Black Nerds
Рет қаралды 130,985
4 жыл бұрынGet 2 Months of Skillshare for free: skl.sh/t1j5
Being a nerd was rough back in the day. Being a black nerd just made it more complicated.
SUBSCRIBE!!!► goo.gl/qVF6Cu
Join our Discord Community► the1janitor.com/discord
Help caption/translate my videos► goo.gl/x4eewf
Help Translate this video to other languages: kzfaq.info_vide...
Support me:
PATREON► / the1janitor
PAYPAL► the1janitor.com/paypal
MERCH► the1janitor.com/store
WISHLIST► a.co/5jRUmEa
EVERY PIECE OF GEAR I USE► www.amazon.com/shop/the1janitor
Call me► 205 - 433 - 9516
TERMS: By calling this number, you agree to allow me to record your voicemail and use the recording in any way I desire.
1. No one will ever answer this number, it should always go straight to voicemail, so don't expect to talk to a human.
2. There's a caller ID, so I will be able to see the number you called from. However, I pledge to not do anything with the phone numbers or give them to anyone else. But if that makes you uncomfortable then I suggest not calling.
3. Your basic rates and charges for calls, whatever they may be, will still apply.
Social Justice Videos► goo.gl/UoTSST
Politics Videos► goo.gl/nPDY1T
Pop Culture Videos► goo.gl/WhkG9A
Livestreams► goo.gl/VfK2vP
What is HAKO?► www.the1janitor.com/hako
Why I Disable Likes/Dislikes: goo.gl/pkdAa9
FAQs about T1J: www.the1janitor.com/faq
Keep up with me on:
FACEBOOK► / the1janitor
TWITTER► / the1janitor
TUMBLR► / the1janitor
PATREON► / the1janitor
REDDIT► the1janitor.reddit.com
ASKFM► ask.fm/the1janitor
CURIOUSCAT► curiouscat.me/the1janitor
2nd Channel► / the2janitor
Say hi to me! www.the1janitor.com/contact
Business inquiries: t1j@standard.tv
If would like a source for or elaboration of a claim made that is not listed here, email me.
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
Outro Music by InTACT Production: / intactpro
/ the1janitor
@raichutoyou 4 жыл бұрын
Imagine being a black female nerd in the 90s. INVISIBLE.
@Henrikko123 4 жыл бұрын
INVINCIBLE
@magubrain122 4 жыл бұрын
Hell we're still invisible now
@daniellesve5595 4 жыл бұрын
What about the nerdy girl from nightmare on elm street????
@EmsLdn 4 жыл бұрын
Same, girl, same!
@sadtitties222 4 жыл бұрын
@raichutoyou Preach! 👏
@LordToast 4 жыл бұрын
At this point I think that nerdiness is less about what you like and more about how you like it. One can be a nerd about anything.
@monimuppet6132 4 жыл бұрын
Very true. Knowing what kind of engine a car has just by the sound it makes is TOTALLY a nerd thing.
@LordToast 4 жыл бұрын
@@monimuppet6132 Exactly. It's like how a baseball fan might have a favorite team, but a baseball nerd might tell you the entire history of their favorite team.
@ProjectThunderclaw 4 жыл бұрын
My poor old martial arts instructor, who was the only dude in the club who didn't watch anime and play video games, used to say he was just a different kind of nerd. Sure he'd spend his evenings with his nose in fitness magazines and 19th century combat manuals rather than Dragonball tanks, but he wasn't any less obsessive about it. In fact, I can confidently say that in this respect he was by far the biggest nerd I've ever met.
@hugmonger 4 жыл бұрын
No doubt dude... like you can like stuff then there are the folks who form their identity around stuff. Like Furries or Cosplayers or "The Skeptic Community" or Gamer Gate people...
@charliedawson4877 4 жыл бұрын
This. I've met what some would call 'Chads', who were into World of Warcraft. It's not about what you like, it's about how you like it.
@unamejames 4 жыл бұрын
Adult Swim made so many black anime nerds and it's pretty cool.
@EternalGuardian07 4 жыл бұрын
Right! That mixture of hip hop beats with a line-up of the sickest anime at the time is the best.
@totlyepic 4 жыл бұрын
You could do a whole video on millennial black nerdiness, spanning everything from an integrated interest in anime to the early days of the FGC.
@Kat-Fish-Commentary 4 жыл бұрын
That and toonami
@jasmineee3186 4 жыл бұрын
The Boondocks
@chapterblaq 4 жыл бұрын
You gotta include Toonami and Toonami: Midnight Run...those 3 were so fluid and somewhat interchangeable back then. Watching YYH on [as] as an 11 year old before they moved the clean version to Toonami for example
@geraldgreen6794 4 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a majority white school and was into "nerdy" stuff like anime and comics and because of how "clicky" my school was I was often accused of "wanting to be white" or being a "Oreo" and I wasn't any of that. I just liked talking about Naruto for hours on end. But because of this I spent most of my time with white "nerds" and only ever talked to black people when around them. So much so people were legit surprised when I said I voted for Obama cause everyone thought I was "so white that I was Republican". So I get what you are talking about here. It wasn't until much later that I realized there were plenty of black guys in my school that loved anime also they just weren't out and open about it because they wanted to be seen as "cool". Thanks again for this video T1J. I think there is still alot of "if you are a nerd you are white" thinking in the black community. And we need to move past that already.
@greenakutabi 4 жыл бұрын
This 100% I do think that there's a weird thing in greater society where you essentially ARE your interests. Some interests are so highly aligned with whiteness, that by the simple act of participating in that interest is seen as whiteness itself. The additional layer of toxicity being that as a black person you can be seen as a "traitor" for that alignment.
@aviparmy-lthatblinkedoncew774 4 жыл бұрын
I remember having a crush on a boy and he liked my cousin who was I guess you could say a black stereotype and he didn’t like me and I remember thinking maybe if I acted black enough he would like me and then spent a half hour crying in the bathroom
@fangal12 4 жыл бұрын
@@aviparmy-lthatblinkedoncew774 you just gave me flashbacks. Me trying to learn how to dance in my bathroom, practicing my more ebonic diction so I wouldn't "talk white". I grew up loving black media and culture but I also loved TNG and Quantum Leap
@princesseuphemia1007 4 жыл бұрын
Learning about this is really neat to me because I grew up in the 2000s and a lot of this stuff was changing even then. I remember my mom lecturing me about how I didn't have to listen to the cheerleaders or jocks when they tried to dominate everyone else and I always had to explain that stuff like that was all Hollywood to me. There were cheerleaders and jocks sure but they never bullied anyone and certainly weren't the objects of anyone's envy. They just didn't matter. None of the cliques did. There were heriarchies WITHIN groups but not between them. Most students myself included had friends in several different cliques and not just one. In our current Era (at least where I live in Arizona) sterotypes of black anime nerds have completely changed. Now I'm not at all surprised when a black person my age says they love anime. In fact a lot of us white millenials expect black people to love anime, especially Naruto and Dragon Ball Z. What social forces are behind this trend exactly, I don't really know, but if anyone else here knows I'd love to find out!
