The NY Times magazine asks the age-old question:
Who’s a Nerd, Anyway?
What is a nerd? Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been working on the question for the last 12 years.
Hmm - if you have been wondering who's a nerd for twelve years, your research might well be conducted with a bathroom mirror (works for me!).
She has gone to high schools and colleges, mainly in California, and asked students from different crowds to think about the idea of nerdiness and who among their peers should be considered a nerd; students have also “reported” themselves. Nerdiness, she has concluded, is largely a matter of racially tinged behavior. People who are considered nerds tend to act in ways that are, as she puts it, “hyperwhite.”
There are no Asian nerds? If anyone in this household would ever wake up I would conduct some field research of my own by interviewing a few teenagers. Humph.
While the word “nerd” has been used since the 1950s, its origin remains elusive. Nerds, however, are easy to find everywhere. Being a nerd has become a widely accepted and even proud identity, and nerds have carved out a comfortable niche in popular culture; “nerdcore” rappers, who wear pocket protectors and write paeans to computer routing devices, are in vogue, and TV networks continue to run shows with titles like “Beauty and the Geek.” As a linguist, Bucholtz understands nerdiness first and foremost as a way of using language. In a 2001 paper, “The Whiteness of Nerds: Superstandard English and Racial Markedness,” and other works, including a book in progress, Bucholtz notes that the “hegemonic” “cool white” kids use a limited amount of African-American vernacular English; they may say “blood” in lieu of “friend,” or drop the “g” in “playing.” But the nerds she has interviewed, mostly white kids, punctiliously adhere to Standard English.
...Though Bucholtz uses the term “hyperwhite” to describe nerd language in particular, she claims that the “symbolic resources of an extreme whiteness” can be used elsewhere. After all, “trends in music, dance, fashion, sports and language in a variety of youth subcultures are often traceable to an African-American source,” but “unlike the styles of cool European American students, in nerdiness, African-American culture and language [do] not play even a covert role.” Certainly, “hyperwhite” seems a good word for the sartorial choices of paradigmatic nerds.
Had enough? I got plenty more where that came from:
By cultivating an identity perceived as white to the point of excess, nerds deny themselves the aura of normality that is usually one of the perks of being white. Bucholtz sees something to admire here. In declining to appropriate African-American youth culture, thereby “refusing to exercise the racial privilege upon which white youth cultures are founded,” she writes, nerds may even be viewed as “traitors to whiteness.” You might say they know that a culture based on theft is a culture not worth having.
So young white nerds today are traitors to their whiteness by not pretending to be hip-hop gangstas? Could someone please just cap me with a nine right now? But quietly - people are sleeping...
LOL
cap me with a nine...too funny
what did this 12 year nerd study cost taxpayers?
Posted by: windansea | July 29, 2007 at 09:25 AM
What about Urkel?
But I bet after this woman's research becomes conventional wisdom we'll hear kids in schools everywhere say, "I'm not a nerd; I'm Asian."
Posted by: Hei Lun Chan | July 29, 2007 at 09:29 AM
Hey, I watched Revenge of the Nerds last weekend. One of the nerds was Asian and one was Black.
Whom do I bill for my research?
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 09:37 AM
Seriously? This is a research project? Okay...
My contribution to the nerd project, one of the biggest nerds I know is a man from India. And he readily admits it.
Posted by: Sue | July 29, 2007 at 09:59 AM
Isn't the liberal mind a wonderful labyrinth or even more so an abyss? Seriously, how much money has this woman made off this sh*t?
Posted by: BarbaraS | July 29, 2007 at 10:22 AM
Barabara,
"Linguist" is the key here - when someone from a "I understood there would be no math involved" non-discipline "examines" a question involving anything, the results are not generally worth the value of the paper and ink expended, let alone the time. If the prof at UC Santa Barabara had spent a day or two around the engineering department at UC Berkeley she might have run into more than a few Asian nerds.
Posted by: Rick Ballard | July 29, 2007 at 10:35 AM
The nerd = white foolishness is simply based on the stereotype that blacks are cooler than whites, so least cool = hyperwhite.
Isn't this just dressed up racialism?
