About a little more than a year ago, I was attending Dragon*Con in Atlanta and I heard of a gathering that, were I feeling better, I would have attended. It was a “blerd” gathering… yes, I know that you know what that means, lol. I was shocked that: #1 it was a thing and #2 there were enough there for us to have a separate gathering/photo shoot. I have some thoughts on this. 

Honestly, in the whole of the African American population, people who identify as blerds are a small very small percentage. The other thing is, outside of science fiction, blerds in pop culture tend to be the butt of the jokes. Your Honor, I present to you Carlton and Urkel. I rest my case. But there are blerds who are not only cool, but somewhat dashing, too. I present Chidi, Barney and Grant Collier, Dewayne Wayne and Lt Commander Geordi LaForge. In each of these cases, they are but one character in the entire cast. These characters do, on some level, represent the spectrum of blerds that are out there. Heck, Donald Glover has pretty much made a career out of representing blerds!

At first, the thought bothered me that we stuck out so much that we had to have a separate label. But then it hit me – we are so unique that our presence screams to be recognized. That it is a beacon for others out there to not hide, that your people are out there. That you’re not forsaking your culture by letting your geek flag fly! So, although I don’t actively label myself a blerd, I don’t run from it, either. I embrace geek culture as a whole, but the blerd tag allows me to celebrate all that I am without any exclusion of me, as a whole person.