@geraldgreen6794 4 жыл бұрын
@@princesseuphemia1007 Hey thanks for your reply. Just so it's clear I'm a millennial also it's just I think I'm older then some people commenting on this channel. Also I have to admit my high school experience was more stereotypical then others. Jocks were popular, nerds were social outcast, and it was cool to be failing for reason. This is why I really hate my high school. Students being difficult socially was hard enough. But even teachers were dicks lol. This is in Georgia btw.
@alltheworldatmyfeet 4 жыл бұрын
As a Black girl nerd, I completely agree. I've had so many Black girls call me white and white girls call me Urkel
@1121494 3 жыл бұрын
I guess nerdy black Americans really need Richard Ayoade to go global. The Gender Issue with the stereotyping remains though. Also, what's the problem with Urkel? As a child, for the short while we did have a telly, I wanted my hair like him. Which was a problem for the Barber to deliver on a ginger boy.
@blorkpovud1576 4 жыл бұрын
I remember Neil Degrasse Tyson saying teachers tried to discourage him from pursuing astronomy back in the day. They thought it would be more "suitable" for him to follow athletic goals etc. He knew it was due to racial stereotypes. Glad he followed his heart!
@SurmaSampo 3 жыл бұрын
Perhaps because he was a gifted athlete and the school wanted him to win something to increase their reputation in that sport? Just a possibility.
@ariannamyrie9520 3 жыл бұрын
GOAT Scientist!!! Made science cool again!
@SurmaSampo 3 жыл бұрын
@@MJPotter Can you explain t your comment so it makes sense please?
@vitorafmonteiro 3 жыл бұрын
NDT did try sports and was pretty good at them. I'm glad he wasn't discouraged from science by those teachers, but that he did try sports despite the racial cliché too because he liked them, like that he broke TWO stereotypes, racial and on what types of people are interested in what. podtail.com/no/podcast/startalk-radio/-icymi-wrestling-with-physics-with-neil-degrasse-t/
@CJ-qg7de 2 жыл бұрын
@@SurmaSampo did you watch the video at all dawg
@notjcole 4 жыл бұрын
Me: *reads the title* ITS ABOUT ME
@jblue1622 4 жыл бұрын
Josh Cole “oh shit he knows!”
@SlowDaddie 4 жыл бұрын
I legit had to stop when he mentioned "Bone Thugs N Harmony and Magic the Gathering". Is this dude watching me?
@BlakeGeometrio 4 жыл бұрын
Same!
@lannyboi9098 4 жыл бұрын
Same
@jpmackey1607 4 жыл бұрын
👍🏾👍🏾
@aishahb8336 4 жыл бұрын
As someone who is half Jamaican and half Japanese who grew up in the UK, I had a very interesting experience when it came to nerdiness. My mother (Japanese) reads a lot of manga so I grew up loving it, as well as american comic books I got from my father but I was the only kid who engaged in that kind of media all the way up until I was about 15. And even then, it was just me and this Vietnamese dude who were the resident nerds of our year group all the way up until we graduated. None of my Jamaican cousins or black friends ever engaged with it wholeheartedly until the MCU took off and we saw the success of the Avengers.
@Theyungcity23 4 жыл бұрын
Aishah Bailey what’s your mama’s favorite manga?
@garnetBUNNIES 3 жыл бұрын
This isn't really realivant to what you wrote, but my dad is Jamaican too 🇯🇲! Same with my mom and I'm Jamaican-American
@heysilly1341 4 жыл бұрын
I wonder if you could make a video of the topic of “suburban black” vs. “hood black”. It might have some overlap with this current video topic
@mboatrightED300 4 жыл бұрын
I hung out with a group of nerd friends in high school, and one of our group was black. (In retrospect I realize he probably tolerated a lot of what I now know to be microagressions from us re: his hair, which makes me feel embarassed but it was 20 years ago and I know better now). This video reminded me of something that happened one day that really confused me. On the bus when he had been chatting with some black students, as they got off the bus they laughingly said to him "stay white!" And I could tell by the look on his face that it hurt, and I couldn't figure out why they'd said that. I mean, he had a fro out to his shoulders and was very proud of being black, would always play black characters in D&D. So thank you for giving some insight into what my friend might've been going through at the time.
@ChazoAnwah 4 жыл бұрын
Maybe should bring the gang back together if you can
@N3onDreamz 4 жыл бұрын
What about black girl nerds? We’re never represented and if we are, it’s not in the endearing way that male black nerds are
@YourMoonJoy 4 жыл бұрын
Preach!
@atrapdr6251 4 жыл бұрын
Look up MissDarcei
@HappyRoach1 4 жыл бұрын
Myra Munkhouse from Family Matters who was Steve's girlfriend for awhile. Vanessa (the bookworm) & Denise Huxtable (the smart weirdo) from the Cosby Show. Liberty Van Zandt from DeGrassi: The Next Generation. Freddie from A Different World, she was nerd for the longest before she became a neo-soul bohemian.
@dollyjoseph3938 4 жыл бұрын
N3onDreamz because society think we all ratchet and like too twerk.
@AudioGAWD 4 жыл бұрын
As an avid fan of that type, I dont know what I can do to change that...but I usually support when I see the content or media presented as such. Youmacon here is surprisingly big, as far as seeing more black female nerds.
@GDIEternal 4 жыл бұрын
I think we should also point out that black nerd experiences, like all nerd experiences, vary greatly by gender. For black boys, nerdiness means being less black AND being less masculine in a very specific way, namely that blackness is often constructed as masculinity. I honestly can't think of a way for a black boy to be be seen as less black without being seen as less masculine. For black girls, the sexism and racism of the nerd world can have them seen as inauthentic posers on two fronts.
@AudioGAWD 4 жыл бұрын
I didn't even realize that until a few years ago. This reminds of my school. There weren't rigid cliques, but so much overlap with things. There were even degrees of "nerd" or rather enthusiasm but that was as I was leaving HS.
@julietutsey3803 4 жыл бұрын
The most
@julietutsey3803 4 жыл бұрын
The most t
@ertfgghhhh 3 жыл бұрын
I think that black male stereotype is toxic masculinity-not just masculinity
@lpphillyfan 2 жыл бұрын
This is so true.
@WikiAndi172 4 жыл бұрын
My ex was a self-identified nerd, and hated that nerdiness was being main-streammed. I kind of get the feeling he didnt want to share his identity.
@s-wo8781 3 жыл бұрын
It's kind of like appropriation. Here's a good quote from someone I met, "Right now so many “influencers” are profiting from Blerds and pulling from geek identities. Being a “weirdo” has become an empty trend, folks take from alternative, gamer culture without having roots in the communities that are still fighting for representation and resources." Also every black nerd should go to Blerdcon at least once. I went to my first one last year and shit was amazing! I really needed one this year, because I have no one to talk to about the stuff I'm into.
@mekannatarry1929 3 жыл бұрын
It's become the equivalent to jocks, so much so that it's made it even harder for someone like myself to associate with more people than usual....ironically enough not much different from my childhood lol.
@modgoat2594 3 жыл бұрын
A movie review channel put it best, nerd culture has been taken over by the jocks
@shrimpscampin 3 жыл бұрын
I'd be annoyed too if I grew up getting pigeonholed as the "wierd kid" just to grow up to see thots use it as an aesthetic
@WikiAndi172 3 жыл бұрын
@@shrimpscampin this perspective is pretty foreign to me. My interests tend to be pretty niche. (Thanks hyperfixations), so when someone else likes a thing that I like, I tend to get more excited. Plus, im not sure if I buy the idea that people are or act like nerds solely for the aesthetic. If someone says they are a fan of a thing, or are into something then I believe them. And even if they do just like it for the aesthetic then who cares. Good for them. I always got the feeling that my ex held on to a lot of bitterness, because of how he was treated when he was younger, and he was otherwise very sweet, so it was always sad to see.
