Jan 21
There seems to be this misconception that the quieter, more introverted people in society are somehow the nicest. While they may seem polite at face value or super-intelligent and innocent, there are many who are the deepest sexists, racists and homophobes. Now many of you have not known a good amount of nerds in your lifetime, when I say “a good amount” I am speaking of 10+ different people with different personalities.
Your experience with nerds may be limited to a trip periodically to GameStop, your college campus and probably the internet. Still this is actually a good gauge being that nerds do vary much; you have your Sci-Fi nerds, your sports geeks, your video game nerds, anime otakus and of course your all-around nerd. Some people dabble in nerd activities but cannot truly be classified as one due to having interests and a personality that spans beyond the umbrella of the standard fit. Still at face value you will tend to think these guys as harmlessly adorable, well think again.
Nerd Tunnel Vision
Much of the way some of my fellows act is due to what I like to call “Nerd Tunnel Vision”, though not exclusive to nerds per se, it is a trait that any human being that limits himself to one type of fellowship will develop. It’s similar to small town syndrome where the lack of exposure to people who look differently, think differently and behave differently from you can cause you to have a narrow scope on tolerance. It’s like the Midwest gal whose exposure to Latinos has been limited to television and movies, the old man who cannot fathom people being different from how they were “back in his day”. It’s tunnel vision and sometimes it is hard to realize you are this way especially if you lack the exposure of a more liberated person.
Nerds who were outcast as kids or adults find solace and comfort either to themselves or with other people who have been treated the way they have. They will hang out with people who “get them” or share their strange sense of humor, it’s human nature after all. So out of a group of outcasted, introverted set of people who look the same, act the same and feel the same, you are bound to get some opinions that don’t vibe well with the rest of the outside community. At times these opinions will wow you by the level of ignorance and lack of empathy they hold. No worries, we will delve into a few examples to enlighten you on Nerd Rage.
Examples of Nerds being sexist/racist without realizing it
Star Wars should not have female Jedi:
I used to work with a guy who was a big sports geek and Star Wars fan. Being a Star Wars fanboi myself (hell I can tell you all the saber forms and Jedi ranks) he and I would have some good conversations. One day after Star Wars Episode 2 launched, I asked him how he felt about the movie. To my disappointment he began to tell me how he took issue with the idea of women being Jedis and how it ruined the movie for him. I wanted to ask him how he felt about the black Jedi Mace Windu but I left it alone since I was recovering from his blast about the women. Personally I was excited to finally see Shaak Ti and Luminara in action but this guy would probably scoff at me if I were to share that with him. I guess if you aren’t Aunt Beru mixing up some good Spice cuisine in the kitchen you have no place in my man’s Star Wars universe… what about Leia, did he miss the part where Luke said he could teach her the ways of the Force? Jackass.
Do not change my all white fantasy world to a multi-cultural one!
When that awful movie Dare-Devil with Ben Affleck launched, I heard many of the comic book purists, as in white purists opine the choice of casting the King Pin as Michael Clarke Duncan. Now a suitable counter for me would have been to point out that the murdering King Pin was a negative character so it wasn’t doing black any favors but I listened and stared as they went on about how much it ruined the movie. How can you argue with guys like this, I’d rather stick my (wait) into an ant nest. The same activity was carried out when one of the Harry Potter characters (Cho Chang) was cast as an Asian girl… yes I’m serious. Shameful, with the shots being fired back literally across racial lines with the casting of newer non-white characters from comics/anime as white in movies, this argument has ebbed and flowed between the races. Nerds dislike change, this above all else is a fact.
White liberal racists and the use of IRONY as a pass for poor taste.
I see this crap all day long all over the internet, clueless racists unaware that they are behaving in a racist manner. To them racists are the loud, confederate flag waving yahoos on the movies, dropping N-bombs and lynching black people. Their snarky remarks made with much irony is meant to show their enlightened viewpoint and since they aren’t mean, they can’t possibly be racist? At least that’s what they think. They bemoan being white and oppressed, attribute any kind of black complaint to being a complaint with no base since “black people are the racist ones” is the only viewpoint they will ever see. I hate to pick on them since hell everyone hates them, and there are entire sites dedicated to shitting on them daily. Just realize this free spirits, a racist can also be a very nice guy too, calm down on the “Ironic” jokes, they’re not funny.
