Whenever a black nerd gets teased for thinking he's white, all he has to say is four words: "Is Barack Obama white?"Leaving aside the fact that, according to John, he, well, kinda is, this is the sort of retort that will get you slapped-up, beat-down and snapped-on for like a week straight. One thing I learned as a black nerd in West Baltimore: Get your tips on how to defend yourself from kids who know how to defend themselves, not from other black nerds....unless said nerds have figured out how to defend themselves.
UPDATE: For the uninitiated, I offer this helpful dramatization of how John's theory may actually play out..
Nascent Black Nerd: [References some obscure episode of Battlestar Gallatica]UPDATE #2: In comments, Janine, shows us how to do this son:
Daytwon: Son, why you always watching that white shit?
Nascent Black Nerd: Is Barack Obama white??
Daytwon: Baracka-these-nuts nigga!!!
A Black nerd, like any other nerd, has a backpack full of books. In 2nd grade I pulled a Falling Down at my bus stop, swinging my back pack around and was never messed with again.And when he come up for air, or his boys start to stare
Just grab your Narnia and get the fuck outta there, yeah
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Nice counterpunch, Tah!
Looks like you've been paying attention to political Ali, stepping up your game!
Guard your grill, McNugget!!
Oh, nice advice fe de yout' dem.
Thats one lesson I learned the hard way.
I must say that I'm really jealous of all the black nerds who get to grow up with an Obama presidency. I'm still growing up myself, but it would have been nice in junior high and high school to not feel so alienated for reading...and liking it. Or actually answering the questions in class instead of pretending I didn't care.
For the generation of kids born in the 90's this seems like a glorious burden to carry too.
A primer on Blackness from McWhorter, thanks TNC, I LOLed so hard I now have diet coke all over screen.
Here's to wanting to see McWho-er get decked in the face!
Obama just unleashed the greatest ass whooping of this century raw dog style to the McWhorter's of this world who talk nonesense for the sake of hearing their own voice and who use race as a way to line their pockets.
I was wondering when you were gonna speak on McWhorter's latest screed. I was trying to send a link to your e-mail account but, alas, I can't seem to figure out - or have the will to - Lotus Notes.
Btw, I think being a nerd is a hard-knock life for lots of kids, black or white, no? Since when did white nerds have the luxury of steering clear of ignorant-ass bullies?
A Black nerd, like any other nerd, has a backpack full of books. In 2nd grade I pulled a Falling Down at my bus stop, swinging my back pack around and was never messed with again.
Coates,
Is it just me or is the whole "smart black kids get called 'white'" thing like Michael in 'The Wiz'? Yep, a strawman. I've hardly ever been regarded as anything but a nerd but, at least to my face, no black person has ever gone there (white people have, but that's another story). Even if my fellows didn't always follow my example, they always respected my intelligence -- seeking help when they needed it and applauding my achievements. From high school to the PhD, they didn't knock the hustle.
Though, to be fair, McWhorter is closer to my mother's generation. And besides, if the comment above and his bloggingheads appearances indicate anything, it's that his aloofness and inability to defend himself are, perhaps, tragic. Note how he was sometimes bullied (if mildly) by Glenn Loury, of all people. I can imagine he gets run for his milk money in the hallways of the Manhattan Institute. Ante up!
Blackink:
I guess the point it black nerds weren't neccesarily nerds, just kids whose interests weren't considered "black interests." That's how I've been reading this conversation. Have I been reading it wrong?
I had a similar experience to Robert. I'm around the same age as TNC, graduated at the top of my class, and no one ever got in my face about "acting white."
Note to McWhorter:
1. Most kids don't like to study
2. Most kids that do are victimized by their peers
3. Copping this attitude gets your ass kicked regardless of your melanin density
Seriously, did this guy learn nothing from the 90's? You get your nerd revenge after you're out of school; you endure (or go punk) in the meantime.
That said, I'd be interested to see the original study, especially if the numbers are cross-tabbed by household income.
Nerd oppression is truly color-blind. I was on the Chess team, debate team, marching band, and several other targeted species of high schooler. If the baseball team didn't need a second basemen, I think I would have been culled from the herd on general principle.