It just reinforces the harmful notion that book learning is acting white and uncool. If the intent was to promote nerdiness as an alternate way to "be cool", this desn't seem like a good way to do that.
Posted by: boris | July 29, 2007 at 10:59 AM
or drop the “g” in “playing<.i>
They obviously didn't do this study in Texas. We all drop the "g".
Posted by: Sue | July 29, 2007 at 11:08 AM
Oops. Sorry.
Posted by: Sue | July 29, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Quite simply, nerds are those who do incredibly nerdish things like conduct research into nerdishness,Mary Bucholtz is the epitome of nerdity.To her I say "Nerd know thyself".
As a side bar,there had to have a racial aspect ,otherwise her nerdishness would not have got funding.
Posted by: PeterUK | July 29, 2007 at 11:20 AM
I anxiously await the results of the field research from the Maguire household.
Teenage daughters...
What's the tradesport line on at least one of them naming the manor's patriarch as a nerd?
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 11:35 AM
TM reads this dreck religiously so we won't have to.
Can't wait until we're closer to the election to get the considered opinions of that genius Naomi Wolf. (She is a genius..she's found a way to get Dems to pay her for her nonsense.)
Posted by: clarice | July 29, 2007 at 11:39 AM
I consider myself a nerd and I have to say there are no racial lines to be drawn here. It's a universal phenomenom. Nerds are thinkers rather than reactors.
Posted by: maryerose | July 29, 2007 at 12:48 PM
Bucholtz got away with this for 12 years?
People kept a straight face for 12 years?
What kinds of insanity prevails inside of academia, when they're not killing each other over parking spaces; that this woman HYPER-IDIOTIC wasn't told straight off that her Ph.D Thesis was a crock.
I guess she thinks "all Asians are slanty-eyed people." Not true about "all asians."
I guess she's math phobic. Because she thinks math belongs to the "hyper-whites," but that's not gonna be found in textbooks, if you'd care to look this up for verification.
And, at one time, when the word "nerd" was birthing; it meant a guy who couldn't seem to get laid. Who wore white shirts. And, who didn't want his pens to leak onto the shirting material, so he always used a pocket protector.
Later on, especially because Richard Feynman was willing to be so randy, people learned that nerds to get laid. And, as often as they liked. Since women weren't looking for attributes beyond which a man earned a good living. And, didn't interrupt them all that much. In other words? Nerds made headway where it counts. And, that's how nature works.
This "hyper-white" bullshit investigated the wrong stuff. It would have been better, if, over 12 years, this dame just asked if she could measure a man's penis. For science. Bet she'd have discovered a lot more than her "questioning of high schoolers" ... while she sought out this "definition."
Until you can measure this with an accurate ruler, your findings aren't worth much.
Posted by: Carol Herman | July 29, 2007 at 12:52 PM
I think any attempt to equate or explain nerd or nerdiness through the use of supposed racial characteristics is ill-considered.
Simply stated nerdy is the opposite of cool. For example a geek could also be cool. If a nerd became cool, he would no longer be a nerd. People sometimes confuse the words dork and nerd. This is another mistake. Dork implies clumsiness either physically, or socially, or both. A nerd might be clumsy (many are), but this is not a prerequisite.
One of the proudest days of my life happened when my youngest son was about fourteen. He asked me, “Dad, how do you always act so cool?”
I put my hand on his shoulder and said, “It’s not an act!”
Posted by: MikeS | July 29, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Behold the anatomy of a nerd
Posted by: PeterUK | July 29, 2007 at 01:35 PM
This research has just shown the reason for non-“hyperwhite” inability to perform well in academic endeavors.
I am a bit perplexed that there seems to be some exclusion of Asians from the category of "nerds" as Asians as a group perform better most "whites".
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 02:40 PM
All these years of liking science, being good at solving and resolving problems, being good with technology AND tools, Europeon-American, retired military, working now as healthcare provider, and being proud of my nerdiness, and after all this, I get to be labeled a racist. Who knew? Is this a great country or what? And someone paid for this study? I am laughing my butt off.
Posted by: Bert | July 29, 2007 at 03:15 PM
The COSMOS program for bright high schools completely refutes her premise. And the data is easily available to her.
