Comments on: How People Are Defining ‘Nerd’

By: Geek Studies » Blog Archive » Black Nerds vs. Nerds Who Happen to be Black

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:06:15 +0000

[...] can be made more “cool” through integration of elements from urban black cultures. Mary Bucholtz seemed to argue (to some contentious responses) that white nerdiness is defined in opposition to such [...]

By: Jason Tocci

Jason Tocci — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:08:43 +0000

Sounds fair enough to me. I think there's a widespread assumption that a lack of representation (of women, of ethnic minorities, etc.) in a group means that such people are actively made to feel unwelcome in that group. Personally, I think this has been pretty well established in the case of women in IT. I honestly haven't met many Black nerds who have anything to say about the interaction between nerdity of race, though, so I really appreciate your comment.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:29:03 +0000

as far as im concerned a nerd is a person that is made fun of for being a smart indivual and likes to play videogames alot so I guess that makes me a nerd lol.

and a far as the blackness and whiteness goes. im black and I love pc chris,s music whats wrong with that? id shouldent matter if you black or not its about the music and life style any body can be a nerd

By: Sarah Elkins

Sarah Elkins — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:38:02 +0000

Bucholtz’s 1999 study lost me at the second page, where she said “I argue that nerd identity, contrary to popular perceptions, is not a stigma imposed by others, but a purposefully chosen alternative”. How about, it can be both/either?

Maybe she clarified later on, but I’m not going to spend the time to finish a paper that oversimplifies that way. There’s better stuff out there to read.

Thanks for the link to Connor’s write-up; more comments over there.

By: Church

Church — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:56:05 +0000

Thanks for the 1999 article link. At first glance, it looks a bit more interesting, but there’s still stuff in there that I wouldn’t expect to find in an undergrad paper (e.g. describing novels as silly (p. 11))

By: Jason Tocci

Jason Tocci — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:58:09 +0000

Thanks to all for the comments. If you haven't seen it yet, please let me direct you to Connor's interesting write-up on this topic. Mary Bucholtz's 1999 article related to this topic may also be of interest. I have to reserve judgment on the more recent research until I have a chance to read it; my take on that first article is that it's an interesting initial foray into exploring nerd identity, but I need to see more than a single day of conversation analysis to get a good sense of what these students' nerd club is about. (I suspect that's what I'll find when I read the new stuff.)

By: Connor Moran

Connor Moran — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:20:33 +0000

“She’s got a hammer and is pointing out that everything is a nail.”

Would you care to elaborate?

By: Church

Church — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:09:03 +0000

Thanks for the link, Connor. That was (.) interesting.

Sadly, the NYT got it pretty much right. She’s got a hammer and is pointing out that everything is a nail.

Fun, though, to see “Bob, Conqueror of the Universe” appear without remark.

By: Connor Moran

Connor Moran — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:47:11 +0000

If anyone is curious enough to look at the actual research in question, it’s available for free in PDF form:

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/bucholtz/articles/MB_JLA2001.pdf

By: Church

Church — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:47:52 +0000

“…the code of conspicuous intellectualism in the nerd cliques Bucholtz observed may shut out “black students who chose not to openly display their abilities.” This is especially disturbing at a time when African-American students can be stigmatized by other African-American students if they’re too obviously diligent about school.”

Huh? Nerd cliques are shutting out black crypto-nerds? (How would they know?) And this is ‘disturbing’ because other black kids stigmatize them if they’re openly intellectual. Which is pretty much how you get your geek card in the first place.

I hope this is just the NYT mangling the original article, but I suspect not. I’m still trying to wrap my head around “hyperwhite.” (What does a hyperwhite person eat? Lutefisk with BBQ?)