That's definitely some kind of local myth. Here in Uruguay (and South America in general), it's the opposite, programmers are viewed as math nerds. I believe the same happens in Europe (especially Eastern Europe), and Asia.

A lot of programmers here have to get an Engineering degree, which includes a LOT of math.

Same for CS degrees. Even Information Systems degrees (like the one I ended up getting) belong to the Engineering school and have quite a lot of math.