Invisibility: Thoughts on Healthy Identity Formation for Blerds

Connecting Theme(s): #loneliness #afrofuturism #mentalhealth #identity #politics #art 

Blerds have been around for a really long time. I mean, Virgil is a Blerd in Static Shock (2004 animated junt, I’m currently reading the original Milestone run), and I remember clocking that before I was conscious enough to realize Static and Kevin Conroy’s Batman shared the same animated universe. [Edit: it’s hilarious I said “a really long time” and went back to 2004 when I could’ve gone back to Urkel or Carleton…but uh…no.] Shit, John Stewart from Justice League is a Blerd! He was geeking, foaming at the mouth, thirstily reminiscing about that knockoff JSA team in the two-parter Legends. Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Meg Thee Stallion, RDC World 1, King Vader, all these niggas - BLERDS! We are single-handedly carrying anything worth a damn in music, alternative anime…er…nigganime (just made that up) [EDIT: no, I did not], and comics (Godhood Comics, Blacksands Entertainment, Wiseacre Comics, N.K. Jemisin’s Far Sector, etc.). Blerds are ever present. Some of us walk around and you can definitely tell what we are. Others, like the Meg’s of the world, are multi-hyphenates capable of blending in with the normies. Lol, I just wanted to type normies. In all seriousness, I’m only 24. I remember, even up until graduating from high school in 2019, that the Black kids who were openly nerdy - at the very least - got the side eye. It’s wonderful to see things come full circle, yet I can’t help but think about those kids who did get that side eye. 

Let’s be analytical. We know that being Black can be, and if you’re in the South, often times is an extremely lonely experience. It’s prolly only gonna get worse given 2024’s election results and the fact that somebody is already wylin. Blackness comes with a legacy most of us are too familiar with for me to get into. But, then we add nerd on top of Blackness?! Yeah, that seems like the recipe for a pretty lonely individual. Weiss (1973) makes a distinction between social and emotional loneliness. Social loneliness is characterized by a perception in a lack of integration between one’s environment and oneself. It’s best understood as dealing with friendships and community. Emotional loneliness is a relational deficit pertaining to attachment; this means it deals with more intimate or romantic relationships, think family (blood or bond) or romantic partner. Weiss’ understanding of loneliness is a useful way of describing what Black loneliness can seem like. Again in reference to the South, there’s a consistent disconnect between Blackness and the environment in the pursuit of education, career, or sociability (these are examples). Administrators in your majority Black school too swamped with tasks to effectively carry out their jobs, thus damning some children’s educations? In Memphis, that’s a lack of funding connected to redlining…which is racist. Having difficulty navigating power dynamics in your company because your white manager is well-versed in the art of micro-aggressions? Well…that’s racist. Do you live in a city in which there are clearly racialized distinctions among activities? Well…that’s kinda racist. Kinda. After experiencing such…double consciousness wink, how then can we reasonably expect Black folks to “fake happiness” at home, as Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin’s conversation might suggest? Displaced anger, bottled contempt, a wrathful existence…a lonely existence. Rage, sorrow, any emotion really, kept bottled will only slowly poison you and your world. Now, your family feels the wrath meant for that crack— ahem - manager whose micro-aggressions have slowly picked at your coolness. My point is, the threat of loneliness is very real for us Black folks. Using what we know about the nerd stereotype, i.e. their social ineptitude, high intelligence, physical frailty, we see that nerds are also pretty easily prone to loneliness. Since when has the nerd in the American psyche been socially accepted? Slap Blackness on top of nerdness, and we come across an illuminating question: why the fuck do we even get called Blerds? 

Blerd is clearly a concept that exists outside of the American psyche. You can see this in some of the actions and interests of Blerds: inclination towards technology (Google “Black tech workers” and you can count them, lol), adept at math and science, and well-versed in geekdom spanning American and Japanese culture (let’s be real, Blerds were ahead of the times on the anime bingeing). At face value, would you associate those interests with a Black person? As Burkhalter points out, being “cool” is distinctly related to Blackness. Consider the implications of being a nerd at all: hyposexual, physically unintimidating, uncool. You see where I’m going. Blerds “exist in a liminal space” (Quail, 2011 as cited by Burkhalter, 2022. I suggest you read Dr. Janee Burkhalter’s article here if you want to learn more about loneliness and Blerds via an analysis of Gus from Psych). We stereotype to make things simpler for ourselves. It’s understandable, given how much information we try to process these days. Common knowledge tells us, though, not to judge a book by its cover. And yet, when someone cannot be easily defined, we are cast to the Outskrrts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Do2CnaDQ4c) of social life.     

In being outskirted (I’m coining this right now.) [EDIT: YES! I did coin a term!], Blerds are left to do what niggas do - consume. Black Americans consume the most media compared to any other group in the U.S. And, in line with being intelligent, Blerds are going to consume media that bolsters our cultural capital in alignment with our identity. Translation: we’re gonna watch a lot of anime, documentaries, read online articles, and seek out connections through consumption. Roll back the tape, all the way back to your adolescence. Who were your role models? Many of us figure ourselves out by tapping into the media representations around us (Arnett 1995). Go watch Starting 5 episode one on Netflix. Jayson Tatum is the perfect example of consumption informing identity. You are what you eat. So if we’re eating information in the form of geek shit, technology, whatever else interests us, and loneliness, what are the ramifications for identity formation? 

What does this mean? Why talk about Blerds and loneliness and identity formation? Great questions, dear reader. We’re at an unprecedented point in history. America is finally - and thankfully - overtly showing the world what it’s been about: racism, division, self-destruction, *egoistic parasitism, hypocrisy, delusion. Our way of thinking, being, and politicking are in dire need of overhaul. Niggas have been the backbone of meaningful political change since 1619. We’ve had enslaved world-changers, financial world-changers, church going world-changers, 9-to-5 world-changers, young and old world-changers. I’m suggesting a new player enter the game. Yeah. Yeah, I’m suggesting it. Blerds will save us (you’re welcome). [EDIT: Cornell West isn’t a Blerd so we’re not counting him!] Our segueing question: What would a model for Blerd Identity Formation look like now? Til next time.     

*Egoistic parasitism is the relationship necessary to drive the hustle culture and consumer voracity characteristic of neoliberalism. Its strategy is “divide and conquer”; existence is there for us and its purpose is to be controlled and devoured 

Sources:

Abrams, J. R., & Giles, H. (2007). Ethnic identity gratifications selection and avoidance by African Americans: A group vitality and social identity gratifications perspective. Media Psychology, 9(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213260709336805 ; Gaut, B. (2010). Empathy and identification in cinema. Midwest Studies In Philosophy, 34(1), 136–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4975.2010.00211.x ; Arnett, J. J. (1995). Adolescents’ uses of media for self-socialization. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 24(5), 519. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01537054 ; https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Black-DIS-Report-2024.pdf (Neilson Report 2024). https://www.npr.org/2020/06/01/867153918/-to-be-in-a-rage-almost-all-the-time (NPR James Baldwin quote); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGkNEt30Fo (SOUL! Part 1); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg2t5b0m2d4 (SOUL! Part 2)