Being Smart, Being Cool: Rise of the Afro-Nerd
By HHR | June 4th, 2009 | Category: Urban Issues |
Nerd. If you think that word isn’t running neck and neck with the other-n-word in the limitation lottery, then I have another thought for you. This four-letter word is crushing lifelong learning behaviors among people who have a phobia about being labeled socially unacceptable.
Popularity - “coolness” - seems to be pathologically paramount in our ranks. We are beginning to value these superficialities at the expense of anything resembling the knowledge-work heritage we once advocated. Male children especially are intimidated not only by their peers but also by adults who think nothing of placing a basket-base-football in our boys’ hands as if books are somehow unmasculine. The day that producing slam-dunkers became our chief priority is the day our excellence took a staggered step backward toward the bad ol’ days of slavery.
Images of ultra-brilliant but socially retarded youth such as archetypal Afro-nerd Steve Urkel of “Family Matters” are amusing but chilling examples of the contempt that a serious life of the mind receives from a number of our people. The implied message is: “Yeah man, go ahead and be smart; you’ll cripple the manly part of yourself, and end up being a joke in the ‘hood.” That does more to send legions of our men-in-the-making into the cotton fields beside the information highway than anything we could ever accuse conservatives of plotting.
Being considered a nerd is a weight that many of us, of all ages, will do nearly anything to avoid bearing. Its implication of inescapable unworthiness is a secret terror that rivals anything the plantation offered.
This is black-on-black violence taken to its most effective extreme.
To see images of unintelligent-acting African-Americans, one need not rent a copy of the infamous 1915 movie “Birth of a Nation.” Now, heaven help us, turning to a TV channel showing music videos can suffice. Is this what the ancestors fought so long and fell so hard for? So that we could become admirers of pimps, players, hustlers and odious others on the street?
Have we, at some level, bought into the argument that we are truly a less able populace?
Frankly, I think the non-black face affixed to learning-related behavior in this society prompts many of us to mistakenly deem such behavior as “selling out” or “acting white.” As such, we reject intellectual orientation and cling to a desperately limited identity that loudly declares rap music, fashion, hairstyles, slang, indiscreet sexuality and dances as the zenith of our human performance.
Pridefully announcing how “white men can’t jump” or how Caucasians have no rhythm, while bopping merrily back to red-lined areas of town with Third World infant mortality rates and war-zone environments, really is saying nothing at all.
This fear of being labeled a nerd is going to be the one foe that promises to make black excellence an increasingly empty phrase.
Steve Urkel, a fictional African-American who seems to use every brain cell and bit of mind/soul power bestowed to him, is closer to who we really should be - minus the high-water pants and annoying goofiness, of course - than many would admit.
NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT. BLACK a contributor to HHR promotes crime prevention and self-development alongside his STREET TEAM OF AMERICA Concerned Citizens Group.
I agree that in the black community there are many instances in which intelligence and education seem to have a negative connotation. Many believe that being smart or educated some how means that you are weak or that you have some inner desire to be “white.” Some how the youth today need to understand that there is nothing wrong with education. In fact, if many of them took the time to understand many of the rappers in the rap industry they would understand that many of them hold the same educational background that they seem to associate with “uncoolness.” Diddy is a graduate of Howard University and now runs Bad Boy entertainment. Others in the industry show their skills in entrepreneurship in their ability to sell their albums or to utilize social media to increase sales. Is it the responsibility of the rappers to show them side of hip hop where education or skills in entrepreneurship are needed? I don’t know but they could do better.
Actually, personally I think that rap music mentality is self-racism among blacks. As you pointed out, the idea seems to be that being smart or educated is “acting white.” Therefore what it is saying is that “Since I’m black I am supposed to be dumb, ignorant, and confrontational.” It’s basically a people stating their perceived inferiority. Nobody, of any color, can claim any self respect by being proud of their ignorance or stupidity.
At the same time whites are racist against themselves in the name of PCness, because they’ve been made for so long to be walking on egg shells now even trying to discuss race. Or even bringing it up. And so theyr afraid of offending people to the point of sticking their heads up the butts of black or brown (and also feminist) supremacists, and beating themselves up for things they had nothing personally to do with, in the name of PCness…. I think part of this ultimately falls down to everyone wanting to belong to a categorized group… Don’t let the man sell you an identity, because you’ll become trapped behind that identity. The conspiracy is to keep everyone divided. They want a New World Order. But it’d take me a long time to go into all of that here (I’ve been studying this for 15 yrs, and the conspiracy goes back all the way to the beginning of recorded history, it’s very deep deep shit).
Personally, I don’t believe in race, as racism tends to exist in ALL races, black, white, brown, red, yellow, etc…. I think it’s a lot of divide and conquor coming from the man (who can be any color because these elites exist in every culture around the world– and of coarse they themselves are puppets, like the politicians here). They give us this “liberal vs. conservative” dialectic much the same way here in the USA, to water shit down, so nobody can think outside the box… The only real difference between liberal and conservative is that one is biased against majorities (whites, males) and the other is biased against minorities (ethnics, females). But racism won’t die until people stop seeing race, stop speaking this illusion into existence, and begin holding people to their conduct and their actions as individuals, not as a part of a collective. Racism is not natural, other animals do not practice racism. Dogs don’t fight over being from different breeds. Hell, human children don’t notice skin color until they learn it from school or their parents…. Watch toddlers play, they don’t see black, white, brown, red, yellow, they just see their friends they wanna play with. That’s all.
I just noticed this was a “republican” forum…. As I said before, I do not do labels, I’m not liberal or conservative. If they sell you an identity you will never know the self, which is deeper than identity. From my experience most right wingers usually cling to tradition and authority. I might remind you here that at one time owning slaves was a tradition, that did not make it right.
My goal here is not to offend anyone, but merely to get people to ask questions and to break out of their boxes. I believe in freedom of speech, I am not here to enforce my pov. Just to get people to think, that’s all. I don’t ask anyone to take my word for anything. I can back up what I say with concrete evidence. I actually read the books written BY the elites themselves, they openly talk about their agendas. It’s an open conspiracy. In fact they come forward with much of this openly now days in the mainstream news. That’s merely a testament to how well they have everyone conditioned into selective observation.
This stupidity trend, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. The culture creators always, in any country, give the people an anti-intellectual culture when they get ready to put boots on the ground and flip society into an authoritarian dictatorship. If you think this can’t happen here, know too that people in China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Germany, Congo, and many other places thought the exact same thing about where they lived. History repeats itself because people do not learn from history. And it’s happening here in America now, and ultimately the rest of the world will follow. A one world tyranny, your bible warned you this would come about in the end times (so did the koran and the religious books of every other religion).
I personally invite anyone to write to me and feel free to ask questions (when is the last time a politician told you that? Or a priest?) Just know that wisdom comes with patience, and humbleness, and i honestly can’t show you everything i know and how it all connects to the big picture, in one day. I’ve been at this for half my life. No need to be defensive, as my goal is not to offend anyone. But… often times un-biased truth does offend and this can’t always be avoided. But it’s not my intent to offend anyone.