Who You Calling a Geek?!

Steve Urkel was our god. Our ambassador.

We’re in a time when geek culture has been fully embraced by mainstream society. With the successes of superhero movies, shows like “Big Bang Theory”, and how big the gaming community has become, it tells me that all is alright. We are even now seeing celebrities and the popular kids in high school proclaiming that they’ve been geeks for the longest time. Though a great deal of those people have had the luxury of proclaiming the title without having to endure name-calling and psychical threats when it wasn’t so cool to be a geek.

And now everyone wants to wear these and have no prescription lenses for them. Heck, some don’t even have lenses.

In the 80s and 90s as I remember it, it wasn’t so awesome being a Black Geek. Thing is that as children, we were geeks as we all watched kiddie stuff. Everyone watched Saturday morning cartoons while eating high-sugar cereal. However, once middle and high school rolled around, you had to prove that you’re cool by denouncing your ways as a geek in order to fit in. I distinctly remember a girl saying that she don’t watch, ” that Jetsons **** on Cartoon Network”.

When I was still immersed in that type of culture, that’s when I found out that I was a FanBro. Not only because I was a Geek of Color, but because everyone labeled me as such. Being a Black Geek gave me the wonderful benefits of being called “corny”, “White Boy”, “awkward”, “the F word”, and other names that I’d shudder to repeat. All of this was hurled my way, despite of the fact that I played sports. You can dunk on a 10 foot goal, but you’re still a weirdo for liking anime.

We were not exposed to much in those days besides (before the Internet), so we didn’t have the luxury to see smart Black people who were engaged in geek culture. Our visions didn’t go past our city blocks, so I couldn’t blame them for not knowing and being turned off by someone in the sub-culture.

Now, I think that all of the blood and tears I shed back in the day has paid off. Pharrell, Lupe Fiasco, and Childish Gambino certainly have made things better for us. Even Dragonball Z has made it into Rap and R&B with references in songs from Frank Ocean to Waka Flocka.

Who ever thought that Geekdom would take us this far?