@blblblblblbl7505 4 жыл бұрын
Great video! I feel like the "nerdiness = extreme whiteness" idea is pretty simplistic and basically wrong though ... It actually erases the experiences of Asian people, who often have the exact opposite problem. It can be difficult for Asian people to not be perceived as nerdy even when they have almost no nerdy qualities. Granted I've only heard your brief summary of it and maybe the original author accounts for this.
@jasmineee3186 4 жыл бұрын
Yo mad respect for picking up on the Asian point of view! Asians get left out of the conversation all the time, but it's so true that they often feel like they have to fulfil the nerdy role, and also potentially have the pressure from their parents to be like that.
@jasmineee3186 4 жыл бұрын
@@blblblblblbl7505 That's actually interesting, I'm part Asian but I do also possess nerdy qualities, but I never bothered to try and not be perceived like a nerd because that's just how I was. When I think about the Asain people I knew at school, they either were actually nerdy or hung out with the black kids so they were sort of exempt from that label. I also knew Asians who would play up to the stereotype in order to fit in, rather than be themselves and possibly be excluded for that.
@GDIEternal 4 жыл бұрын
I feel like the best way to think of that hypothesis is that it applies in certain situations like a white-black binary but definitely not in others that involve other groups of people. Latinos nerds, Native American nerds, etc. are not represented either in that.
@aghayejalebian7364 4 жыл бұрын
I think that article is a prime example of "Everything is Racist" trope. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EverythingIsRacist
@MartijnterHaar 4 жыл бұрын
"the "nerdiness = extreme whiteness" idea is pretty simplistic and basically wrong though" It doesn't even work for white people. In what I for simplicity sake will call 'white cultural circles' nerdiness is seen as emotional immaturity and nerd culture as childish and lacking emotional depth. Basically what Martin Scorcese and Francis Coppola recently said about comic book movies. As an 'adult' white person you are supposed to like Michael Haneke and Lars von Trier movies, not superhero movies, read Kafka and Camus, not comics, know your fashion basics and do some kind of sport in a moderate way.
@IshtarNike 4 жыл бұрын
The supposed contradiction between blackness and nerdiness/intellect is one of my biggest pet peeves. Sadly, the main issues I get with that are from black people themselves, questioning my blackness.
@Zeverinsen 4 жыл бұрын
But the fact that people think "blackness" is a thing is a problem in and of itself. You are a person, not your colour. However the way you get treated by society because of your colour will affect you as a person. That is also why people should bury the term, because it perpetuates the notion that people are their colour. I am a person regardless of how dark my skin is. I am weird because of who I am, not my dark skin. A green sweater of a certain design and fabric, would still be the same type of sweater if we just changed the colour.
@spacejazz6272 4 жыл бұрын
I'm reminded of that Recess episode, where Vince (who's a cool black character) has to come to terms with the fact that his brother is a nerd. at first he is ashamed and scared that the same thing is going to happen to him but then his brother explains to him that Nerdiness is nothing to be ashamed of, and that's just who he is. I think that's an example of a black nerd shown in a positive light.
@JKJ1900 4 жыл бұрын
Dang I forgot about that episode until you reminded me, that was such a great cartoon for us as kids!
@soversetile 3 жыл бұрын
great episode
@Reasonablewater27 Жыл бұрын
Static shock is actually a better version
@mattrozzel2997 4 жыл бұрын
"You can't really justify turning your nose up at a kid for dressing like a giant fox when you just got done watching an anime about a kid possesed by a giant fox" Preach it, my dude. RiP Firefox McCloud, we still down here puttin on for tha weirdos, bro.
@rdfm1549 4 жыл бұрын
The Hispanic version of “Oreo” is “coconut”, and I think it’s painful that those terms exist, especially for mixed kids :/ I knew Spanish so I didn’t get called coconut very much but my brother both looked whiter than me and didn’t know Spanish so he did get called that
@jamesgomez9151 4 жыл бұрын
I'm Latino, but don't know Spanish, this it made me bit of an outsider my whole life. I lived in Hispanic neighborhood till I was 13 then moved a mostly white neighborhood, then an Asian neighborhood in my twenties, and the whole time there was a conflict between what someone who looked like me should be like and the type of person I actually am.
@vinceknox4425 4 жыл бұрын
That is awful, but thank you for sharing! Knowledge is power, and all
@rdfm1549 4 жыл бұрын
James Gomez a language barrier makes participating in a culture and community difficult. Quite impossible actually. But I think it’s cruel that we punish them for it when it’s the fault of the parents. Unfortunately speaking the language in Hispanic culture is tied to a show of respect, which is highly valued. It’s a tough situation and unfair to put kids in.
@AdventDoom 4 жыл бұрын
I somehow avoided that slang until now and would of wondered why, but then I remembered that every-time me being Latino came up, everyone had the reaction of "wait really?"
@mikelmontoya2965 4 жыл бұрын
LMAO we Spaniards are basically the opposite of coconuts now that I think about it; European on the outside, Hispanic on the inside (not that there's any contradiction between being European and Hispanic, in fact Hispanic culture was born here in Spain and therefore in Europe, and there're plenty of white Latin Americans too).
@tyronechillifoot5573 4 жыл бұрын
A different world is Unironically a classic series up there with fresh prince
@jblue1622 4 жыл бұрын
And not tarnished unlike another show that should be here too
@just83542 4 жыл бұрын
@@jblue1622 who needs culture? Just cancel it all.
@jblue1622 4 жыл бұрын
Justin Blumenthal yes please!
@shayanali9141 4 жыл бұрын
Anybody else in the weird spot of being not a nerd and not being particularly not a nerd as well,like you’re inbetweening between being super into like warhammer and shit to the point where you’ll read lore but not enough to commit it to memory?
@ProjectThunderclaw 4 жыл бұрын
I keep doing this thing where I start to think I'm actually a pretty well-rounded human being, but then I flip my entire shit because KZfaq recommends me a video of someone reading a 1246 letter from Güyük Khan to Pope Innocent IV which is the coolest thing I've seen all week and it's just no... no, I'm definitely a nerd
@unamejames 4 жыл бұрын
Don't lie to yourself nerd. :)
@TheLadyBlerd 4 жыл бұрын
You mentioned Warhammer. Some will call you a nerd for that alone. ❤ All the rest of that are stereotypes, and what low self esteem nerds try to use as gatekeeping (i.e. prove you're a human encyclopedia on EVERYTHING). Being a nerd vs being into nerdy things are two different things, much like being an athlete vs being athletic. One is an identity one embraces as a major influence upon them as a person versus the other is a personal trait among many one holds. You define you. That simple.
@randomusername36 4 жыл бұрын
Used to love the game despite being terrible at it. Still love painting minis and the feel of the lore, but I can't commit shit to memory. I always feel like a bit of a dunce, and cant really hold my own in conversations about it. Same with metal music as well really. Absolutely love it, but the knowledge/informational "cred" isn't really there. It sort of feels like being a poser in what should be a comfortable space almost.