Berkeley is part of the University of California system. UC Davis is about 1 hour away, UC Santa Cruz is down the coast, and UC Irvine and UC San Diego in Southern CA. If you look at the kids on this website, http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos/ They are all 'nerds'. Every rainbow shade possible. Who are they? High School kids attending a 4 week residential program for bright Science and Math oriented kids during the summer at each of these campuses. Average HS GPA is close to a 4.0. My son attended 2 sessions, one in San Diego, and one at Davis, close to where we live. His present college roommates are clearly nerds, and are of mixed races. All that researcher had to do was look around close to home.
Posted by: Heather | July 29, 2007 at 03:32 PM
Heck, she just needs to read the lyrics to Weird Al's parody, "White and Nerdy". It's kind of scary how many points there I match (yes, I have books on both Javascript and Klingon, though I'm fluent in neither). ..bruce..
Posted by: Bruce F. Webster | July 29, 2007 at 03:35 PM
nuqjatlh?
both Javascript and Klingon
Klingon now has greater common usage than the international language, Esparonto. It is important to remember that the best selling Esparonto video stars Willian Shatner.
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 03:48 PM
Here is the referenced 2001 paper link here
I suppose that is a mark of nerdiness...< ahref="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes">let me jive it up a bit...
herzs da shinitzs on the dizzel bang!
[my gibberish translator is working well today]
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 03:52 PM
nor is my typing...
let me jive it up a bit...
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 03:53 PM
Do I need to add or should I remove the racial tint from my coke-bottle eyeglasses?
Posted by: Ralph L | July 29, 2007 at 03:58 PM
I am so sending her an email. Maybe I can get the guys over at Protein Wisdom to give me a academic-ese re-write...
I started leafing through her 2001 paper-wow
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 04:05 PM
The author, Mary Bucholtz, seems to have a problem resolving in the reactions from Afro-Americans to the term "nerd", given the ridicule that popular "gangsta" culture has for education.
This only goes to show that a "linguist" shouldn't research problems meant for a sociologist.
Ultimately, this entire post and this paper remind we of a Calculus lecture that ended with a student asking the question ..
"Where did all them numbas come from ?".
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 04:15 PM
What would this page look like were it not so nerdy?
Gizoogle it!
A sample?
But click the link, it tanslated all the comments too
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 04:32 PM
It must a really slow Sunday but from the 2001 paper...
Fieldwork...like she went out into the savannah to see the creatures in their natural habitat...yea it gets more ridiculous
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 04:33 PM
Neo:
a Calculus lecture that ended with a student asking the question ..
"Where did all them numbas come from ?".
Hey, that was me.
This only goes to show that a "linguist" shouldn't research problems meant for a sociologist.
Hey, that's me.
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 04:34 PM
Not always called nerds. they used to be called "geeks."
I guess blacks couldn't apply, because geeks didn't get laid?
This is about the stupidest piece of drivel I've seen coming out of acadamia. Up there with "global warming" as a science motif.
Posted by: Carol Herman | July 29, 2007 at 04:36 PM
Another gem:
So...dissociation from black youth cultural trends is the danger of the nerd
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 04:43 PM
H&R-
dats some straight up g gizoogleinz' skillizs
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 04:48 PM
Carol-
This is about the stupidest piece of drivel I've seen coming out of acadamia
She has been doing this for 12 years. The NYT Magazine article is a love letter for her soon-to-be published book. She is a true believer, and is even an Associate Professor [just waiting for her tenure]...she probably got a federal grant to study the discursive formations of African American Venacular English and its hegemonic reactions
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 04:55 PM
hit and run: Do you own a sequined jacket that says on the back "Randy the Star" ?
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 04:59 PM
Shoot, no. But when I was a kid I had a blue jean jacket with a rhinestone eagle on the back.
Oh, and don't even think of making fun of that.
Grandma made it for me.
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 05:06 PM
I sent a quick email and let you know if she sends anything back.
I'm curious if she means "nerdness" as some sort of subversive cultural expression to black youth cultural formulations and expressions [ie suburban white appropriation of black youth culture], and if it is "subversive" is she equating this to "dangerous"...
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 05:22 PM
The nerd across the street invited me over for dinner.