Black liberal racists and the ever-elusive RACE CHASE.
Remember that guy Kanye West and his little stunt prior to disappearing out of the limelight to preserve what little PR he has left? Well I equate West to a lot of the newer, black, wannabe-freedom fighter, soap-box toting, “I wear my hair natural”, nerds on the internet (ya I went there). It’s as if the big race war passed them by and they were stuck taking a shit during the melee only to emerge, sword in hand, ready to fight but with little to nothing left to kill and make a name from. While many, many things deserve to be called out and checked for racial undertones, these Kanye-types attack ANYTHING, therefore taking the focus further away from real issues. These guys will tell you that a cup of milk is racist for being white, or the white lines on the road is racist for laying all over the black asphalt. When Avatar became the most popular movie of 2009 and every black blogger made it their mission to call it white-guilt, it made me think about this very paragraph right here. Disappointing is what this crap is, you all make things worse than better. This does not include the good blogs who point out real injustices and inform people, just the 99% of the other fodder shooting rubber arrows in hope of them sticking.
So the next time a good friend or family member tells you they’ve met a nice guy/girl but he/she is a bit of a nerd you may want to run for the hills. Okay I am just kidding, but if you didn’t realize it before this article, I would hope you do by now that a silent group does not much equate to a docile or nice group. The word nerd does not automatically equate smart like it used to back when it was a word of insult. It means many things and you can add closed-minded to the meaning list too. How do I know? Well lets just say I know a nerd or two, now when you read a reply on a gaming or movie blog that makes your blood just boil, just think in regard to who may have written it and it will make sense to you. Catch my drift?
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on January 21, 2010 - 12:34 pm
Good article! You’ve summed up like 85% of the staff @ my old job (webhosting provider, etc.), where these young Internet geeks would spout witty racist, misogynist, & homophobic rhetoric like facts! Very disappointing, because they smile and invite you in when you have similar interests… Then slam you with subtle comments that are infuriating. Fortunately, as the pen is mightier than the sword, my ability to expose bullshit while balancing a sunny disposition & insulting folks is legendary!
on August 31, 2011 - 10:55 pm
I totally see the sexist thing. But I don’t know about racist. meh. ecitynerds.com
on January 21, 2010 - 6:13 pm
In order to create a stereotype about a type of people, you need to better define which people you are speaking of. Are you speaking of the unattractive annoying type of nerd? Or the intelligent nerd?
If you do speak of the latter, then you are contradicting a thought that most modern-day men believe: Racism is a product of ignorance. Therefore, by definition- a nerd of racist thought is not intelligent and not a nerd at all.
I think a better classification of these types you speak of is required…. See More
PS. I agree with you that a black Kingpin did not “ruin” the already god-awful Daredevil film. However, it is not racist for a nerd to be upset with the casting decision. Do not blame the true-believer, blame the writer. Isn’t it more of the artists’ job to create a well-diversified multi-cultural character portfolio? If that’s the case, you’re calling Stan “The Man” Lee a racist and that’s a can of worms you don’t want to open…
on January 21, 2010 - 6:16 pm
True you make a good point, I should have pin-pointed exactly who I am referring to, it isn’t so cut and dry though. As with any classification there will be exceptions to the rule, you can have a cultured, intelligent, traveling nerd who still makes hurtful statements and doesn’t realize that he is acting the ass. We believe that racism derives … from ignorance but there are times when on the contrary, a few occurrences here and there, the pressure of family etc. and boom you have some tendencies that just won’t die.
What prompted the article was a common trend I notice within our nerdy culture especially on message boards and blog commentary. Its become quite popular on anti-racism blogs to point out that nerds (generally) have a really backwards mind-set when it comes to race relations, many barking out the ugliest things just to be defensive over intelligent discourse.