@TheDreamSyndicateArts 4 жыл бұрын
Honestly I think of "nerd" more as a verb- you nerd-out on some niche concern whether it's music, art, literature, film and television, or science. To be a nerd is just to be passionate about something and that's pretty cool in my book. I only want to hang out with people that have a passion about SOMETHING!
@Ace-theCat 4 жыл бұрын
As an Asian individual with glasses who had braces the nerd stereotypes always followed me all throughout middle school and I hated it. There's so much pressure on you to be the smartest in the room and everyone always asks you for help even though you might also be confused too, I couldn't celebrate getting a good grade on a difficult test like everyone else because "You're Asian you'll always just get a good grade" All my achievements would just be downplayed and it hurt a lot. I'm glad though that in high school the nerd stereotype kind of just faded away, I never noticed cliques people just existed and it was so freeing to no longer have the pressure of being the smart one at any given moment because everyone had some nerdiness to them
@Clawdragoons 4 жыл бұрын
Paused at 12:43: "You can say what you want abouut Tumblr/Bing, they're handy for porn." That aged oh so poorly.
@GDIEternal 4 жыл бұрын
I think digital media changed the equation or black kids who would have been nerds. Once you could download a metal or punk song without shelling out $20 for a whole album, a lot of people's tastes broadened; also games got cheaper, anime became more accessible, etc. So for those of us above a certain age (I'm in my 30s), the new "nerd" landscape is very different. I think about going to music stores with my friends when I was a teenager. They went to the rap/hip hop section, and I went to the rock section. They were in different areas of the store. When we sat around around a computer downloading songs, was just as simple as typing in a different set of words. It's much easier to share with each other (even if we didn't wind up liking what the others were listening to) and that divide isn't physical any more. That makes a difference. The nerd world of Steve Urkel was one where you have to go to comic book stores (usually in white neighborhoods). You can download stuff off the internet now.
@veronicabarron 4 жыл бұрын
Word! This is an interesting point re: access. Adding to your thoughts re: $$$-when I was a teen in the early aughts, I got really into anime through the few shows that were available on TV (Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and later Gundam Wing, Miyazaki films, etc.). But beyond that, almost all of what I got to watch was paid for by someone else with more money than me, i.e. friends who would buy subtitled DVDs and translated manga online. At that time, Amazon and eBay were kinda new, and it felt revelatory that you could find almost any item, including weird and unique items. Instead of going to a specialty shop, or getting lucky and finding something at a vintage store, or learning to make it yourself, you could just find it online. It was expensive, but you could find it easily for the first time, and that was wild. I don't actually know how nerds sourced nerd paraphernalia before the internet, since I grew up just as the internet was growing up. (We got the internet for the first time at home when I was in 5th or 6th grade, and AOL was new then). But I can only imagine that it was more expensive. Makes me wonder if there are any smart folks out there who have written about how "nerdiness" relates to wealth/class. I know I've read things about early tech dudes who got their start by taking computers apart and rebuilding them as nerdy kids, but of course this required some adult to give them access to computers and parts and be like, "cool, do whatever," at a time when computers were wicked expensive compared to now.
@GDIEternal 4 жыл бұрын
@ Vanessa Barron Yes Bill Gates is a prime example. He’s obviously ridiculously intelligent, but he also got to screw around with computers as a kid in the 60s-70s, which was the equivalent of a kid today being able to screw around with helicopters.
@jasmineee3186 4 жыл бұрын
I live in the UK so it might be different here, but I only just got out of school recently and there's still massive pressure on black kids, specifically boys, to be "cool". There's really not that freedom to just be who you are, whatever that is. It's unfortunate but I'd like to think it's getting better
@avantgauche 4 жыл бұрын
I 1000% agree nerdy spaces are still so white here.
@80schick1967 4 жыл бұрын
Totally Jasmine, it was worse in the UK the 1980s when I grew up. Being well spoken, into classic literature and goth culture got me bullied mercilessly almost exclusively by black kids.
@jasmineee3186 4 жыл бұрын
@@80schick1967 It's definitely still not okay to be all of those things. The black kids seem to take pride in not being associated with white people at all so black kids that are into "white"" things are pushed out of black spaces to show that "real" black kids don't tolerate that kind of thing. It's sad to see, but I'm not really sure what the solution is.
@shawnhall3849 4 жыл бұрын
Jasmine Ee The solution would be to promote black “nerdiness” and that it can seen as “cool” too
@LimeyLassen 4 жыл бұрын
This is me, but with gender. I was a male nerd who liked romance novels. I enjoyed my hobbies but you better believe I kept it to myself. Now it's not even weird, literally every fandom has an "i ship it" meme.
@TheCoolmaster131 4 жыл бұрын
I'm 18 African American myself and also grew up in the majority of black schools. In college. My school life between 1st grade - 6th grade even then was weird. Black people tell me I sound white or act it. That bothered me. I always wondered why I wasn't connecting well with my other young black peers. I never tried to change myself, which lead me to just enjoy my hobbies more like anime, comics, video games, books. When I got to middle school I started finding more black kids like me and also befriending people of multiple races. I also have had anxiety and social anxiety. But this video I really relate too because I felt like I'm experiencing an in and out culture experience with my own race for the longest time until I started finding more. Being in nerd/geek black groups is great. Especially this the normalization of black nerds/geeks and mainstream of nerds interests. ps. my favorite character was Carlton on fresh prince, I have been compared to him lol
@melsrebellion6083 3 жыл бұрын
As a female black nerd and goth, I understand all of this. Having friends as a kid didn't happen much. I could not fit in for the life of me.
@hoppinghessien 3 жыл бұрын
In the 90s, I was a goth nerd and my husband was a nerdy jock. The cliques were never as defined as you see in media.
@80schick1967 4 жыл бұрын
This video is about me! I self-identify proudly as a black nerd. Back in the 1980s I was a Goth in the UK into classic literature and indie music. I was isolated, ridiculed and constantly accused of "acting white". Now I am in my 50s, still into the same literature and music and an unashamed #girlyswot. We have some inspirational black nets in the UK like historian David Olusoga, astrophysicist Maggie Aderin-Pocock and intellectual Bonnie Greer ♥️ Love me a nerd!
@80schick1967 4 жыл бұрын
I meant "nerds" of course not "nets". Great video T1J
@vchambliss3797 4 жыл бұрын
It’s like you’re telling my life story ;_; this video essay is a balm for my nerdy soul
@Eruidraith Жыл бұрын
realizing that the later movies not having nerds--not getting the original novel/movie doing a "the smartest guys in the room mentality may be bad, actually" and instead having a bunch of action stars... that blew my mind to think about.
@BreeTheV 4 жыл бұрын
Can I just say how much this video resonated with me on an almost spiritual level? And that sounds dramatic, but I honestly mean it. It's like you told my story in a video essay. I've always been the outlier in school for elementary/middle/high school and have been called oreo and all types of shit. Seeing this video I feel like has validated me. And while I may have grown up to be the super hot cosplaying girl now, I'll always be the weird, quiet, intelligent girl in 4th grade who said her favorite song was 'Berry' by Dir en Grey, lmao.