To cut to the chase, nerds get their asses kicked in every culture until they are old enough to hack into their oppressor's transcript/credit report.
The basic deal, from the original study, is that if you went to a majority white school, you were more likely to be accused of acting white. If you went to a segregated school, which most black kids regrettably do, you weren't. But this gives the study to much credit. They never conclusively proved that you got accused of "acting white"--only that you were less popular than your white peers. That could be for any number of reasons, though.
And I think it is hilarious that the bottom banner for this page as I see it now is: "What's the cost of being a nerd?"
I've always been a Black nerd. Never got teased for it. I was never part of the ' popular' group, but it never upset me. As a Black woman, I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it is to have a Black Man and Woman as President and First Lady, who got where they are because of educational opportunities, and not because they could use some sort of ball or shuffle on a stage.
I guess the point it black nerds weren't neccesarily nerds, just kids whose interests weren't considered "black interests." That's how I've been reading this conversation. Have I been reading it wrong?
Usually one hooked up with the other. I don't know any Black nerds who weren't into, on some level or other, things that weren't 'traditionally Black'. Didn't mean that we didn't like 'traditional Black' stuff, it meant that we didn't stop with just that.
Robert,
Well I certainly experienced it in Georgia and Florida. In my case it wasnt books I swung, but a fist up in some grills and chests, which got me chased by a mob of angry Southside Valdosta boys for like a week straight.
Luckily I was fast and not above tagging teacher as home base ("safe!") so they got tired of their sport. Although teachers got beat up sometimes too.
But yeah, I had to hear the "talking white" / "acting white" thing--granted, racial tension is generally high in parts of the South but hearing it from your own peers is disheartening. Not disheartening to reverse years of home training, so what I learned to do is stand on my square (no pun intended) and not budge, what ever the position I chose play happened to be.
People respect strength no matter the source, and if you are down to whip or be whipped up for what you believe, people will respect it.
They wont respect trying to compare one's own nerdiness to the most powerful man in America though. His wife is bangin', Scarlett Johannsen wont stop blowing up his cell, he can cross you over then hit the J, he exposed Clinton like Kobe exposed an old Jordan, blew out the scary Republicans and still chills to Jay-Z on iPod and Omar on HBO.
None of that is nerdy, I'm sorry. McWhorther, to paraphrase The Clipse, "He is not you."
Janine, I wish I'd thought of that. Nerdom sucks no matter your gender or skin color. Even now as an adult, sometimes I have to remind myself that no one will resent me if I speak up and have the damn answer once in a while.
Honestly, I think McWhorter chalks up to unfair labelling what is in part due to his own social awkwardness. Thinking the Barack Obama retort would actually be successful is sad. I think some African-American conservatives lean further that way due to an inability to converse with and get along with other African-Americans. They take shelter with conservatives in order to receive the reassurance that their own community is ignorant for not appreciating them. "You're heroic, just like Thomas Sowell/Shelby Steele,etc." It becomes a safe cocoon, and, ironically enough for Steele, a real obstacle to self-examination.
Growing up as a black nerd (now I'm presently a closeted black nerd) who went to junior high in Ft. Greene during the Crack Era, no one ever said I "acted white" - but I was most definitely called a nerd.
But no matter what era it is, if some kid brings up Obama when someone steps to him, he will definitely get stomped into wine before his time.
Your dramatization was hilarious and dead on.
McWhorter's advice is like something out of an after school special. Which means it has no place in the real world.
Someone up thread nailed it; nerds don't get their revenge in real-time, and generally not at all. By the time you get to experience the benefits of doing well in school, you're generally too old to enjoy them anyways.
Content yourself with knowing that as a nerd your life will likely improve after high school, while the bullies' will probably get worse. Talking shit about what might happen in the future will probably only get you smacked down in the present.
Is it just me or is the whole "smart black kids get called 'white'" thing like Michael in 'The Wiz'? Yep, a strawman.