He's making pasta. And his wife just got back from the store. I'm guessing with some beer.
OK, he's probably more geek.
Lovable nerdy geek engineer.
Lovable nerdy geek engineer who's wife just got home with beer.
Lovable beer.
Posted by: hit and run | July 29, 2007 at 05:33 PM
Beer, thats what I am missing, the translator's key
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 05:46 PM
meanwhile something cool has happened
Iraq beat the Saudis in finals of Asia Cup
the author explains how this is evidence ofBushmchitlercivilwar
Posted by: windansea | July 29, 2007 at 05:54 PM
better quote from a Nigerian at HotAir:
I’m happy that the people of Iraq has felt this too. This is their first ever international win, and if something is going to heal that country, and make all these different sects not want to kill each other, soccer can do it. I know, cus i see it happen in Nigeria, everyday.
Posted by: windansea | July 29, 2007 at 06:08 PM
This is the silly flip side of John McWhorter?'s thesis that black youth culture identifies academic excellence with whiteness.
Posted by: Ralph L | July 29, 2007 at 06:38 PM
Mark Steyn says the revenge of the nerds is taking its toll:
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | July 29, 2007 at 06:47 PM
Mark Steyn says the revenge of the nerds is taking its toll:
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan | July 29, 2007 at 06:48 PM
Hmmmm.
"Hyperwhite"????
That's idiotic. I was born in South Korea and I'm a nerd. How the hell am I "hyperwhite"?? Consider all the nerds in South Korea alone. Are they all "hyperwhite"?
My definition of a nerd? Someone who can watch Pokemon Rangers and not throw up.
Posted by: memomachine | July 29, 2007 at 07:09 PM
H&R: I had to know if you were "Randy the Star". Seems not.
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 07:34 PM
Sorry memomachine, Asians aren't allowed to be nerds .. or so the Mary Bucholtz story goes. And even if you not Asian, you were born there, so it holds for you too, I'm afraid.
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 07:39 PM
I have a question that segways to this story rather nicely ..
has any one ever met a Mensa member who wasn't obnoxious ?
I know I can up a few points shy on my IQ to join, but frankly, ever Mensa member I've ever met has been an obnoxious asshat, so I've never felt that God had shorted me.
Posted by: Neo | July 29, 2007 at 07:43 PM
Since it seems no one is willing to say it ...
Though this Mary Bucholtz is somewhat confused, she is also quite cunning.
Posted by: MikeS | July 29, 2007 at 07:59 PM
Y'all are just a bunch of science-hating wingers aren't you? Shoot, probably hyper-white too!
Posted by: JM Hanes | July 29, 2007 at 10:47 PM
Neo: I am a bit perplexed that there seems to be some exclusion of Asians from the category of "nerds" as Asians as a group perform better most "whites".
From a quick skim (rule: never trust a reporter's interpretation of academic literature), the 2001 paper (linked from her bio linked above) was about white nerds. Asians are mentioned only in passing:
Posted by: Bill Arnold | July 29, 2007 at 11:01 PM
JM Hanes-
Shoot, probably hyper-white too!
I prefer cracker or honkey...watzit, dat honkey droppin' knowledge
Posted by: RichatUF | July 29, 2007 at 11:02 PM
I think being a nerd means someone has no concept of 'art'. I think it means they pretty much only use the side of the brain that deals in analytical thinking, not the creative side (I forget whether that is left or right). Think of Bill Gates versus Steve Jobs. I think that can also kind of track with what I know of autism, which some theorize is hyper-maleness, or less verbal and expression ability, which might explain why being a nerd is more associated with males.
And art is, as I learned from a college philosphy class, the recorded history of emotional expression. Since black people here tend to pride themselves on their creative abilities, such as in music, it is less associated with their culture today. According to an Egyptian observer here, (the one that Zawahiri followed), European origin whites have more of a fascination with machinery, as nerds tend to do. I also think that being a nerd means being stuck in pre-adolescence, with less interest in romance, and more interest in fantasy and action adventure - such as Star Wars geeks. Hence that is why nerds are often less interested in women and less attractive to women - unless of course one of those gizmos they come up with end up making them the big bucks, ala Bill Gates.