@monique_pryce 3 жыл бұрын
DIR EN GREY!! I haven’t heard that name in a while!! 😂😂
@adrianfridge 4 жыл бұрын
Makes me think of Chidi from The Good Place, who does embody your definition of nerdiness, which is intense passion in an esoteric, typically deemed “uncool”, subject matter, in this case Moral Philosophy. In an interesting subversion, his personality also hits upon the current millennial zeitgeist of anxiety over all our choices. Chidi is the opposite of confident and suave.
@Jobe-13 4 жыл бұрын
Being a black “geek/nerd”, I’ve never felt like I needed to care too much. I’ve never felt ostracized by the black community because of it, either, even though I would sometimes get teased by other black kids. I would notice non-black people would sometimes get shocked that I was dorky and nerdy and sucked at sports.
@happyslave9162 4 жыл бұрын
A simple view of nerd-dom specifically in the US was brought to my attention by a comic and apologies I don't remember their name for this, but: (paraphrased) "Only in the US is there a term for people who are intellectual, but it's strictly pejorative."
@AtomikNY 4 жыл бұрын
I definitely identified with the "nerd" identity in school in the 90s. It was shorthand for expressing the idea that I was socially awkward, spent an inordinate amount of time on the computer, and was really engrossed by academic subjects like science and linguistics. But we now live in a time when everybody spends a lot of time on the computer and you're weird if you don't know your way around one. And I feel like there's less ostracization for being into things most people aren't into, largely because of the Internet and the way it allows everyone to engage with every conceivable interest. I'm still socially awkward but by itself that isn't really something I can build an identity around.
@meg143562 4 жыл бұрын
(For the record, I’m white, so my hot take may not be so hot) I, too, am classified as a “nerd,” but I didn’t have a “group” because my passions were very odd. I’m also autistic, so people saw me as weird for lots of reasons. I’m thinking about the classmates you describe who were ostracized for being weird, and I wonder if the neurodiversity movement is reaching some of them now. Based on what I have read, POC neurodiverse kids get left behind socially, so I wonder if a more targeted POCneurodiversity movement will help the “nerds” who are weird for more than one reason.
@iamghost_ 5 ай бұрын
I'm a HUGE black nerd and geek. I don't have any friends, I'm a loner, I love science, math, astronomy, physics and want to learn about diseases, illnesses and viruses. I'm also a techno geek. And i love manga and anime. I also want to be a scientist someday too.
@xbaker3868 3 жыл бұрын
This video speaks to my entire school experience I swear. I went to a predominately black high school, and remember people would randomly ask me my opinions on rappers, and when I answered with “I don’t know who that is, I listen to alt-rock more than rap” they’d shush me and tell me not to say shit like that out loud. I remember I had a black gym teacher that tried to help me in being more popular with my peers by getting me into sports, but when I replied that tennis and soccer were the only sports I played, I didn’t like basketball and football, he just replied with “Wow, did you seriously just say that, whatever man” and walked off. It even followed into college, I finally found a group of friends that were as nerdy as me, and they got me into DND, but I was the only black member of the group. We had one game late at night in a McDonald’s one of them worked in, and one of their black coworkers walked up to our table, pointed me out and said “I just had a question for him, why are you playing this? This is not what WE do, you know? This is white people shit”
@s.d.703 4 жыл бұрын
I like Hardison in Leverage. He is super intelligent, nerdy, funny, and attractive. He just was who he was. He was a fairly well-rounded character.
@luanabrans 4 жыл бұрын
He was my favorite!
@lpphillyfan 2 жыл бұрын
Aldis Hodge is gonna be a star! I loved him in The Invisible Man and One Night in Miami.
@josefek3389 4 жыл бұрын
Good video! I'm probably significantly older than your typical demographic, and I'm reminded of the frustration bands like Bad Brains and Fishbone felt back in the day when they were derided for making "weird white boy music." Black people arguably invented rock n roll, for chrissakes. Back then it was hard to imagine something like Afropunk becoming such a huge thing. Thank goodness attitudes are changing.
@GDIEternal 4 жыл бұрын
That one hit close to home. It's interesting to see how much Afropunk has changed though. Some positive, and some negative.
@petrfedor1851 4 жыл бұрын
You just make me interest how afropunk sound. Cause it sound like something I could like.
@majormajor3630 4 жыл бұрын
No shoutout to LeVar Burton on Star Trek: TNG? Guy was probably most nerdy
@grmpEqweer 4 жыл бұрын
Reading Rainbow too. 😊
@TheDreamSyndicateArts 4 жыл бұрын
@@grmpEqweer came here to drop the Reading Rainbow reference! But oh man, how one show could've attracted so many wonderful human beings- Levar Burton, George Takai, Whoopi Goldberg, Bret Spinner, Wil Wheaton, and Patrick Stewart- just a who's who of forces for good in the world!
@monimuppet6132 4 жыл бұрын
As I've gotten older I've found many more Black "nerds" to commiserate with and it's delightful. However non-black people still seem to be viewing me through those "cool black person" lenses so... same old story on that end. Some go so far to ask if one of my parent's is White when they see my Teen Titans GO poster hanging in my office. How is that a white thing? Also, what kind of weirdo doesn't like Teen Titans GO? I don't see how I'm the strange one here but, whatever.
@SisterKnight 4 жыл бұрын
Everytime I tried to commiserate with other black nerds, there was this idea that black girls weren't and cant be nerds. In high school I recognized that there was a subset of kids that were not as cool had specialized Interests were on the fringes and I always tried to be a part of that. But the Male side always was stevie wonder to my existence while pining over the idea of being a cool kid and dating the cool girls while lamenting the lack of people being nice to them. It was always a weird place to be. How many female nerds do you remember in high school? Because as an adult I breath a deep sigh of relief to suddenly feel like I wasn't some anomaly (i did have another lady blerd who was my bestfriend) that others liked big O gaming sci-fi fiction writing and wasn't particularly smart (nerds were supposed to be geniuses). But somehow I wasn't allowed the title of nerd but instead weird and not attractive. Because in a black high school a girls place is to be attractive or not, cool or not, I was asked "why I hid my big booty in that big ugly robot t-shirt...weird" we simply did not even have the Avenue to be given the title of nerd. Just an observation.
@monimuppet6132 4 жыл бұрын
@@SisterKnight Didn't know a single black girl nerd in school. High school yielded me a few very good friends but I was still only being half of myself around them for fear of losing them. I think guys found me pretty by middle school but I was still too "weird" for them. I actually wasn't too upset about that because I kinda liked to admire guys from afar throughout my school years, wasn't much intrested in dating until I was nearly 20. Adult life has been sooo much better. Mainly because I can now be the recluse I naturally am once the work day is done, but also because I met a few wonderfully nerdy black women that have been my friends for years now. We don't always need a whole community. Not that fond of socializing anyway so it works out 😊.
@PhoenixRising87 4 жыл бұрын
I would just tell them both my parents are black nerds (which they are; they're both huge bookworms, and my dad loves Monty Python while my mom has read all the Harry Potter books several times over).
@triggerhappy262plus2 4 жыл бұрын
I don’t want to be a hater but teen titans go is hyper trash. I gravitate towards the original series tbh.
@Jujoji 4 жыл бұрын
"A Different World" was an amazing show, I'm sad that you didn't get more positive traction on your tweet: I used to watch the show, first run and at all hours of the night re-runs in the early 2000's
@rederik99 3 жыл бұрын
I still try to reference that show, and no one knows what I'm talking about. It used to get confusing because its title was similar to an old soap opera...
