Blerd
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Blerd is a portmanteau of "black nerd". The term became popular during 2006 when Donald Faison aka Turk stated he was a blerd in season 6, episode 2 of Scrubs titled “My Best Friend’s Baby’s Baby and My Baby’s Baby.” Since then, it has become a popular term among the black nerd community.[1]
Why Blerd? Representation Matters. Quite simply, blerds were not traditionally shown in the media and have had little representation in pop culture. Not only that, but when the intersection of African American and nerd culture come together, sometimes we see or describe things a bit differently. Blerds tend to add their own bit of flavor to the mix when talking about all things nerdy.
There is a convention, held in the Virginia/Washington D.C. area annually called Blerdcon. And in Brooklyn, New York in 2017 and 2018 held Blerd City.
Calling yourself a blerd doesn’t mean you want to separate from anything. It only means that you are telling the world that you want to still identify with the part of you that makes you ‘black’— Geek Soul Brother
Notable Blerds
- Levar Burton, actor on Star Trek, may be the greatest blerd of all time and he might quite literally be the reason you are able to see this article term.
- Nichelle Nichols, actress on Star Trek, she was a groundbreaking role-model for black women -- Martin Luther King Jr convinced her how important the role would be for the culture when she thought about abandoning the role. Nichelle also helped recruit astronauts and influenced Mae Jemison to join NASA.
- Billy Dee Williams, actor in many Star Wars productions, is also a talented singer and songwriter and was one of the first black nerds to bring the cool factor.
- Whoopi Goldberg, actress on Star Trek: The Next Generation and one of the few entertainers with an EGOT [Emmy, Grammy, Academy Award, and Tony) and only the second black woman to win an Academy Award.
- Alfonso Ribeiro, actor on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he is a talented dancer and the youngest probably know him best as “the guy from the Carlton Fornite dance.”
- Megan Thee Stallion, rapper who cosplays characters such as Vash the Stampede[2] at music events, and who has many songs inspired by video games and anime, such as Otaku Hot Girl.
- Aabria Iyengar, player and game master for multiple seasons of Dimension 20.
- Ify Nwadiwe, reigning champion and current host of Dropout's nerdy quiz show Um, Actually