Rod and Karen discuss Rod’s random thoughts, TMZ says it has footage of Nicki chasing Safaree with a knife, men have better sex with emotionally unstable women study says, Colorado school district switches to 4 day week, Joel Olsteen honored by city of Houston, Casanova attacks a woman, goat frees other goats, Denny’s racism, John Gray, racist radiologist loses job, police leave bait shoes in black hood, man caught having sex with goat, Facebook political argument leads to shooting, bear goes to liquor store and sword ratchetness.
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Mattress Mack had to watch the City of Houston give Joel Osteen that award and said to himself, “Ain’t that a bitch!”
If you’re Black and walk into a Denny’s, you LIKE slavery.
Peace.
I really loved this blerd and feminist discussion in this episode. I didn’t hear the word blerd until I was in college, and it was only used by a specific group of DnD playing niggas that side-eyed all the other black people. The word doesn’t really bother me and I never really had any negative connotations with it. I grew up in a rural area, and my high school had 650 students, and only 12 black and 2 latinx kids. I was usually the only black kid in my classes, and this was absolutely true once I started taking AP and advanced classes. All of the black people of course new each other, and we ended up on sports teams together or in clubs together, but there was some poking fun at me for being too “white” and I would joke with them that they were too ghetto or ratchet. There was a lot of camaraderie there. But the white people liked to exceptionalize me. They were constantly talking about how I was so different from all of the other black people. Or they would say some racist shit about black people and then follow it up with, “oh but not you. YOU’RE not like THEM” They would ask me questions about what black people thought about this or that, and that shit would piss me off. But when some of those questions are from your “friends” then it’s easier to swallow that irritation and just play along. This happened throughout my four years. I got used to it, and it was fine, until the jokes started turning to me being “the whitest black person” that they knew. They would regularly, especially in my AP class and especially people that I had known since we were in kindergarten, would say, “You’re basically white. You’re so different from everyone else.” They really thought that shit was a compliment. That the nicest thing you could say to me was that I was white. This went on for quite awhile. It eventually escalated to my entire AP english class having this discussion about how I should just paint my skin white because I was so smart and so not-black. My ENTIRE class had this discussion. The teacher was just sitting there watching it happen. Eventually after I kept trying to passively get everyone to move on, the teacher finally listened and got us back to reading, but that shit was completely fucked up. This bitch in the class took it a step further, and a few days later, she came into class and pulled out paint swatches and handed them to me. She literally stopped at Lowe’s on her way to school and grabbed a shit ton of fucking white paint samples to give to me to keep this joke going. I was furious and just looked at her like what the fuck? She was laughing, and didn’t seem to care about my anger until someone else in the class finally agreed with me and told her that it wasn’t funny. And then the rest of class followed suit because this one white person finally stood up for me. Everyone looked at her like she was fucked up and that she had crossed a line. One of my friends got up and grabbed the paint swatches from me and tossed them in the trash. She looked so confused as to how she was in the wrong. She just knew that everyone would laugh with her. And honestly, I thought everyone would too. I was surprised that anyone had my back with this, but the truth is that they knew that they had to protect their “special black friend” and as soon as I stopped being able to be cool while telling them to shut up and fuck off, or laugh it off, they stepped in. I only wish that who I am now was back in that situation because I would never have let that go on for as long as it did. I would happily be the angry black woman with only a few friends, rather than the special black person that all of the white people just loved to call their friend.
I’ve never even heard the term Blerd until a few years ago. I’ve always just called myself just plain old nerve. But I can see the validity in the term. I watch a you youtuber named Andre who calls himself the Black Nerd. In one of his videos he explains why and he said that in media black people are usually shown in stereotypical troupes but he wanted to put the Black in front of his Nerd to let people know that black people can be anything. We can be anything including nerds and not someone else’s preconceived notions of us. It made sense to me so I’ve never associated that term negatively.
But I can understand how it can be triggering to some people if they believe someone is trying to other themselves.
I cried during Here Comes the Boom. His entrance for his UFC fight always gets me.
Actually, Movie Trash would be perfect for groups of people who want to talk through the whole movie. I can see my friends and I who host a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 every month would LOVE this! We would have a ball!
This BLERD discussion really got me. As you know I’m the prototype nerd, and been a nerd longer than most of your listeners, but I’m with Karen on this. AND I grew up in a town that even now is 77% white and >20% Latino. Still never felt the need to be a “blerd” which I do tend to associate with the “I’m so special Black and a nerd…and no Black girls liked me” type of folks. (sorry, it’s mostly dudes I hear claiming Blerd and a bunch of sadder sacks I have never seen)
I think there is a third way that neither of you discusses and that is intersectionality. I am AfrAm. I’m a scientist. I’m a woman. I’m a Pennsylvanian. I’m a singer. I’m a bibliophile. I’m a foodie. But trying to draw a whole new category for these identities reminds me of Tiger Woods’ cablinasian identity. #AfrSciWomPennSingBookAFoodie ? I think not. But really good nuanced conversation, guys. Enjoyed y’all.