Don't know where you grew up Robert but I can tell you that as a black person who grew up in some of the poorer parts of D.C., this was definitely an issue for me. When I was really young (like 9-10) I actually got the crap kicked out of me a couple times with the explicit explanation that I sounded white. Once I was actually beaten up pretty badly by a couple of older girls on the metro bus! When I got to Junior High School and I was actually taking the metrorail to private schools way out in the suburbs, I had to deal with this kind of stuff at least once a month once I got back home at the end of the day. It wasn't quite as bad. I could take care of myself a lot better and there were a lot of neighborhood kids that were on my side by then but I assure you, I was still very much an outsider in the neighborhoods I grew up in.
Hell, to this day, a lot of the cats from around the way will crack jokes about me being a bookworm when they see me.
So no, not a strawman.
i'm pdf'n this one
thanks ta
nuff respek
I also have a hard time understanding the "white-tag" thing because it never happened to me. As Ta points out, I went to a school 80% people of color. And white people weren't considered smart, the asians were. White people couldn't even get into my math classes! There was a clear distinction in my school between getting good grades and being interested in things associated with white culture. For instance, if you hung around white kids and talked like a valley girl, you were more likely to be called white than just by being smart.
From my experience, pretty much two things could get you the "acting white" label. One was the way you spoke. The other was having white friends/ "hanging with white kids".
Neither had much of anything to do with intelligence level/nerddom. Being a nerd would get you beat up, but by itself typically wouldnt get you labeled as "acting white."
LOL.
I've been accused of talking white by my cousins who live in South Central and have the accent ever since i moved to Harlem with my father. I was always near the top of my class up through junior high, but was also kind of the ring leader when it came to snapping. Not proud of it now, but i was good at it and it was fun back then.
Back then we never snapped on someone for being a nerd unless they were socially retarded as well. I guess someone who acts white in the sense that they are eurocentric/afrogynist (I know I made it up) in the black community, or walked around quoting shakespeare or calculus theorems would be considered a nerd in any culture.
We usually snapped on people for being poor or out of fashion, i.e. rocking corduroys in the summer, wearing highwaters - pants that are too short, or having an extra stripe on their addidas.
BTW, I don't consider Obama to be a nerd. There were always a few who were smart and cool. For example, Obama is smart, but you notice he still walks with the pimp limp.
Just need to say that these three thoughts have made my night:
Get your tips on how to defend yourself from kids who know how to defend themselves, not from other black nerds....unless said nerds have figured out how to defend themselves. --TNC
A Black nerd, like any other nerd, has a backpack full of books. In 2nd grade I pulled a Falling Down at my bus stop, swinging my back pack around and was never messed with again. --Janine
Nerds get their asses kicked in every culture until they are old enough to hack into their oppressor's transcript/credit report. --KevDog
Oh, to actually contribute I'll observe that once again "the black experience" seems to have splintered into a bunch of individual neighborhood experiences.
When I was in college, I remember friendly sparring with the stalwart defenders of narrow, self-destructive blackness. 'You play guitar? That's white $#!t' they'd say. 'But I LIKE Jimi Hendrix!' I'd say. LOL
I remember these same cats were always the first to be put on academic probation, began to flunk out of school, and found themselves at a disadvantage for NOT being nerds, lol. They'd get that letter from the dean's office and their financial aid would be about to get cut off and they'd change their major from Biology to Basket Weaving or something, and they'd ask me to tutor them. Mixed emotions: sympathy, empathy, altruism, condescension, superiority, vindication, but solidarity more than anything. By graduation, all my friends were listening to Band of Gypsies and I could dunk a basketball and slow dance w/ girls. Ah memories...
John Henry,
Obama is definitely smart and cool, but he still is a nerd at heart (his love of Star Trek alone qualifies him as one). However, unlike most nerds (or even most cool kids), Obama possesses great emotional intelligence, which enables him to overcome the albatross of his nerd tendencies and be cool. Of course, this great emotional intelligence also enables him to beat the cool kids (like the Clintons) at their own game.
Of course, Obama is not the first nerd to be elected to the presidency; Nixon was definitely a nerd in his own right (which explains a lot of his love-hate relationship with the cool kids John and Bobby Kennedy). Imagine how much more Nixon could have accomplished (for good or for evil), if he had possessed a tenth of Obama's emotional intelligence.
John Henry,
I'm jackin afrogynist.
As you stare into space, your knowledge is TOOK.