@CheckdaFlow 4 жыл бұрын
I love the way you talk. Calm, concise, logical. You're just an absolute joy to listen to.
@Sam_on_YouTube 4 жыл бұрын
Earlier today I was thinking "Been a while since the last T1J video."
@ImagenAshyun 3 жыл бұрын
You mentioned Carlton Banks. I remember the episode wherein he tried to enter a black fraternity only to be rejected for not being "black enough" because he was just so nerdy and uncool. I always thought it was because his interests were often actually white, such as his admiration for Macaulay Culkin and Tom Jones. I never really considered general nerdiness to be an "unblack" thing altogether. But that could be, being Asian, what is considered "nerdy" in other cultures is just the norm or expectation for my environment. I truly appreciate your insight and I'm thankful of you sharing your experiences. The thing I took from that particular episode was Carlton's speech how even though he has uncool interests, he's still black and still going through the same hurdles other black people--and they should come together, not divide themselves further. Your experiences help give further depth on black culture and its old disdain for nerdiness that goes beyond what popular media has shown us, as well as demonstrate how far we've become in accepting diversity of personalities even within a specific community. I thank you kindly for this.
@AI-di7ll Жыл бұрын
I'm 22 and kinda just accepting my black nerd status, I'm not Steve Urkel lol but I'm certainly no DMX, I think your explanation was spot on. My most heartbreaking moment was practicing SQL programming in the computer room at breaktime and my black friends saying I was trying to be white 💔
@danielfreeman8725 4 жыл бұрын
When it comes to the nerds clinging to being different and therefore being contrarian about it, it reminds me actually of something i watched in a punk documentary, and it has to do with white nerds specifically being so contrarian. i think it was thurston moore, and they were discussing how hip hop and punk came along at the same time, and there was appreciation between a lot of artists, but there wasn't a lot of actual crossover, their goals seemed to be different. Black people had the incentive to try and become massively successful and actually make money, since it was what had been denied to them for so long. For white punks, it was more about rejecting the white culture they came from and the wealth that came along with, since a lot of white punks were actually kids of the suburbs. So i think a lot of white nerds have this very similar want to be outsiders to the mainstream, often because mainstream to them basically some kind of conformity they are rejecting, and why they like esoteric things to begin with.
@lordblazer 2 жыл бұрын
well it's not just simply being contrarian . when a subculture goes mainstream in America. It gets highly commercialized and watered down to appeal to a broader audience. The niches you use to enjoy are no longer there or are a pale imitation of it. Anime is a good example of this. The 2010s saw them become mainstream. And while good shows are still coming out. The series that use to be mind bending and push the boundaries of imagination are less and less prevalent than in the past. A lot of new anime fans tend to not like the classics like Cowboy Bebop for example. Due to it being episodic and the story arcs are presented in a less than linear manner. Mainstream culture demands things to be presented in a very narrow and specific way that can turn off people who were lifelong anime fans before it became cool. Also a lot of shows each season are absolute trash..While I do argue each new season has brought some good gems even hidden gems despite companies turning out generic shows to make easy money.
@lordblazer 2 жыл бұрын
what you're looking at within nerdom i something that the art/creative community has dealt with for centuries.
@greenakutabi 4 жыл бұрын
I think the internet killed the concept of the nerd. We have communities for everything now. If you can't connect with people who share your interests in person, you can always find them. Part of the defining characteristic of the nerd, as well as the aesthetic is the social stigma. I grew up in DC and I was bullied because I loved comics. It was really jarring when my family moved to Texas and my majority white school didn't see that as an issue. You hit the nail right on the head about black nerdiness being seen as a betrayal of blackness. I love indie music and synth pop, and was constantly derided for not listening to "our" music, like I couldn't listen to both. Fantastic topic and video.
@samvimes9510 4 жыл бұрын
The funny thing about peer pressure is that nobody genuinely agrees with what they do. One example I always turn to is Pokemon. Every kid loved Pokemon in the late 90s and early 2000s. But when I entered 8th grade, I suddenly discovered that Pokemon wasn't cool anymore. It was seen as a game for little kids that teenagers weren't supposed to touch. Fast forward to the rise of social media and I realized something. Everyone seems to have had the same experience, where Pokemon (or other "kiddie" games like Spyro or Kirby) were regarded as uncool and people stopped playing them. But nobody actually felt that way, which makes me wonder how the trend of rejecting Pokemon even started. It's like the idea just appeared out of the ether one day and nobody questioned it.
@gaillewis5472 3 жыл бұрын
I'm the only fan you have who was alive when A Different World was on television. I loved that show.
@tigerstyle4505 4 жыл бұрын
It's weird cause I always had a thing for science, history, politics and religion growing up and never really had any issue unless I brought it up too much lol I even would have people ask me random ass questions cause they thought I was the smartest one around (I frequently disappointed 😂). But when I started skating, getting into punk music, incorporating those cultures into my style, going to anarchist book fairs and rallies or whatever, the whole hood and school were on my ass. I'm mixed but very light skinned so it was like it was always a challenge to my "blackness" to see if I was "passing" and becoming a traitor to my environment, friends, family, etc, and everything I ever knew. It was especially weird cause I never stopped hangin in my neighborhood or doing what I'd always done, I'd have stayed outta trouble a lot more than I did if I had, but I just added new shit to it. I still listened to the same music, I just added new genres, I was still me, I'd just woke up to a new world to draw from. Skating was just a convenient ass way of getting around, I tried getting my people involved in the other shit but they wanted no part and the worst part is that half of the clothing choices I made and caught hell for (skinny jeans way before it was cool, studied belt and vests, etc) are awfully similar to what a lot of em wear now only with designer labels on em 😂 Crazy.
@dnikkithatsame5990 4 жыл бұрын
Thank you for talking on this...it caused a lot of confusion in my younger life.
@kimifw58 4 жыл бұрын
The protagonist of Fresh Prince was a nerd in his own right. He was book smart, and as a kid he was so ashamed of that he hid his books in pizza boxes so he wouldn't get bullied. In the show proper, he had Spider-Man comics and geeked out over the Transformers figures Geoffrey bought for his son. He was still leagues cooler than Carlton, but I think it was clear they had more in common than he cared to admit.
@ChaosDesigned 3 жыл бұрын
You aint never lied. Growing up in the 90's I was into video games, anime, korean culture, space, and sciences and was very well read. BAsically what you'd call a black nerd. I got called Urkle all the time cause I also wore glasses. By high school I started to meet other black kids who were into the same things but we were very niche, even in a school of mostly black kids. It's so nice to see black people now openly obsessed with anime and video games and making anime and video game skits. I use to do that stuff at the start of youtube and it was still pretty weird to see black folks into that kinda stuff, even like making videos that were not about rap was kinda taboo.
@ShadeCandle 2 жыл бұрын
As someone in my mid 30s, growing up it was a death sentence to he seen as a nerd. I think things really changed when both Harry Potter and the LoTR movies came out 20 years ago, and suddenly it became okay to be into fantasy and all that. I'm sure there's more to it, especially the rise of the internet allowing people with niche interests to connect. Anyway, interesting to hear about it from the perspective of a black dude.
