Happy Black History Month my fellow Nerdettes!
I was just sitting here at the office wondering who would have been considered a “black nerd” in the 1940s or 1950s… would Zora Neale Hurston been considered a nerd? How about Langston Hughes?
Exactly what is nerdiness in our Black America?
What do we as Black Americans think of nerds? Do we look at nerds as being knowledgeable? How about corny? Perhaps a person, male or female who is socially inept, culturally unaware or just a person who’s so into one particular subject that it looks as if they’re obsessed with the subject matter.
I guess my question to you is, who would you consider a black nerd from the past; and as a Black American, what is your definition of a nerd?
~ Tam Solomon, Contributing Writer ~
...Well actually, they would be considered intellectuals and not nerds. A nerd is in fact a social derivative for those awkward wallflowers who are particularly knowledgeable in fields of science or math, though of course that is not the case anymore as the term has broadened.
ReplyDeleteI myself am not a classic nerd as I abhor math and science and I'm more inclined to excel in arts, social science (which is not the same as pure science) and history. However, I am physically gauche and awkward and I have my fields of nerding that overlap with the classic meaning, so I'd like to think I'm even.
But to be a nerd and an intellectual wouldn't be the same thing, especially given the context of the former word and the fact that it was used as an insult. We have since reclaimed the word, but that doesn't mean that being a nerd back then would've been seen as a positive.
I'm under the impression that the word itself wasn't coined itself until the 60s and onward, though I might be mistake. When we think of nerd, we immediately think of Steve Urkel's character or Miles Dyson from the terminator series
Julie...I humbly salute your thoroughly deft use of "fields of nerding." Superb.
ReplyDeleteI've been wrestling with the idea of the concept of a nerd because it seems to be so deep rooted in being socially awkward and excelling in areas such as math and science.
ReplyDeletei have a real problem with this because it limits our perceptions of a term which once was thought of as a pejorative term and in some cases still is, but much less so. It's a part of the appropriation movement. Those that have been called a nerd and/or who claim the word on their terms really helps widen perceptions of nerds and nerd culture.
However, there remains a relentless narrative that nerds look a certain way, act a certain way, and are into specific things. One doesn't have to look further than TBS' King Of The Nerds to get it, even in 2013.
They may have two nerds of color but the content of their nerdiness outside of race still reigns supreme in the nerd lexicon.
Perhaps there is a fine line between nerdom and subcultural activity generally, but I still like to consider and propose that the two are ambiguously blurred and when you add the variable of self-identification, it opens the gates for a very fun discussion.
So, if you ask me were those, for example, from the Harlem Renaissance "nerds"? I really think it depends on who you ask and what in their work of personal journals could be coded as nerdy swag in past and present context.