Posted by: sylvia | July 30, 2007 at 12:42 AM
RichatUF:
Then you're perfect! Because hyper-honkey is what Bucholtz really meant, isn't it? You just have to dress that kind of thing up for peer review, when you don't have the steet cred to use it yourself.
Posted by: JM Hanes | July 30, 2007 at 01:08 AM
Neo, by your own definition, anyone who disagrees with you is probably an obnoxious asshat, so I'm probably beating my head against a wall by responding. I'm a Mensan who is well-liked by most folks. I try to follow the Golden Rule and retain sensitivity to others, within the limits of being a conservative. I've met some incredibly arrogant and rude Mensans, but most are very nice.
Posted by: mefolkes | July 30, 2007 at 07:59 AM
JMH:
Shoot, probably hyper-white too!
I take ritalin for that.
Posted by: hit and run | July 30, 2007 at 08:35 AM
Hmmmm.
"Honorary whiteness"??
Well that sucks! So we get all the hassles of you white folks while still being a downtrodden minority?
Where the hell's the NAACP on this??
rofl. What an absurd piece of nonsense. I really cannot believe she spent 12 years on this. Sounds more like she goofed off for 12 years and then decided to pull something out of a nether region at the last moment.
Posted by: memomachine | July 30, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Hmmmm.
I think I might get a custom t-shirt with that nonsense on it.
"I'm an 'honorary white'."
lol
Posted by: memomachine | July 30, 2007 at 11:30 AM
What would you do if someone called you a nerd?
Posted by: hit and run | July 30, 2007 at 01:31 PM
Hmmm.
That's a bit extreme for being called a "nerd". What would this guy do for an encore if anybody called him something worse?
Posted by: memomachine | July 30, 2007 at 03:24 PM
It seems to me that nerds and geeks are typically people who are socially awkward, either through their non-conforming appearance, their unusual conversation skills/topics, their unique behaviours and tastes, their awkward motor-physical skills (sports, dance, etc), and so on. A nerd is the opposite of a trendy person.
Everybody has met nerds that are black, white, asian, whatever. I think that race has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Obviously the author of the study knows NOTHING about nerdiness. One could learn more just by watching "revenge of the nerds" or countless other teen movies.
Posted by: SF | July 30, 2007 at 04:15 PM
"they may say “blood” in lieu of “friend,”"
But only if they have for some reason been weened on 1970s television ala Good Times, while being sheltered by any urban culture from the last 30 years.
The real issue i see here is kinda the shoe on the other foot- African American pop-culture (how authentic I have no idea seing as its all filtered through MTV etc) seems to reject and ridicule that which is nerdy, which is unfortunate considering most would agree these are the types of behaviors (study, intellectual curiousity, tame social life) that are quite compatible with longterm economic success.
Posted by: Mark Buehner | July 30, 2007 at 04:24 PM
"You might say they know that a culture based on theft is a culture not worth having."
I thought the liberal line for "diversity" was that it enriched all participating cultures. Can such enrichment be achieved without adopting something from each culture? But once adopted the resulting culture is based on theft and not worth having. Being a liberal is kin to being schizophrenic.
Posted by: willis | July 30, 2007 at 04:26 PM
Some "research" if after 12 years she still hasn't found out that "nerd" comes from the Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo.
Posted by: Omri | July 30, 2007 at 04:32 PM
It's really time to put an end to this 'white people' crap. The old southern culture saw the world as made up of white people and black people. This was necessary, as it formed the rationale for their slave society. There's been no need for that shit post Civil War. When you talk about being white, what you're really talking about is being mainstream American.
Those that like to play themselves up as cool nonconformists have dumped on the mainstream culture for ages, since that's the culture of most people in this country, and you can't be a cool nonconformist if you conform to the majority. Mainstreamers don't care about that; they just continue to do the things that most people know will work best for them (which is what makes those things mainstream in the first place).
Sure there are 'Asian' and 'Black' mainstreamers (or nerds, if you want to call them that), it has nothing to do with skin color. You'll see more and more of this as time goes on and the various 'Ethnics' learn from experience what our grandparents learned years ago:
Ethnicity is a loser. The social and economic penalties for remaining ethnic are severe. Better to go mainstream.