From an entirely unraced perspective, Obama is clearly a victory of nerds over jocks. (Even though he's got some game on the court.)
Daytwon: Baracka-these-nuts nigga!!!
You have no idea how much I want to throw this around on some National Review blog comments.
@Juba - im a socialist. no jacking necessary.
@eltoro - The other thing about Obama that takes him out of the nerd category is he got the girl that every one else wanted. Nerds usually lack the social skills to do that. Obama doesn't.
McWhorter on the other hand. lol. No I'll stop. I don't want to discourage him from getting his education. Does the New Yorker actually pay him for that fluff?
I was accused of "talking white" at least at an all black-and-Hispanic school (for, interestingly, using an idiom of my Caribbean father's). But this was the late 80s. I think times have changed a bit. :-)
"The other thing about Obama that takes him out of the nerd category is he got the girl that every one else wanted. Nerds usually lack the social skills to do that. Obama doesn't."
John Henry,
It's possible to be a cool guy with great game, but still possess an inner nerd. It just shows how remarkable Obama really is; he was able to overcome his inner nerd, and become the sort of guy who could win the heart of someone as beautiful, as sexy, as intelligent, and as strong as Michelle.
BTW, Michelle Obama strikes me as being the popular girl in high school who was also a genuinely nice person to everybody, regardless of social status (she was even friendly to the nerds and geeks).
Afrogynist? Is that when you dig black women?
This is the equivalent of white computer nerds being called losers and responding, "Is Bill Gates a loser?"
It would be about as successful a retort as well.
I pissed. I missed all the awesome threads today. I gotta throw my 2 cents in this one though.
I grew up in Brooklyn in the late 80's thru the late 90's. In a little hood called Crown Heights aka Crime Heights. I was always in all the smartest classes; from middle school thru h.s. Kids would say you were "acting white" for lots of reasons. I can't remember one time that reason was because you were smart or getting good grades. There are exceptions to every rule of course but I think this is mostly an urban myth.
Check this. A fairly average (if not a bit nerdy) seventh grade black kid at a mostly white, affluent school that i used to work at was told to stop "trying to act black" by a white kid when the two had gotten into an arguement and had some fightin words. I'm not sure what the black kid's response was b/c i wasn't there that day. Anyone else ever witness this phenomenon?
Aw snap!
Maybe black nerds could take some inspiration from the Karate Kid?
Any relation to John T. McWhorter? He was a brilliant Math Professor @ OSU in the early 70's.
The answer is quite simple. Just apply your "nerdism" into something that will help you defend yourself: i.e. boxing or some other form of pugilism.
What nerds lack in physical prowess, they more than make up for in an understanding in physical sciences, strategic thinking and good old fashioned "book learnin'".
Battlestar Gallatica In respect of nerdliness of all stripes, Its Galactica. :)
Survival for black nerds such as myself.
1) Find other black (and non-black) nerds and hang out with them. I'm not sure how this happened, but I managed to hang out with a somewhat large smart and black crowd when I was in school. Having good support is a pretty good buffer against bullies.
2) Get non-nerds on your side. It's hard to get picked on when you have a few friends who don't mind protecting you. It helped that I was also fast and therefore useful in sports. That led to some friendships with guys most folks don't want to mess with.
And just to add some more anecdotal evidence to the conversation: When I was in high school in North Carolina a little more than a decade ago, there definitely was a sense that some folks thought I was 'acting white' for being me. I remember having to hide my affinity for rock music for example.
But can I say it was specifically because I was smart? Can't really say that it was, but it certainly didn't help. I think it was more the culmination of things really... being smart, reading and writing a lot, messing with friends computers, watching anime, reading comics...
Wow, I really was (and still am) a nerd.
@Xanthippas: actually, rumour has it that Will Smith's son is gonna be the new Karate Kid . . .
Yes, Obama IS WHITE...so why don't you do your job honestly for once and say so.
But instead of reporting that BHO is 50% white, 43.75% Arab, and only 6.25% black [as studies of his grand/great grand parent lineage have shown], you just treat the story line like liberal MSM have done so throughout BHO's 'career', by creating a totally false mirage of BHO being - among other things - either a 'change' candidate [and what the heck is 'change' supposed to signify anyway...absolutely nothing, that's what!], a remotely honest man, or a black man.
