Long live the Blerd!

November 2, 2015 7:19 PM

"Black nerds on Twitter are an eclectic group, into sci-fi/horror/nerdy shows like Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story and Game of Thrones, and they often view the show through a different lens, compared to a non-POC viewer. Blerd Twitter’s consistent viewership and use of blerd hashtags along with network hashtags have made them a prominent source for constructive critiques about television. Hashtags aside, Blerds will give shows a fair shot, but this community won’t hesitate to call series writers and producers out on important issues, like a lack of diversity and/or lax character development for Black characters on the show." How Twitter Blerds are Impacting the Future of TV (by Tai Gooden)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (4 comments total)

I was a little uncomfortable with the distanced voice in the article, but I think this is a sort of introductory article to give an overview, and it also contains links, and cites, other Blerd online web communities.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:21 PM on November 2, 2015

Elon James White always says #WeNerdHard and he means it. He also brunches hard and is starting to take archery lessons. And of course, there's this Genius Grant winner talking about Baldur's Gate II...
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:43 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yes, but Ta-Nehisi Coates also says some interesting things about how it was really only among white people, as an adult, that his interest in things like D&D and comics was characterized as nerdy. I get the sense that (at least for people of his age and mine), nerd meant something different for black culture than it did in white culture.
posted by wotsac at 8:57 PM on November 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

One of my favorite parts of Twitter is that it gives me the chance to listen to voices I wouldn't normally hear with fewer of the usual mainstream filters and less pitched toward the mainstream in a format that seems less likely to give the false illusion that I really get cultures I'm not actually part of. The unexpected similarities are at least as delightful as the disorienting differences. Although the main thing is probably the different news, events, and media other people are following. I'd love to read a Blerd Hugo slate.
posted by straight at 7:18 AM on November 3, 2015 [1 favorite]