But before I go further, an observation--I'm totally with folks who say we need to stop blaming the white man, and have done my part to take on Sharptonism. But it always amazes me to see those same people turn around and blame a broader "black culture" for the larger problems of our black community. This strikes me as no better than "White Man-ism," because it still undermines the case for individual strength and effort. A blame paradigm is a blame paradigm, whether its blaming black people or white people. In my house, when I got bad grades--which was often--my parents would slapped the black off me if I blamed a D on "the white man." But they'd have done the same thing if I'd blamed my D "on a culture of pathology amongst black people." To me, it's fundamentally weak to blame others for a personal lack of success.
Which brings us to this Black Nerd posting. It begins by positing a strict dichotomy between popularity and intelligence, i.e. if you're black and smart, you necessarily won't be popular. The writer acknowledges that this same dichotomy exists among white people--indeed his whole article takes off from a white guy musing over why white nerds aren't popular. But like most Black Cultural Patholgists, the writer simply leaps past the context and into a meditation on the intellectual savagery of black folks.
]]> First, lets dispense with the central claim--do black people value education less than whites? Two studies by economists help us out with this. The first by Roland Fryar, is probably the most reputable (though still problematic) study of the whole "acting white" phenomenon. The study concludes that black kids--like all kids--do tend to lose popularity as they do better in school. Meanwhile, black kids tend to lose popularity at a greater rate than white kids when not in majority black schools. While this is a concern, it doesn't really work as an explanation for the achievement gap, because the majority of black kids attend majority black schools, where, according to Fryar, there really is no difference between how black kids and white kids see intelligence and popularity.
It should also be added that to the extent that their is a "acting white" phenomenon, Fryar's study shows that it is at its worse, not among blacks, but among Hispanics. The second study addresses whether blacks, on balance, spend more of thier resources on material things, as opposed to education. The answer is yes--but it isn't for the reasons that the BCPers think. It turns out that difference has a lot more to do with the wealth distribution in the black and white communities, than actual value differences.
The writer of the blog post seems like a fairly sharp cat. But he joins a chorus of otherwise "fairly sharp cats" who seem to believe that black folks are uncomplicated and can be understood simply by sitting on one's stoop and taking notes. From a personal perspective, I'm tired of defending black folks against people who can't even be bothered to look past thier own prejudices and experiences. That includes other black people I've got no use for that small portion of us who've made it somewhere and now want to spend our days sneering at people who weren't so lucky.
I'm not a black nerd because I'm not a black snob, because I have no desire to look down from my perch of quasi-success and sneer at those scraping and struggling below. I loved X-Men andf D&D. I think Robotech is the epic of our time. But I think Michael Jordan's flu-game, Emmitt Smith running through the Giants with a seperated shoulder, the instrumental to Wu-Tang Clan's "Triumph" is a glorious as anything I ever came from the pen of Chris Claremont. I'm not a black nerd because I wish I'd paid more attention when the kids were shooting the basketball into a milk-crate. I wish I'd learned to dribble between my legs, and I'll make sure my son does. I'm not a black nerd because I believe in being multi-lingual, because I hope to understand that knowing--and loving--Ebonics, doesn't preclude you from learning proper English.
UPDATE: Commenter Eric basically nails it:
I think you answered that with the following quote:
". . . if your black and smart . . ."
:)
(BTW: I've been reading your blog for a while - good stuff, and thanks!)
]]>Because white folks, in general, have minimal contact with black folks, they completely fail to see or understand about the mass/niche split (most people also tend to forget about the split in their own experience) they end up confusing "black mass culture" for a more complex "black culture."
This is further complicated by the fact that white folks are pretty fully in charge of how white culture - both mass and niche - gets shaped and portrayed, while the same can't be always be said for, particularly, black mass culture.
In other words, there are a lot of white people getting paid making mass culture so crappy for everyone. Fewer black folks are in the positions to mentally kneecap the Populous.
There is a lot of horrible stuff in mass culture generally, black and white. It's just a cesspool of false consciousness, materialism, and appeal the the baser instincts of people. It's much easier to be dismissive of the shittier aspects of your own culture, that you understand, than the the analogous aspects in the culture you don't.
]]>Seriously though, D&D and comic books? Totally a nerd. The blackness is irrelevant.
