'm weird )

Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City by Nathan; Moynihan, Daniel Patrick Glazer (Hardcover - 1963)

and when he is talking about the Irish he notes of their rise to prominence that they actually embraced their stereotypes and it helped unify them and enrich them culturally and in their neighborhoods. It became cool to be Irish and they played it all up, the jauntiness, the temper etc.

That's an example of stereotypes having a positive effect.