You know I like to have fun and joke around, but I got an email recently through YouTube that I found interesting. Usually, I tend to ignore mail criticizing me because it usually comes from a 15-year-old kid who just finds it fun to call everyone “gay” on the Internet. But this one was written in an interesting way that I had to respond. Here is the message:

Man I’m black and you shouldn’t go around insulting are race like you are doing. I’m not telling you to act like a thug and I’m not telling you to quit being a nerd just quit giving the white people excuses to laugh at us. if you are going to be a nerd than be on and be proud of it just don’t be a “black nerd” because it makes it seem like all blacks are not smart and we are and it makes us seem ignorant which most whites already think we are.

While I felt this person completely misunderstood where I was coming from in my black nerdiness, I couldn’t help but to walk in his shoes a little bit and see why he may have felt this way. Here’s my response…

I appreciate your concern and I understand where you’re coming from. But I thought I’d take the time to explain myself so you know where I’m coming from.

I am very proud to be a nerd, and I pretty much have no choice but to be a “black nerd.” But I don’t promote me being a black nerd as a way to say that other black people aren’t smart. That is far from the truth.

I put out my image of being a black nerd because I feel what I think you also feel… society has produced stereotypical images of what they think every black male should be and there are groups of people, black, white, and otherwise, who endorse the black males who follow those images and shun the black males who do not.

As an example, I can’t tell you how many times when I mentioned I went to college, I was asked “Did you get a football or basketball scholarship?” as opposed to just thinking I got there with my intelligence. And that was from my own race!

I do what I do to not only prove I can be myself, but encourage others to do the same, no matter what their race is. I will continue to be proud to be a nerd, and more proud to be a black nerd. I don’t do it to insult others, I do it to compliment myself and others like me. I do it to prove that people who don’t follow the norm can still hold their heads up high and be accepted. And I do it to bring a much-needed diverse presence of our race in the new media of blogs, viral videos, etc.

But above everything else, it’s just humor, man, it’s jokes. Sometimes there’s truth behind these videos, other times it’s just about having a good time.

I hope I have explained myself better to you, and again, I appreciate your concern for our race.

FOLLOW-UP: Looks like I explained myself well. Here’s the response from the same user.

thank you for explaining yourself I now see where you are coming from. please accept my friend invite.

See people. Communication is key. Don’t get bitter. That only leads to religion and guns.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 10:29 am and is filed under ANDRE BLOGS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.