Posted by: Lee Stoller | July 30, 2007 at 04:36 PM
So blacks are not only unable to be racist (see Jackson, J. and Sharpton, A et al) they are also unable to be nerds? Shoot, them poor fellas aren't allowed to do ANYthing!
Posted by: Dr. Ellen | July 30, 2007 at 04:43 PM
Pardon my nerdity, but I think a lot of the above posters are missing her point. She's not saying "nerds are white," she's saying that instead of embracing "youth culture" (which currently includes a heaping helping of gangsta-ism), nerds stick to Standard English and other traditional forms of expression. And since, in the current gangsta-ish culture, being bookish is equated with being "white", it's not the nerds who are racists, it's the so-called normal kids. In other words, what the normal kids used to pejoratively call nerdy they now call white.
Thus in the last quoted para, she's saying that by sticking to what is considered "white" culture (but which is really just traditional standard academic/professional culture, in which anyone of any race can participate), the nerds are actually less racist than normal kids.
Posted by: kwo | July 30, 2007 at 04:53 PM
Or here's a thought...she could just spend the week in San Diego attending Comic-Con and find all of her carefully cultivated prejudices blown out the windows in one fell swoop. 160,000 nerds all wrangled into one location for her studying convenience. The demographics are astoundingly diverse and totally fantastic.
Oh wait...that would mean she'd have to actually work. Yep, never mind.
Posted by: artdeptgirl | July 30, 2007 at 04:55 PM
There are great laughs in here, but there is also something very sad - black kids are being told they can't be intellectual without selling, er, sellin' out.
Posted by: Brian Hutchinson | July 30, 2007 at 05:04 PM
She is spot on. Listen to nerds. No matter the race, they all sound like Richard Prior doing a white voice. No matter the race, nerds are indeed hyper-white.
Posted by: Horst Graben | July 30, 2007 at 05:13 PM
Hmmmm.
Actually something better would've been a computer show here in New Jersey at the Raritan Center about a decade ago. The show had a thousand vendor tables or more and about 10,000 attendees all looking to buy software and computer equipment.
It also had a couple Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders that got completely ignored by the thousands of nerds all more interested in the latest hard drives, modems and motherboards.
Posted by: memomachine | July 30, 2007 at 05:15 PM
neo, my lovely and very nice wife was a Mensa member for well over 15 years. (She finally dropped out because she was tired of getting letters from prisoners propositioning her for everything from sex to drug-smuggling. Either the Mensa mailing lists are very easy to get or there are a lot of Mensa members behind bars.) I have heard her, in just about 20 years say something mean to anyone once, and he was really asking for it.
"You might say they know that a culture based on theft is a culture not worth having." I'll think of that every time I see Ward Churchill (noted Native American activist) wearing sunglasses and cowboy boots or combat boots or lugging around an AK-47 (none of which were invented by Native Americans), or any of those hip-hop gangstas wearing leather shoes or any kind of athletic sport shoe (both originally invented by non-Blacks) or riding in any car that wasn't first invented by a Black person. To say nothing of drinking Krystal (unless she can show it was first invented somewhere south of the Sahara.) Of course, if you have read "Black Aphrodite" I guess *everything* was originally invented in Africa, anyway. (Pretty much the way Russians invented baseball.)
Posted by: JorgXMcKie | July 30, 2007 at 05:37 PM
I'm sorry, but there are only 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Cheers,
RK
Posted by: RK Jones | July 30, 2007 at 05:41 PM
"I think any attempt to equate or explain nerd or nerdiness through the use of supposed racial characteristics is ill-considered. "
I'd agree. As is characterizing "correct English" as a "white" behavior.
I generally see the issues with language as an urban thing - it seems for most high school age kids in the city, it's cool to talk like an illiterate thug no matter what color your skin is.