Their is a decent way to elect a decent black man to the presidency, but [regardless of what the liberal media consructs as a totally false storyline] this time around isn't one of them-either literally or figuratively.
You do a great injustice to not only Arab Americans, but to bi-racial people and any attempt at an honest examination of BHO's past, present, and future realities.
The Atlantic,MSM, AND Obama have sold their souls to get him elected at any and all costs-while the end may justify the means to Obama and his media accomplices in this election, it never will to a decent man.
I'm a black nerd and I proudly watch Battlestar GalaCtica. It's the best show on TV now that The Wire is off.
Thank you very much.
It's incredibly exciting to see that the country's most famous black nerd right now is Barack Obama and not Steve Urkel. I echo those "man, I wish he were president when I was growing up" sentiments.
Growing up as a black nerd in the 90's was rough, but I was also a mini-militant and a weirdo of color; so black-positive, "alternative" bands like Arrested Development, Living Colour and Fishbone were my saving grace. I was still teased for carrying books home, but wearing dresses with boots and dying my TWA blonde got a pass because there were other strange looking black folks on TV. And even black folks thought Living Colour was the shiz for a while.
Barack Obama is Bi-racial... why does he have to be labelled black or white?
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The ‘43.75% Arab’ meme
Given the tornadic nature of Web rumors and “urban legends,” it’s often hard to nail down a starting point... an original source of bullshit information.
Not so in the matter of a nasty right-wing myth that Barack Obama is “43.75% Arab.”
That Internet meme started on February 14, 2008.
The man who started it is Kenneth E. Lamb. He’s an obscure conservative blogger, retired journalist, radio talk-show host, small-business owner, born-again Christian and civic activist in Pensacola, Fla.
Lamb posted on his blog a long, rambling email he’d sent to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen on February 11.
In that email, Lamb presents what he calls “the political equivalent of a nuclear bomb.” To wit:
“Researching [Obama’s] roots reveal that on his father’s side, he is descended from Arab slave traders.”
“Why is the fact that Mr. Obama is only 6.25% African Negro not reported?”
“... Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side.”
“[N]o matter the racist presumption of seeing his skin and without question calling him black, the hard, cold, genetically inarguable reality remains: he is not an African-American.”
Kenneth Lamb provides no evidence for this “inarguable reality.” But he tells Richard Cohen: “I can get with your choice of researchers to have them document my documentation.”
When questioned by one of his own readers about his lack of evidence, Lamb responded: “We are working to prepare the information in a format that will not violate any contractual obligations about its use.”
He has never produced it.
So... based on this one blogger’s say-so – and nothing else – the meme that Barack Obama is “Arab” has spread far and wide in the conservative blogosphere. And it was pushed on nationwide radio this week by Rush Limbaugh.
I will email Kenneth Lamb tonight and ask him where his proof is.
UPDATE (09/24/08): It turns out Rush Limbaugh wasn’t the first to spread Kenneth Lamb’s horseshit on coast-to-coast radio.
Media Matters reported back in June that Monica Crowley (now a Fox News contributor) did likewise while guest-hosting “The Laura Ingraham Show.”
Here’s some of what Monica Crowley said on June 23:
“[A]ccording to this genealogy – and again, because I haven’t done the research, I can’t verify this – but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African.
“And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist. I mean... it is the biggest con I think I’ve ever seen.”
These scoundrels. I can hardly believe it. Based on nothing, they spread this stuff!
The stuff about black nerds being teased for "acting white" is, I think, a bunch of hooey that Cosby and Co. pull out every time they want to beat up someone named Shaquan.
I've been a Black Nerd all of my life, and NO ONE, Black or white, ever accused me of "acting white" to my face. Oh, folks signified, and some of my people said I "talked funny." As other comments have indicated, though, people either respect your intelligence but mess with you, or they don't respect it (and still mess with you). White nerds feel this as well.
Go here, folks, and lets put this mess to rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12ACTING.html
It is really weird that we elected this guy. now.
The first black president is not going to be someone named "Tyrone Jones" or even "Tyrone Powell" or Colin Powell. It will be someone named Barack Hussein Obama.
