Black Nerds in Science, Tech, and..Music?

Will.i.am may be mainly known mainly for his music–you certainly know him mainly in his role as a member of the group Black Eyed Peas–but he is also a passionate technologist, entrepreneur, and Intel Corporation’s Director of Creative Innovation.

Will.i.am is keeping himself busy drumming up support for a new reality competition show, which will seek out rising talent in the science and tech fields. He feels it’s time for a show that could find the world’s next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, a plight that top companies like Google and Microsoft are looking to fulfill.

“Every year, companies like Google need more innovators, but there is no content celebrating them,” he said to attendees while speaking at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2012 in Amsterdam. “The system thinks people are dumb and they don’t care. We have no desire to make them care. We need creative people working with broadcasters, making smart content to inspire people to be geniuses.”

Will.i.am is waiting for other’s to catch his drift, he’s leading the way.

The artist even teamed up with NASA to have his single “Reach for the Stars,” become the first ever track to debut from another planet. In August, NASA used its Mars rover named Curiosity to beam the song 225 million kilometers back to Earth. “I wanted to show human collaboration and have an orchestra there and something that would be timeless where it is, you know, and translated in different cultures, not have like a hip hop beat or a dance beat,” he said.

Will.i.am believes that “the fusion of high-concept technology with creativity and the power of STEM to help the disadvantaged” will help create the next Mark Zuckerberg, founder of facebook, or Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

At the IBC conveference, Will.i.am gave some hints on the future of tech: “The biggest pieces of hardware in anyone’s life are their house and the car yet these are also the dumbest. The car should be the most intelligent thing you own and it should talk to the house which is even more intelligent. Instead of giving all the content and date which we consume and create to private organizations we should be able to keep and access them via cloud storage in our own homes powered by servers kept in the fridge.”

MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry is the first full-time professor to also serve as a cable news anchor, leading her self-titled show on weekends and teaching at Tulane University during the week. Her nickname and the hashtag for the MSNBC show–which covers a diverse range of topics, from what’s happening on the hill to hip hop and her own personal struggle to heal from the sexual abuse she endured a child–is #Nerdland. When asked if she felt pressure to confront stereotypes, her response was matter-of-fact: ” No. I do not feel pressure to push back against stereotypes. Stereotypes don’t exist because of what we do or don’t do. Black women who were enslaved aren’t jezebels and domestics, aren’t happy mammies. That is just the stereotype.”

Aisha Tyler, actress, model, geek,gamer, nerd, and…comedienne? Tyler thought it would be funny to make a YouTube video about the way that she was treated as an outcast in her youth due to her bookish tendencies. And she was right!

Aisha Tyler–Gamer and Nerd

All Things Blerd: Black Nerds Going Mainstream

Blerds are becoming so ubiquitous that the black nerd movement is considered trendy in certain quarters, which could be a good thing or a bad one, depending on your perspective. Writing for The Atlantic, in a piece titled “Spock Jenkins,” Ta-Nehisi Coates offers his opinion on the articles covering the blerd phenomenon:”I always find these pieces rather disappointing in their rendering of black communities, and generally find nerdism to be a distortive lens to understand black people who, say, happen to be into Star Trek. Historically, there’s so little social space in the black community. On the one hand, if you find yourself alienated from the rituals and mores, I imagine the alienation must be really intense.”

“Now that geek culture is bigger, I’ve noticed that the “black nerd” has evolved into something more mainstream. You’re starting to see more black nerd TV characters (they usually have curly fros and big black glasses). It’s merging into this scene of art, indie music, poetry, etc.,” said Andre Meadows. “I found this out when someone posted one of my videos on an “urban upscale” website full of black nerds and a bunch of readers attacked me in the comments as being the “type of black nerd they don’t like.” You know black nerdom has advanced when you have different types of black nerds, ha ha.”

In time, Erika Peterman became more vocal and open about her nerd identity. She is joining the growing numbers of black men and women who are affirming their nerd identity. In addition to being a co-creator of the blog Girls Gone Geek, Peterman is a regular contributor the the CNN blog “Geek Out!””My geek flag is now fully unfurled, and it’s flying high.”
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Jamila Akil is a Senior Editor at Beyond Black and White. You can follow her on Twitter @jamilaakil.