And Stan Lee… not his fault at all, but you know as well as I do that up until a few years ago the black superhero, villain or heroine was a taboo thing. When Hollywood decided that comic books were cool they looked at some of the classics and probably thought oh shit we can’t cast this, there are no people of color at all! So it’s not Stan, it’s the time period he was in and I am sure he was not the sole controller on such decisions. I can imagine them doing a true Canon Conan The Barbarian movie and watching the backlash it would get due to Robert E. Howard’s depiction of kushites.
on November 28, 2010 - 2:10 pm
It’s really easy to make the nerds x racism connection when you surf around 4chan (or any local x-chan site). Anti-semitism is some kind of rule (sometimes unspoken, sometimes NOT), calling people “nigger” as an offense is seem as cool, women aren’t well regarded and seem jokingly as a “menace” depending on the board
“Pure-breed nerds” are sort of becoming, by their own choice, the scum of society. What I’d call (for the lack of a better term) “Hater Culture” is, what happened when nerds who are social outcasts were given voice – everything was turned to negativity.
on March 18, 2011 - 3:34 am
Articles about stereotyping people who identify with some aspect of a sub-culture and than trying to analyse the stereotypes they are applying are the worst. How more pretentious could you be?
The only redeeming and true message in your editorial is to not judge people at face value and that there is more to them. However, this is entirely against the rest of the opinions and anecdotal evidence you include in the text making both the message and the rest of the your diatribe meaningless.
Also how do you have the audacity to complain about certain people who identify with a group discriminating other groups? You are doing the exact same thing by stereotyping a sub-culture.
Grow up and learn to apply your own ideals to yourself.
Also invest in a copy editor.
on March 22, 2011 - 4:09 pm
>> and than trying
>> also invest in a copy editor.
your trolling is almost poetic.
on May 18, 2011 - 8:10 pm
>implying that everything he said was not correct
on April 6, 2011 - 8:00 pm
oi. seriously dude. the nerd core is racist and sexist. how is that. everyone is racist everyone. in every form. now people are hardcore running around screaming the n word but everyone makes little judgments about people and who they are by there apearence.(ie color of skin, clothing, attitude, dialect) its just a fact. this is outlined greatly in phsycology, myers 9th edition in ch 16. today people are just less racist its a fact. i live with my aunt and uncle and my aunts side of the family flys the rebel flag and say the nword. but are you saying that because i am a star wars nerd i like this form or racism. personally as a white man it offends me when people use that word. but i love the word cunt. its a great word. but thats all it is. a word. if you give words power then you give them meaning. penn and teller mad a great point on there show bullshit. in the profanity episode they point out that the word bolderdash was used during the time as if it was the word bull shit. it wasnt a nice word and was very offensive. but today it is a silly word. proving the point that its all how people persive the word. my point to that by the way is that the n word really bothers me because it is a word used for hate. infortunitly i have to respect there desicion to use the nword because the first amendment protects there speach and what they say.
on April 10, 2011 - 4:52 pm
Yeah that explains why I’m not the biggest fan of nerds. Sure they may be academically intelligent, but most aren’t socially adept and don’t bother to leave their basements long enough to realize that the world is more than stock stereotypes.
on April 10, 2011 - 7:00 pm
Have you seen the latest foolishness with white nerd central going ape shit over Idris Elba playing a Norse God in the upcoming Thor? It makes comments like walter’s and Jim’s above mine look exactly like what they are, blind opinions from a privileged set of people. Game of Thrones coming out on HBO seems to be 100% lily white and I am okay with it, I’ll watch it and review it as another Lord of The Rings European myth. If Game of Thrones has a black person in it, hell even a captured black servant, you can 100% rely on these same nerds to catch a fit.
You’re right it’s completely social retardation that leads to opinions like this and it is why I feel very comfortable in calling them out whenever I see it. The funny thing is that they cannot see it themselves and look at me as if I am a cyber bully.
Not all of em are academically intelligent btw, I know cool guys who drink, talk to women and hold their racism in check that can blow some of these guys out of the water academically. It’s a closeted sub-culture and like every other sub-culture there are smart ones and dumb ones in every facet of life.
on April 10, 2011 - 7:57 pm
see the problem is greg is that i dont care about that hard core stuff. i could give a shit about who is playing what character. i personally think that donald glover should play both mayer goldy wilson and spiderman. but the problem that i have is that people dont understand that every one is racist. its just a fact that we as a society have to deal with. its just like shitting every one shits. some people shit is worse then others. …….ill be back to finish this in a hour.
on April 10, 2011 - 9:41 pm
I’m not disagreeing with your assertion that everyone has prejudicial tendencies (we’re misusing the word racist and lessening it’s meaning). It’s human to get around a bunch of people who act and look like you then push outsiders away. We see it with class – lots of borgee black people talk down on low income people and vice versa, we see it in history (in several cultures) and it continues today. My main point in this article was to point out that nerds aren’t an innocent collective of smart, misunderstood, outcasts as Hollywood would have us believe, nerds are just as flawed as everyone else.