This man spent his formative years in Hawai'i--THE MOST ATYPICAL of states!
Hawai'i is majority Asian. Blacks don't even constitute a significant percentage of Hawai'i's population (but moreso than, say, Vermont).
We are becoming a less-white nation, but we won't be (a poor phrase if there ever was one) majority minority for another twenty years, at least. In the meantime, some states on the mainland are already there such as California.
Barack Obama lived in Indonesia before returning to HI. A large portion of Americans with parents born elsewhere rarely go on to live outside the United States for an appreciable amount of time. You can find MANY, MANY, MANY 1st generation Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian or Mexican-Americans who might've visited their family's country-of-origin for short stays, but have never lived there long enough to become residents.
This, too, will change. We must leverage their connections to their ancestral homelands to sell our products and advise these countries to development if more of them start to expatriate or retire there.
Obama next lived in Los Angeles, NYC and Boston. Global cities which have more in common with Shanghai, London, Tokyo than many mid-sized U.S. cities.
It is good that we have these Global cities as expedient nodes in the global network, but it is clear that the other cities on down the list need to get themselves to a position that the incipent global u.s. cities, who were already ahead on the development curve, were in previous decades.
Strong, vibrant and growing Omahas, Pittsburghs, Louisvilles, Mephises, Denvers, San Antonios, Charlottes mean a strong domestic market.
When Obama got into politics he represented a majority black district, so he obtained some cover. There are a few historically strong black regions in the U.S.--he represented the area which gave the wider nation delta blues. He could dodge "sellout" accusations by representating this place than if he had represented the northside of Chicago, or Beverly Hills, or other places...
He married a TRUE american black woman with actual connections to the united states of america's woeful past of slavery. But he never heard any stories of black's enslavement in this country, passed along by family members. And did the family that raised him carry the burden of that history to the present day? But I am glad that his dear little girls, even if they enjoy a little short-circuiting of this history, will go on to great things.
If you follow his life story and observe what Henry Louis Gates and others who have written about their successful black students at elite universities or the top publics you will be saddened. These success stories are not a product of that bitter legacy of black america, but rather recent immigration of africans, igbos jamaicans. They are not stories from the GREAT MIGRATION from the south to the North, Sweet Auburn, Dekalb County, GA, Prince Georgia's County.
When he says lines such as only in this country are stories like his own possible, deep in your heart, america, you know that we really have far, far to go. And it isn't racism that's that's the main thing holding us back. Something happened recently in the (black) nuclear family which needs to be corrected.
The United States now offers to the rest of the world its Public Face in its top elected executive officer. A man with a scant 4 years (minus campaigning time) time in the U.S. Senate.
Are countries such as China who pick their leaders in secret conclaves ten years in advance from candidates with many DECADES of political experience now laughing at us? The same countries that are now starting to compete with us as never before for jobs, resources, wealth are either scratching their heads or high-fiving. Or is the presidency merely a figurehead position of an administration? Are we following one poorly qualified president with another in a time when we can ill afford it?
So it doesn't come down to "nerds" or "white" but "weirdness." like I say, this happening now instead of decades later as Obama himself said was his plan is weird.
Even now as an adult, sometimes I have to remind myself that no one will resent me if I speak up and have the damn answer once in a while.
Uhhmmm, yeah, a lot of them still will. The adult world really is basically just high school with money, and the same average minds that resented you then still resent you now.
But don't give it a moment's thought. Be as excellent as you can be. Eventually, you work your way up to a point where very few of those people are in your personal orbit any longer.
The biggest argument to make in favor of higher education is that achieving it hastens the day of departure from the vast herd of the Average.
So, if this is something somehow singular to the black community, then how do we explain Columbine?
Nerdy kids, regardless of color, get grief in school.
But most nerdy kids with common sense figure out how to defend themselves pretty damn early.
I think it's only these neo-conservative black nerds that appear to be still holding the gurdge against all black people over that one kid who took their lunch money.
Maybe that's why they are "black" conservaties?
Maybe that's why there are so many jack@@@ "black" cops out there?
Just a thought.
Devona Walker
theloop21.com