@thrillho5287 4 жыл бұрын
We used to do the neck
@T1J 4 жыл бұрын
We did that too lol
@alexreid1173 3 жыл бұрын
Stevie from Malcolm in the middle is definitely my favorite black nerd. And as a disabled kid having any representation was everything to me too. Also the dude grew up hot
@amandasutton3717 3 жыл бұрын
Loved A Different World! It was awesome to see Lisa Bonet get a spinoff.
@geniusface 4 жыл бұрын
I love this take! As someone whose first anime convention was in 2007, it makes me smile to see how much more diverse cons are these days. Even though I feel like I'm drifting away from that lifestyle more and more... these days, I can't help but feel like "nerds" are people who let one/a small number of all-consuming interests define their identity, and I just don't want to pigeonhole my identity like that.
@majormajor3630 4 жыл бұрын
10 years playing WoW? That's some dedication.
@LiteralChips 3 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the anecdotal perspective. Seriouslyit's so easy to find sweeping generalizations about experiences generalized majorities and I appreciate your narrative approach
@SasserReturns 4 жыл бұрын
this is very well put together and i'm glad it showed up on my feed. i'm 28 and i still had no way of truly articulating my experience growing up to those easily outside of said experience. especially the part about not really having a rigid "public identity" like being a stoner or goth. it was what it was. basically, everyone in my high school had a degree of social competence, but MOST of us also partook in "nerdy" activities. they were just never used to truly describe us, and in turn i don't think any of us can really describe ourselves in such a rigid fashion. when i think about it, high school at the time felt like prison but it was really such an ideal, open experience where we slowly drifted away from dictating what was socially appropriate, like how you described middle school
@salantonucci9786 4 жыл бұрын
So glad you just uploaded this! I'm just finishing up a paper and this is going to be a great source to add to the conversation. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work!
@readwrecks 4 жыл бұрын
If you made an hour long video about the philosophy behind The Matrix, I would watch the shit out of it.
@iceykid2 2 жыл бұрын
You spittin in this one! I relate 1000% I grew up in the burbs and also being one of few black people who loved screamo and went to warped tour. I had my blackness questioned multiple times and still stayed true to who i was and now everyone remembers me as the kid who wasnt afraid to be himself.
@izuela7677 4 жыл бұрын
Holt is amazingly funny on Brooklyn 99. He is nerdy and awkward but not in a clumsy way.
@shinbakihanma2749 4 жыл бұрын
Carlton wasn't a nerd. He was a preppy. There's a difference, a BIG difference.
@booboobunny5655 4 жыл бұрын
It’s still not something that’s considered stereotypically “black” so that’s why it’s considered nerdy.
@shinbakihanma2749 4 жыл бұрын
@Umbuko DaJuko Uncle Phil, preppy?! What?! Uncle Phil is definitely NOT a preppy. You're wrong. This isn't up for debate😂🤣😆
@shinbakihanma2749 4 жыл бұрын
@@booboobunny5655 You don't know what you're talking about. Carlton is not a nerd. This video is inaccurate in what it tries to convey. Carlton is a preppy, not a nerd. It just is what it is.😂😆🤣
@OneTwoFreeForAll 3 жыл бұрын
@@shinbakihanma2749 Uncle Phil code-switches to preppy when necessary (like with "Whitey.") Then he breaks out Lucille.
@wieneckem 3 жыл бұрын
@@booboobunny5655 True. Was a common punchline that Carlton wasnt really 'black', usually when Jazz and Will were taking a piss out of him.
@samkern108 4 жыл бұрын
What I heard: "Some people Klingon to the nerd idea in a sort of contrarian way."
@eshepard8565 3 жыл бұрын
KZfaq just told me about you last night and I have been bingeing your videos today but this is my first comment. Because A DIFFERENT WORLD WAS SO GREAT! I have also mentioned it to people assuming they'd seen it and found they were clueless. Why? Everyone watched Cosby but no one watched Different World - !? I was in junior high when Denise went off to college and it was all sooooo glamorous. I miss those guys. (And then Whitley showed up in Dead Like Me, that was fun!)
@monzorella1 4 жыл бұрын
I genuinely love your videos
@Mcgturtle3 4 жыл бұрын
“Everybody watches anime” HA I wish that were remotely true
@aghayejalebian7364 4 жыл бұрын
In 80s anime was for perverts who like to watch tentacle rape. In 2000s anime was for losers who can't get laid. in 2020s anime is for white supremacists. Anime will never have a positive reputation. Get over it.
@diemdia 4 жыл бұрын
Aghaye Jalebian what's the relation with white supremacists? I've never heard of that before
@aghayejalebian7364 4 жыл бұрын
Basically because 4chan is affiliated with anime culture and recently with white supremacy. Then some idiot sees a white supremacist with anime profile pic and goes "Haha I knew it everyone who watches anime is a white supremacist see I was right".
@ChibiKawaii3 4 жыл бұрын
Compared to when I was a kid, or even middle school hell yes its so much more mainstream. (I'm 27)
@DS-xg7hk 4 жыл бұрын
anime is wayy more accessible nowadays tho. When you have people like that one actor from Black Panther doing a collab for a Naruto and Coach (luxury brand) accessory line, you really can't say it's not mainstream. Promare, an anime film by Studio Trigger, keeps getting its theater run in the US extended like every week cause ppl love it THAT much
@DjFatFolks 4 жыл бұрын
Lol... I assume I must have been the first click on that a different world poll, cause it's 100% never heard of it...
@shock_n_Aweful 3 жыл бұрын
4:45 are man come on, when I was a kid I though Dwayne Wayne's glasses were so cool
@artbyrooster 2 жыл бұрын
I’m 44 and you spoke to my soul. Thank you. You fully explained my high school experience.
@emiliepryor51 4 жыл бұрын
I really enjoyed this video. I’m a similar vain, I have always been a little curious about how Black Americans have hung on to Christianity. Of course it has literally saved lives, and that is a powerful generational aspect. But the pain it had been born out of always struck me, as a POC. Thanks man! 🤘🏽
@coquimarinero7246 4 жыл бұрын
Google-ing "Another World episode 1" got me the anime "Re: Zero"
@T1J 4 жыл бұрын
A Different World!
@churchofclaus Жыл бұрын
Congrats on the success of your channel
@Panthro-lo2lh 3 жыл бұрын
this channel lets me know there are people like me out there in the world.
@KallusGarnet 4 жыл бұрын
Black Nerds are the Coolest
@v.sandrone4268 4 жыл бұрын
A 15 minute overthought intellectual deconstruction of the intersectional relationships between nerdiness and blackness and the mainstreaming of the societal outsider. I don't know why anyone would think you are a nerd....lol
@PlayedbyInstinct 4 жыл бұрын
I've been curious about this exact topic for quite some time, thank you for providing your insight
@valridagan 4 жыл бұрын
That SonicFox bit was *great*, I sat up in my chair and applauded how you connected their presence in the cultural headspace with that of Naruto. Which is cool as heck!
@jdizzle708 4 жыл бұрын
If you don't mention my man Geordie from TNG I'll bust a blood vessel in my eye
@T1J 4 жыл бұрын
I didn't, but I thought about it. He's another example from childhood. I mainly just wanted to gush about A Different World so I did that instead lol
@elizabethleach6346 4 жыл бұрын
Growing up in Oregon, Geordie (LaVar Burton) was my first exposure to a black person as a small child. Although, I saw him on Reading Rainbow first.