Posted by: Tim in PA | July 30, 2007 at 05:48 PM
I wonder how old this woman is. When I was a kid in the 70s, nerd was strictly pejorative. Now the term is more ambiguous. There is actually a fashion sensibility associated with it. People will deliberately pursue a nerdy look, but it is a kind of ironic hip thing, a way of distancing oneself from fashions that are spent, doing something new, and it's appropriate now because electronic gadgets and electronic music are both cool, and the nerd was always associated with technology. Here's an article in the Boston Herald that claims it's something new
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/styleNews/view.bg?articleid=1011465
but obviously once the papers have covered something like this, it's on its way out. Here in NYC I've seen this look for years and associated it with guys who listen to electronic music. This woman is clueless. It's not racial. Nerdiness implies technological sophistication and/or alienation/difference. this whiteness thing she's obsessed with is an artefact.
Posted by: clazy | July 30, 2007 at 05:53 PM
< a href="http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/bucholtz.html">
Mary Bucholtz, 5'1", 225. Loves comfortable shoes.
Posted by: Fat Man | July 30, 2007 at 05:59 PM
I went to Ms. Bucholtz's website at the university to find a picture of her and was disappointed to find none. Then I realized her photo was tiled in the background of the page. All that "hyperwhiteness" just blended together. ;-)
Posted by: Kelly | July 30, 2007 at 06:00 PM
In my experience being a nerd, going to engineering school with nerds and then working with nerds - I think nerds are some of the most colorblind people I know. Nerds tend to value competence, they don't care about race, looks etc. It is all about what you know.
Posted by: Patel | July 30, 2007 at 06:03 PM
Nerd [Trait]
You tend to judge people's attractiveness by thier intelligence rather than thier charisma.
Prerequisite: Int 13+
Benefit: Other people may use thier intelligence bonus in place of thier charisma bonus when interacting with you.
I don't see anything about a racial prerequisite. Must be a house rule.
Posted by: Celebrim | July 30, 2007 at 06:04 PM
"In my experience being a nerd, going to engineering school with nerds and then working with nerds - I think nerds are some of the most colorblind people I know. Nerds tend to value competence, they don't care about race, looks etc. It is all about what you know."
Nerds aren't just colorblind. They tend to be socially blind.
But you wouldn't have to be a engineering major to figure that out. All you'd have to do is watch say 'The Breakfast Club'.
Posted by: Celebrim | July 30, 2007 at 06:06 PM
There are only 10 kinds of people in the world; those who divide up everyone into two groups, and those who don't.
Posted by: Arlo | July 30, 2007 at 06:13 PM
I am a linguist. Like Neo, I think a certain kind of linguist sometimes trespasses too far into sociology (and sometimes ends up actually being a sociologist or anthropologist who lives in the linguistics dept., which may be the case with this researcher.
One thing that I want to point out, in response to commenters remarking that Bucholz must be math-phobic, or that linguistics is a math-phobic discipline: actually this is not at all true in general (although Bucholz may well be herself, who knows). Some sub-disciplines of linguistics *are* math. A substantial number of linguistics are computational theorists and computer scientists, and the pioneering work in complexity hierarchies of grammars (which have long had extensive applications in computer science proper)was done in large part by everyone's favorite guy, Noam Chomsky, in the 1950s and early 60s.
Bucholz sounds like a sociolinguist to me, though.
Posted by: Tony | July 30, 2007 at 06:16 PM
I have not read any of her original papers, but other than the use of the term "hyperwhite" what does she have other than the most banal and pedestrian stereotypes of nerds. For those of you taking offense try replacing the term with "engineerish" or some other equally empty phrase. This helps to bring out how empty her work is. She really has nothing to offer that has not been beaten to death in network sitcoms, but she manages to get published with politically correct (but viciously racist) jargon. Yawn. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Posted by: Bob R | July 30, 2007 at 06:22 PM
Here are three thoughts:
(1) Does Bucholtz have anything to say about Latin American culture? Didn't she do her research in California?
(2) “trends in music, dance, fashion, sports and language in a variety of youth subcultures are often traceable to an African-American source,”
Does "often" mean "hypothetically?" I guess "traceable" does mean "traceable." See (1).
(3) I'd love to Neil Stephenson riff on this, in the vein of his "bearded white male=racist" satire in Cryptonomicon. The nerds continue to deserve revenge.
Posted by: Henry | July 30, 2007 at 07:21 PM
"Klingon now has greater common usage than the international language, Esparonto. It is important to remember that the best selling Esparonto video stars Willian Shatner."
