Journal Article: White and Nerdy

"'White and Nerdy': Computers, Race, and the Nerd Stereotype" by Lori Kendall primarily discusses the nerd stereotype. Kendall examines three main things in her article that highlight various aspects of nerd culture: the Geek Squad, the "White and Nerdy" song by Weird Al Yankovic, and the hip-hop sub-genre of nerdcore.

The Geek Squad is a subsidiary of Best Buy. Its purpose is to troubleshoot, and even install, computers and other forms of technology. The Geek Squad plays up the nerd stereotype in many ways, while also trying to downplay other aspects of the stereotype (Kendall, 2011). In particular, it plays up the attire aspect of the nerd stereotype. The stereotypical nerd attire is a short collared shirt, with a skinny black tie, black plants, and black shoes. In addition, nerds are often stereotyped as having a strong grasp on technology, so the Geek Squad plays this up in the hope that people will trust them more.

In other areas, the Geek Squad tries to downplay stereotypes. The most notable way it does this is through diversity. Nerds are commonly thought to be white males, and are even depicted as such in the media and entertainment industries. For obvious reasons, the Geek Squad's website tries to show off that they are a diverse company, as they don't want people thinking they have racist or sexist hiring practices. Unfortunately, most of the Geek Squad's employees happen to be white males.

The next item that Kendall examines is the parody song, "White and Nerdy" by Weird Al Yankovic. It parodies rapper Chamillionaire's song "Ridin' Dirty," which raps about the conflict between young black men and police, and how the police want to catch them with illegal drugs and weapons. By contrast, "White and Nerdy" primarily focuses on many nerd stereotypes, like buying comic books, knowing programming languages, and debates about Star Trek characters. Despite this, it actually mainly focuses on the white male aspect of the nerd stereotype. While "Ridin' Dirty" is predominantly about the struggles of the young black man, "White and Nerdy" takes place in boring white suburbia, and features many things -- most notably, hairstyles -- that are stereotypically white and nerdy (Kendall, 2011).

Finally, Kendall touches briefly on the hip-hop subgenre of nerdcore. Nerdcore artists identify themselves as nerds -- who are mostly white males -- and sing or rap about nerd interests or activities. Essentially, nerdcore is an ironic juxtaposition of traditional black hip-hop (Kendall, 2011). In hip-hop or rap, the artists are often portrayed as being cool and confident, as this air of confidence is there because they are black. With nerdcore, however, white nerdiness is interjected, which is often believed to be the antithesis of being cool.

In the end, this article is not unimportant, nor is it important. The article was simply made to analyze the nerd stereotypes in the media. Ultimately, I would have to agree with the author's points. As irritating as the stereotyping is, it honestly seems to be accurate still when looking at the IT industry. However, I personally believe that the media and entertainment industries are partially to blame for this. By constantly playing up the same exact stereotypes, people end up having their views influenced, and start believing that black or female nerds cannot possibly exist, as only dorky white guys can be nerds. If people want the stereotypes to come to an end, then the media and entertainment industry has to be one of the first to lead the way.

References 

Kendall, L. (2011). “White and Nerdy”: Computers, Race, and the Nerd Stereotype. The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(3), 505-524. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00846.x