]]>As a consequence, I tend to ignore black immigrants from any country who try to perpetuate the idea that black Americans are shiftless/lazy/education-hating/etc.
My mother once reminded me that a lot of these people come from very poor countries where only the well-educated, "bourgie," if you will, can afford to leave. So naturally, once they get to the U.S., they start criticizing the black Americans, the same way they'd criticize the poor in their homelands.
]]>On the same token, when I was a kid we used to get a lot of "you aren't really black" after my father moved us Boondocks-style out of the Bronx to suburban CT, and "but you aren't really African, either" from 1st generation Africans like the "black nerd" blogger.
Dude who wrote the post might have done so in a snobby way, but most nerds weren't the ones on top looking down. He makes it sound like it's easy just because he got through it. Nerdiness is tough. It's just a different kind of struggle.
By the way, how can you like X-men and not be a nerd?
All of that assumes, of course, that there really is a large-scale difference in how much black people value education versus how much whites do. I went to school with tons of smart, high-achieving black kids who if they weren't kicking my ass on a given test were damned sure giving me a run for my money. And I have white relatives who never even made it out of high school. People underestimate how much importance the black community puts on education, and overestimate how important education is to the white community.
If education is so important to whites, why do we see entire national political campaigns run on the argument that the other guy is an effette, latte-sipping elitist? Why do people express admiration for the English-mangling George Bush, and see him as more "authentic" because of his (artificial) Texas accent? Why do so many majority-white states have really shitty public schools?
]]>Because your sociability index is too high. The word you are looking for is "geek." You are a black geek.
What's the difference? The nerd is the sysadmin guy in that cave in the basement who bristles every time you try to talk to him in person. He may enjoy Robotech and D&D, and he will belong to online groups or post on message boards to that effect. The tech fetishism present in both groups is extreme for the nerd. The nerd may view his computer--the hardware itself--as a friend, like a gearhead loves his car.
The geek, on the other hand, will seek out social situations. While the nerd will post his love of Robotech online, the geek will come to the bar, have a few drinks, and tell you all about it. He may even have a sense of humor about your lack of interest.
So short version: Nerd = basement. Geek = scifi convention. Or something like that.
]]>I'm sorry that you took my thoughts completely out of context. It's meant as a personal anecdote to the essay by Paul Graham, 'Why Nerds are Unpopular' taken from my admittedly limited life experience.
The fact that I am responding to someone else's essay while stating that I am from central, PA should be the first tip off this is not meant to paint a broad brush against all black people in the US -- it's simply a statement of fact when I say that I haven't met that many super-smart black people. I'm currently in an area that is predominantly black and have been a number of places, like Camden, NJ, and my statement holds true -- I just haven't met that many super intelligent black people.
It's a far stretch of the imagination to say that because I am first-generation American -- a black African -- that I am sitting atop any 'perch' and looking down at black people. I have black best friends, I have white best friends, I have Latino best friends, I am simply telling a personal story as a reflection on what I felt was a great essay.
I think if you read Paul Graham's essay, you will realize that most of the context I am writing from deals specifically with middle and high school years, written from someone who admittedly grew up in a high school similar to Paul's, which he calls 'suburbia.'
That being said, this post obviously struck a chord, I'm sure to follow up later.
]]>"In the new racism, as in the old, somebody always has to be the nigger."
See: illegal immigrants.
This is why it's funny when you say I look down from a perch on anybody ...first all because you don't know me, and second, according to the article you provided, someone has got to be the nigger.
Also, I've been to the worst places in Africa (Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya -- look it up on Wikipedia) and some of the top high schools in the entire country were in that horrible slums. The difference between most every other country's value on education and America's is very palpable, and that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with color. Those kids from the slums were very, very intelligent -- and here in the US my high school was supposed to have been alright.
]]>
True on all counts. I'd love to compare some native African-Americans with some native Nigerians and see how the comparison goes. For more on this check out Malcolm Gladwell's absolutely brilliant reported essay on native American blacks vs. immigrant blacks:
The piece speaks for itself and is my standard reply to black immigrants who talk about how native blacks don't value education and hard work, like their American counterparts, like Flatbush Avenue doesn't exist. Since I've come to New York, that's happened more times than I care to count.