I get your point on having racist family members and not being a bad person but you are accepting responsibility for others who may not see things your way. I work in the IT field, I play games heavily, been in MMO guilds, been on message boards, whatever – my nerd resume is extensive. But as a man of color I see and hear things daily that makes me thing that the nerd sub-culture is very insensitive to things that popular society is getting past.
Even Kotaku showcases articles on nerds being neanderthals on video games to women and anybody that isn’t a white male. I challenge you to prove me wrong on that aspect and if you can’t then we are derailing the meaning of this post. A racist family, racist politicians and racist humanity is a large scale argument and this article was meant to pinpoint a small segment of all that, nerds.
I’m not crazy enough to assert that ALL nerds are racially insensitive but I can honestly say that a great number of very vocal nerds on the internet are.
on April 12, 2011 - 1:45 pm
Nerd War!
on April 15, 2011 - 11:07 am
Gaming site Kotaku.com has been going HAM on racist/sexist nerds since the beginning of the year and I really appreciate them joining the expose escpecially since so many people act as if I sat, squat and shit this opinion out of nowhere. The links below are to articles detailing experiences that gamers have had with this open-minded nerd culture of ours:
http://kotaku.com/#!5792365/when-competing-in-street-fighter-turns-into-racist-sexist-comments
on May 18, 2011 - 8:57 pm
>kotaku.com
sage
on May 1, 2011 - 4:02 pm
Great article. I’m a nerd myself. I see what you mentioned all the time. It’s disappointing, since these are the people I have most interests in common with.
One thing though, Harry Potter people did get upset when the Indian (South Asian) twins were actually cast Indian, and Cho Chang cast East Asian but I don’t understand why. Cho and Chang are clearly East Asian names. As for Padma and Parvati Patil, Seriously? Again, 100% Indian names. Rowling did make a more racially diverse world, and she coded those people’s races via their names. Picking quite stereotypical and common ones if I do say so myself.
White people often assume everything is about them, and don’t know enough about other cultures to even recognize those names as not white in the first place. So, they never caught that was intended from the very beginning. It amazes me really.
on May 1, 2011 - 6:47 pm
“White people often assume everything is about them…”
I deal with this daily in the IT field when arguing points about racism that should be common sense. It’s pretty futile really (with the exception of the people who actually listen) but fun to point out in articles such as this one.
Thank you very much for your comment pachyderm.
on May 18, 2011 - 6:54 pm
While I agree with what you’re saying, this article was so poorly written I struggled to get all the way through it.
on May 18, 2011 - 7:43 pm
oh look the author is upset about some nerd being sexist so she stereotyped them all that way. the irony is to much.
on January 20, 2012 - 5:22 pm
The author is male, dummy.
on May 18, 2011 - 8:15 pm
I find it hilariously ironic that the person complaining about discrimination usually doesn’t even belong to the group being prejudged. It’s also funny that the complainer is usually being a discriminatory idiot them self (see: ENTIRE ARTICLE CALLING GAMERS OUT AS “RACISTS” AND “SEXISTS”).
on May 18, 2011 - 8:17 pm
Whoops, I meant to say “nerds” instead of “gamers.” My point still stands.
on May 18, 2011 - 10:37 pm
Wrong on all counts but thanks for reading. Maybe the next time you send out a racist or sexist email online when you get run by someone on a video game, you’ll remember my little article showing the world that you exist. See I can make assumptions too
.
on May 18, 2011 - 8:27 pm
wow seriously you know one nerd or two? I am a nerd and I am neither racist or sexist and as a tournement player I have met many others gamer and I can tell you that most of them are realy open minded people. Also it’s kind of funny how you are sterotyping the nerds because of the few nerds you know, you are just as bad as those people you are reffering to. Now you should do the world a favor and never write anything so ignorant and stupid again.
