How many of you have known that awkward black kid that was either in your neighborhood or school that always stood out the most but not in a good way? The kid that illustrated the typical stereotype of having glasses, dressing weird, running with their hands behind their back like anime characters. These kind of kids have no style whatsoever and they think that cartoons and anime are real life. At that time, they were picked on, made fun of, and judged for simply being who they are. Now that times have changed, I feel as though those who were once picked on and called nerds have now taken over.

Within this known nerd community, there is another community that has been growing and building for years, and now seems to be coming more to the light. Within this world of nerds people have become fans to many of the characters that they follow because some of them simply look like them. This can be challenging for many of us who are people of color because until recently there have not been many characters that are diverse. Now times have changed, the black nerds have been growing, expanding, and spreading like California wildfire in a dry summer. The title blerd was a self-proclaimed title that we seemed to have been building out of nowhere exploding into the world. The blerd community has been shaping various societies secretly for years ranging from music, fashion, tv shows, and movies. In this article, I will be going over some of our famous known blerds and proof that for the blerd community, it’s our time now baby.

As far as music comes along, many blerds have come into the music industry and introduced their art to the world which has caused massive success. Two of the major blerds are Donald Glover aka. Childish Gambino and Christopher Breaux aka. Frank Ocean.

Before even doing music, Childish Gambino was a successful writer on one of the shows Community as well as doing stand up comedy. Writing on his shows and various mixtapes took place between the years of 2006-2010 but low and behold in the year 2011 the world was not ready. In 2011, I remember listening to Gambino’s album The Internet and knew that he had the glow. He was primarily rapping on his album but had several songs on it that showed he had the ability to sing. But even lyrically he was very talented and original in his art. It seemed that no one took him seriously until he dropped the song “Redbone” which really put him in the eyes of not only the black community but the world. Even to this day, Gambino has been dropping unique and talented music attached with originality in his videos. In various interviews, Gambino spoke on him currently being in a relationship and having biracial children. When asked if he was attracted to black women he stated that he was always attracted to black women, but they were never attracted to him.

In 2013, Frank Ocean got on my radar when a friend of mine was showing me a group led by Tyler the Creator doing a freestyle at a photo shoot. I remember seeing this guy with a cast on drinking Starbucks and dropping bars. Frank Ocean has done music with Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Beyoncé aka. The Black Trinity. Nothing but continuous growth and achievements have proven that he has a long career ahead of him.

The blerds have been in full force in TV shows such as Luke Cage and Atlanta. Luke Cage is about a black superhero who has super strength and is indestructible, but he is primarily a neighborhood hero. He tries to spread and save his community by helping the normal folks in his community and the show explores lots of themes such as police brutality, black love, misogyny, and politics. The show was on Netflix but unfortunately was cancelled. However, it has been said that it will be moved onto the new Disney streaming service. The only issue with this is that in one of the guidelines in the contract Disney has with Netflix, Disney must have a minimum time lapse for it to be continued.

Now some may argue and debate about Atlanta being somewhat of a blerd community show. So therefore, I will bring this to your attention. The main character is played by Childish Gambino and he is the main writer and producer of the show. Watching the show you will also see that it also seems to be somewhat of Gambino’s life story. Both main characters are from Atlanta but they both don’t seem to be like the other typical or stereotypical black people in the area that it takes place in. This show has brought a cultural awareness to the Atlanta world, how it operates and how it is a major aspect of people’s life.

If you have been paying any type of attention to movies you would know that the blerds are moving in full force. The success of Black Panther was not only unseen but was a huge cultural impact not even on our culture as black people but as Baydestrians. The movie was directed by Ryan Coogler, Oakland native, and even made the villain a young black man from Oakland. It doesn’t matter what awards that this film won or lose, the impact was felt. For the most part or at least from my perspective, I knew that the movie would not get major awards because it was a story of a thriving black society without the white man. The movie was inspirational and shared many messages to us as a people and as human beings. There should not be a problem with you being proud of where you are from but sometimes tainted pains from our past will have us become our own worst enemy.

The movie topped at 1.3 billion dollars, yes, a movie with an all-black cast that portrayed us not as drug dealers, slaves, or gang bangers brought in billions.

This movie showed us as warriors, scholars, leaders, royalty, and heroes that are all aspects that are not common to us as people of color, especially in Hollywood.

If there is one thing that you can learn from our history as African-Americans is that not only are we everywhere but everywhere that we are we make our presence known. Those who have been threatened and are afraid of our influence and ability are learning that it will not stop us and that we will not be defeated as easily. In a society that our culture was not as populated we have been introduced and are creating our own path in its society. It was a huge month for the nerds in April from the superfans to the noobs. One of the major events that took place is Marvel’s Endgame, which will most likely end one of the planned phases within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Game of Thrones also premiered the last and final season of Game of Thrones. Both these two events may not seem to intertwine with the culture as you may appear to see but as a blerd, I can see the Game of Thrones quote “Winter is Coming” my nigga.