@jdizzle708 4 жыл бұрын
@@T1J That's fair. I always thought TNG was a great example of media trying to show black male characters in a positive light, but at the same time needing to limit them in some way to appease white male audiences. Worf's fighting ability is completely wasted. Geordie has a story arc about how he has no confidence with women even though it makes no sense for his character. Those flaws make the characters richer but we don't see similar weaknesses in Riker or Picard
@Kaefer1973 3 жыл бұрын
@@jdizzle708 I think we see enough weaknesses in Picard, Riker less so and he suffers for it, since nobody likes Riker the most. Most I remember about Worf is DS9 though, I have trouble remembering TNG Worf.
@Tacom4ster 4 жыл бұрын
I was a self hating Hispanic kid, eh got over it, though still too lazy to learn Spanish... I took Japanese at Middle School instead like a weeb.
@petrfedor1851 4 жыл бұрын
For me Japanese sound way better then Spanish. But i don´t have many experience with Spanish cause most common forein language where I live is English and German.
@emmanuelmayoral9779 3 жыл бұрын
I was stuck in a weird cultural paradox. My dad insisted that I ONLY speak to him in Spanish, and always taught me to be proud of my Mexican heritage, but he also taught me to look down on a lot of Latino culture. He saw many aspects of the culture as fundamentally backward and counterproductive to our success, and encouraged my siblings and I to move out of our neighborhood and assimilate into white society as soon as we could. He also had a lot of negative shit to say about Central Americans. It didn't help that I saw many negative aspects of a Latino-majority community, like seeing men passed out drunk on the street, hearing about the domestic violence my friends were used to experiencing, and walking around trash and human shit in my neighborhood. I was also into real dweeby shit like history and geography-- I rremember I wanted a "Soviet" ushanka so bad in high school lol. I mainly listened to metal and punk in high school, and spent time online, so most of what I was exposed to came from a white POV. I even ended up being an anti-SJW type for a bit in college. I regret that now It wasn't until I spent some time in college that I really started to understand that the ugly realities of Latino life do not mean that Latinos are fundamentally backwards or wrong, and that many aspects of working-class life are beautiful in their own way (as tacky as they might seem sometimes). And I also began to see that white is not always better. When I finally met white people from suburbia, and met those POC who lived in white suburbia, I was astonished by how mediocre and small-minded white folks could be. For all the opportunities they had and that I didn't, they sure didn't do much with it. And I saw how bland and cheap and ugly and unsustainable suburban life really was.
@TheIggyfuzz 4 жыл бұрын
I remember being 9 years old and begging my mother for bracers and prescription glasses that I didn't need, just to fit in more with the friends I had. It was a drag in my early teens, too nerdy for the "Cool" kids and too "street" for the nerds. I even came up with the formula: Jock + Nerd = Jerk. Took me a long time to realize I didn't need to conform to any kind of stereotypes and that we all have those sides to different degrees. Nowadays, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to share my interests with such a wide variety of people.
@Matches_Malone0 3 жыл бұрын
I was a chameleon growing up inside I was a nerd but since the street dudes we're my neighbors they embraced me and I became one of them. My pops was a street dude but always had an open mind and listened to all types of music, played chess, read books & comics, and watched cartoons but everyone knew he would knock your head off in a fight. I'm not happy with a lot of the things I've done hanging with that crowd but I've helped more than I hurt. I encountered many 16-22 who lacked academically and would help get them up to par with reading and math.
@toonezon4836 4 жыл бұрын
I've come to redefine "nerd" away from *what* one loves/likes etc, and towards *how* a person likes and endures in their interests. Take for example sports, traditionally viewed as one of the least nerdy past times. There are casual sports fans who would watch a game here and there or the major games like the superb owl or world series, but then there are the sports *nerds*; those who obsess over every players stats and records, batting averages and team plays. Hell, fantasy football is a super nerdy thing that, because it was related to sports, was considered "normal" long before the mainstreaming of other aspects of pop culture. Fantasy football, aside from having the word fantasy in its title, is all about math, probability and player statistics, just about as nerdy as any tabletop war-game or reenactmentertainment, if with significantly less agency on the part of the players (that is the people playing the league, not the ones generating the statistics on the physical field.)
@grimsong2237 4 жыл бұрын
You want Whitney to be with who? 😠 Set em out.....
@spennyb89 4 жыл бұрын
Love your commentary on this. Thanks!
@nataliabrasil931 3 жыл бұрын
I remember when I first met my husband seven years ago (he's black), and he was this huge shy nerd just like me, we had so much in common, plus he was handsome and I though I won the lottery... But for "some reason" people would day we didn't really match or that there was something off about him, even though we had so much fun together. Took me a year to fully understand why. On a side note though we're happily married and I learned to tell some people to just fuck off.
@Pyonkotcchi 4 жыл бұрын
"Being a nerd isnt extremewhitness you're erasing ____" please keep in mind he is speaking from a black perspective about black experiences in nerddom. We absolutely do get accused of "acting white" by black people and non black people, even by people who would otherwise not define nerdiness as whiteness, it's less about thinking nerdy behavior is white behavior and more about forcing a stereotype onto black people. They believe because we arent performing our "role" as black people we must be trying to be something else, and of course what would that "something else" be than white? Same reason ppl think black ppl getting perms means we're trying to be white even tho straight hair isnt white hair at all
@jdizzle708 4 жыл бұрын
Nerdiness as an excess of whiteness is spot on. Obviously it's not the whole picture, but a lot of the stereotypes about nerds could be seen as the expression of white anxieties about themselves in the face of increasingly empowered black people (not able to stand up for themselves, physically weak, scared, not "cool," etc).
@PMinion 3 жыл бұрын
I think the comedian bit you’re bringing up at 9:25 is a clip from Patrice O’Neil on the Opie and Anthony radio show. I remember him taking about Creep specifically.
@shaynakatherine 3 жыл бұрын
So interesting! One of my BFFs throughout my 20s was a black nerd. It was such an inherent part of my understanding of people I never thought twice that blackness and nerdiness might be thought of separately in culture at large. I appreciate your POV!
@AR-md1zq 3 жыл бұрын
In my all black high school, I was a nerd and a jock, I wore glasses-which was made fun off. I cared highly about my grades and getting my homework done well and on time. I also cared about fashion and dancing. I did a little cheerleading where I was body-shamed. I listened rap I listened rap, dancehall, R&B and what in my school we called "white people music" such as rock, alternative, etc. But I was still expected to always tried to be socially savvy and I tried to give as good as I got: I made fun of those who made fun of me-had to learn to be quick on my feet.
@OsirisMalkovich 4 жыл бұрын
I loved _A Different World_ and I still get the theme song stuck in my head on an almost weekly basis.
@theblerdsenpai4717 3 жыл бұрын
Im so glad Ive been following you, your material is thought provoking, funny, and all around goood! you are the goal sir!
@dirkdigsher2620 3 жыл бұрын
I never thought about this before but am always looking to expand my knowledge about how others live. Thank you for sharing this! It was awesome to hear your perspective :-) and experience
Andrew Huberman
Рет қаралды 10 МЛН
Immersed
Рет қаралды 88 МЛН
Democracy Now!
Рет қаралды 110 М.
Democracy Now!
Рет қаралды 224 М.