I am probably gonna get replies about my bad english if I dont write this so sorry for the typos english is not my main language
on May 18, 2011 - 10:33 pm
Did you bother to read the article? I would be willing to put money on it that half of you guys trolling didn’t but apparently the title has touched a nerve as it should if you exercise the behavior that I have detailed in it.
Let me explain something to you and “38 Years Later” I have tournament gamed, I actually main Chun-Li in Street Fighter 4 and Super – The Hall has a sister site http://3godkings.com dedicated to that area of my life so your attempt to pull my nerd card as it were is silly. I see this stuff everyday, I work in the IT field and I am on the internet in a very strong way. I am calling things the way I see it and unless you yourself are a part of the group that is victimized by this then you are posting from a place of privilege.
Anyway thanks for flooding my article with doubt, any publicity is good publicity and this article needs to be read and taken seriously by the so-called nerd world.
on June 15, 2011 - 10:42 pm
This is a really weird article, more of a rant (your website, by all means) but a few bad apple nerdz0rz can’t spoil it for the rest of us. I’m a game playing, Flash movie watching, 8-bit listening Nerd. I like to read about science and the like…I know html code and how to rip down a comp and use DOS….but I also am a Glazing Contractor in Florida and do real man heavy work every day of my life. And I voted for Obama. So I realize you weren’t talking about us non-racist liberals but c’mon, is this really the place to nerdrage yourself?
on August 25, 2011 - 10:44 pm
You should be ashamed of yourself for lying about all nerds and disrespecting them. For your information, NOT ALL NERDS ARE RACIST AND SEXIST!!! In other words, everyone’s different. Just because somebody has a specific personality, it doesn’t exactly mean that other who are similar to him or her have that personality as well.
Stereotypical jocks are the ones who are racist and sexist.
on October 11, 2011 - 3:21 pm
http://www.destructoid.com/have-you-ever-been-offended-by-something-in-a-videogame–213168.phtml
Check out the commentary on the above link which further confirms my assertion on gamer nerds being what they are – racist, sexist and a bit clueless socially.
on October 17, 2011 - 5:47 am
What the heck man? Are you seriously slamming an entire swathe of society off the idiots who happen to post comments online (soapbox seekers) or be vocal at an event (hecklers) and simultaneously instructing them not to generalise or stereotype?
For the sake of keeping this brief, I’m going to only respond to your less carefully manicured comments section, where you have exclusively equated nerd with game enthusiast.
So, with that basis out of the way, let’s consider a different medium to games shall we? Say, video. Go to YouTube, take a look at 11 random videos, read the top 11 comments on each and pass judgement on everyone who watches videos of any sort based on that. “Ok, so you like Hitchcock’s filmography? I heard you people all thought the moon landing was faked and say LOL a lot.”
Now, you’ve probably noticed a key thread between my example and your assertations. The internet. And this is the crux of the problem. The problem you describe is not endemic of a subculture, it is endemic of anonymity. The heckler in the crowd was just that, in a crowd, the idiot online hid behind a handle. I see people acting like idiots all the time on the street because they know they’ll likely not be recognised as they vanish into a crowd. That’s anonymity.
Instead of tackling a real issue, you’ve used it as an excuse to open fire on an easy target. I fail to see how this is any more constructive than the negativity you seem to critique.
on October 17, 2011 - 7:36 am
Thanks for your reply and while I do agree that the internet is the place where foolishness explodes, all of the examples within my article were real life example. I’ve worked with a couple guys who are not feeling women in the Star Wars universe (I worked in IT), I’ve been around the race-chasing neo Malcolm X types who wanted to chase ghosts so badly that they started to imagine them and I have heard more than twice the vocal disappointment when a white villain or superhero goes dark in Hollywood – Heimdall is a fine example.
While I think some people who come here do read the article and see my point, I know for a fact that most of you read the title, maybe half of the first paragraph and take it personally. I consider myself a nerd as much as anybody else and I can easily do another article like this because it is a conversation that needs to be had. I didn’t pull it out of my butt, it’s a genuine concern that myself and others have shared for years.