Benjamin Nugent wrote an article for the July 29, 2007 issue of the New York Times Magazine called, “Who’s a Nerd, Anyway?” The answer is, a white guy. He cites Mary Bucholtz’s analysis suggesting he is hyperwhite. He writes poems to computers and speaks in ultra-precise English. Bucholtz finds that nerds choose Greek or Latin deviative words over Germanic ones, substituting “It is my observation that…” for “I think….” Of course, the scientific sound of the passive verb is part of the shtick also. Makes the nerd sound like an impartial observer.
By the time you finish reading that article, you begin to think the nerd/geek is some kind of a hero. He takes the white language to the maximum, refusing to steal and reuse any of the colorful slang ripped off from black culture. The author points out that TV writers have had fun tweaking the concept of nerd, applying nerdishness to black characters. But he implies that’s very rare in real life. Instead, the nerd tries to critique the mainstream white culture by exaggerating it, according to Nugent. You could see them as rebels, rejecting the tendency of the cool white kids to use ghetto slang. “You might say they know that a culture based on theft is a culture not worth having,” he tells us.
Is there a 'white' culture? One of my students once asked me that and I thought about folk dancing and all the differences that make Ireland and England fight, Serbia and Croatia fight, and said, 'No, there are many." So this nerd/geek deconstruction sounds too simplistic to me. It's very hard to classify people who are sorted into a category because they aren't something else (cool, sophisticated). Doesn't work for me. What do you think?
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3 comments:
I suppose being a nerd or geek can translate to any culture? Have you met an Irish nerd? :D
"...Instead, the nerd tries to critique the mainstream white culture by exaggerating it, according to Nugent. You could see them as rebels, rejecting the tendency of the cool white kids to use ghetto slang."
Haha! That's cool. Nonconforming to nonconformity. Fighting fire with fire in their own sort of way. Coming from the ghetto is only cool if you make something good out of yourself, not posing as if coming from the ghetto automatically awards you a badge of coolness.
Finding out that a new friend you meet turns out to be nice is way cooler than another guy who does stupid acts just to look cool or conform. My cousin is a nerd. A computer programmer and can also assemble computers as well. I have no problem against that. But I don't find him cool. Not because he's a computer literate "nerd." It's his attitude. He knows that he's better with computers compared to his relatives who only use it for available work or game softwares. He'd spit out complicated computer literate crap at us and expect us to know what he's talking about or else he'd look at us like some inferior being and give out insults. It's those kinds of nerds/geeks that deserve to be bullied by the jocks.
I completely agree. There's nothing cool about arrogance. It's choosing to hear and see only your own ego-messages. You miss it all, how can you be cool?
cheers,
Laura L Mays Hoopes
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