It's Esperanto. Nerds also try to spell things correctly.
Posted by: Pat | July 30, 2007 at 07:36 PM
You could argue that black people who can't speak English properly are just copying the rednecks they were hanging out with down south.
This woman should be fired. She and her research serve no actual purpose. What the hell is whiteness anyway? White is a collection of immigrants from Europe which all had very different cultures. She needs to read Ethnic America by Sowell.
Posted by: mikek | July 30, 2007 at 07:45 PM
This woman should be fired. She and her research serve no actual purpose.
Judge by her CV, not a single paper/line of research.
Posted by: Bill Arnold | July 30, 2007 at 08:11 PM
unusual conversation skills/topics
There is nothing unusual about wanting to talk about neutron scattering cross sections vs absorption cross sections. Or heat transfer and fluid flow.
Well, I was a Nuclear Reactor Operator in the Navy. About as geeky as you can get and still be a member of the fighting forces. Lotsa numbaz. LOL.
BTW I had some trouble with dating until I put on a Navy uniform. That is when I went from rags to riches. Even better was looking like a hippie (after I got out of the service), ah the 60s.
Posted by: M. Simon | July 30, 2007 at 08:16 PM
Well! It is obvious that several of my law school classmates were de facto frauds, as they had the skin and features of an African-American, but they annunciated their words and did not use slang! Ah, HA!!! "Everyone" "knows" that to be African-american you must speak in the patois of a poverty-stricken illiterate. Just ask the Klan. Or, Mary Bucholtz.
Posted by: Californio | July 30, 2007 at 08:23 PM
Nobody has pointed this out yet: www.nerdpunk.com
J
Posted by: J Yasmar | July 30, 2007 at 08:56 PM
Nerd is a yiddish word first used during the israeli six day war
Posted by: james just | July 30, 2007 at 09:13 PM
Nerd is a yiddish word first used during the israeli six day war
Posted by: james just | July 30, 2007 at 09:14 PM
I think many of the comments in this thread confuse the terms "nerd" and "geek". To me, a nerd is a person who is socially clueless (Urkel), while a geek is someone who will discuss neutron scattering cross sections for hours, and flock to the Raritan Center computer show. One can be both a nerd and a geek, but the two don't necessarily go together.
Posted by: Jack Okie | July 30, 2007 at 09:50 PM
Translated into English, the article is very simple.
Whenever a student enters into an American school, the school system uses (solely) his or her race, class and gender to decide what he or she is capable of learning. Those students who exceed academic expectations become the nerds.
Posted by: Joseph | July 30, 2007 at 09:58 PM
So let me get this straight. Nerds are Curling cheering, Country & Western lovin', rodeo watchin', ya'll speakin', hockey lovin' pasty faced wannabes?
Leave it to an insulated academic to over generalize being "white."
Kalroy
Posted by: Kalroy | July 30, 2007 at 10:37 PM
JorgXMcKie: happy to hear that not all Mensa member are obnoxious.
Posted by: Neo | July 30, 2007 at 10:44 PM
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/07/hyperwhite.html>Maybe she should take a field trip to Berkeley
Posted by: clarice | July 30, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Regarding Nerds, yiddish, and the six-day war. So far as I can tell, this is a myth, with the first documented usage of nerd in its current form being the October, 8 1951 issue of Newsweek (page 16). In fact, if one googles "nerd +yiddish," one will find a direct comparison of the word nerd with the word nebbish, which is of course yiddish. I have also found references to a 1950 Dr. Seuss story and the St. Joseph, Michigan, Herald-Press, from 23 June 1952.
Posted by: RK Jones | July 31, 2007 at 12:18 AM
Reminds me of the guy in the Monty Python routine applying for a government grant to develop his silly walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jDCxtC-yPw
Posted by: Jeff | July 31, 2007 at 12:29 AM
Sorry-had to turn off the italics that had been going on nonstop for quite some time now; it was driving me crazy.
Does that make me a nerd? ;-)
Posted by: Kev | July 31, 2007 at 02:48 AM
Oops--that didn't work. Let me try again.
Testing--1, 2, 3, 4
Posted by: Kev | July 31, 2007 at 02:49 AM