​As a black geek I was blessed and fortunate enough to grow up around a lot of black geeks.  Hell, my dad (R.I.H.) introduced me to all of this.  My mom grew up with basic awareness of a lot of super heroes and comics, but she was only into it because of my dad after they got married.  I’m married to a woman who didn’t know who the entire f**k Dr. Strange was before we got together, but now she’s trying to figure out how she’s going to make it to next year to find out how the heroes in “Infinity War” are going to deal with Thanos.  I said all of that to say black love exists for black geeks who date black non-geeks.  Due to my own personal experiences I just couldn’t wrap my head around black geeks still catching some roast over what they love in 2018.  So I started asking people to tell me about their experiences.

"The results were certainly interesting.  Check these out:
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“From my experience, I can say that I have had maybe 3 women that have been open to the world of anime and gaming.  Ones that I’ve tried to open to it seem interested at first but only because they think it’s one of those things that change after we date for so long.  Like I won’t be as into it if she occupies my time.  Not going to lie, the past few years my interest in manga and anime has grown tremendously and it’s as though because I lift weights I can’t be into that stuff.  I’m into "Harry Potter" and even trading cards, and it seems to be a child’s thing but I’m coming from a place of where it’s a lifestyle.  It’s not some random hobby I picked up on the weekends.  I have websites I check for new episodes of anime, I get updates for Comic-Con, and I am thinking about joining a LARP group.  So it’s like the more I grow into that it’s not a conversation I can always bring up for fear that I’ll be roasted over it.  We (black geeks) see a lot of shame and jokes made when stuff like Skyrim and Kingdom Hearts come up.  Yeah we’d rather play PC games than get drunk for a night or go listen to jazz music.  When I think of ridicule for being a black geeks, one story in particular comes to mind.  I have a kilt I wear for the Highland Games.  I wore it for Halloween with my Skyrim mask and off-top I got roasted when I showed up at the party.  I know that if I would’ve worn something different or recognizable, I wouldn’t have gotten roasted that way.  I was specifically because of what I wore that I got the ridicule.  And I can take a joke, but these came off as something deeper than just friendly jokes.  It just is what it is.”- Ced

That’s pretty messed up, but check this next story out:
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“There was this woman I worked with.  She was nice and I tried befriending her.  She is into the typical black things lik rap, R&B, urban movies and books, etc.  I liked all of those things as well but when I started talking about "Harry Potter", "Dragon Age", and "Game of Thrones" she proceeded to tell me, ‘Oh you’re one of those weird ones.  Into that white people stuff.’  After that she barely talked to me.  I haven’t had a problem dating but I tend to lean towards men who share my taste or ones who know nothing about my nerdy world and are open to trying some of it out themselves.  Trying to make black friends that were women was a nightmare, though.  Most of my close friends are white.  Once someone calls me ‘strange’ enough times, that’s when it’s done for me and I refuse to hide any parts of my interests for anyone.”- Denise

I didn’t even think that much about cultivating friendships as a geek when I started on this piece.  If you’re going to shut down from talking to someone based on the things they find entertaining, you’re kind of an ass***e.  Keep in mind that a lot of urban s**t like "Empire" and half of Black Netflix is trash to begin with.  I wish somebody would come and tell me that "Game of Thrones" is some weird white people s**t.

Man I just got heated…

I guess the overarching point of this (besides raising awareness of some sort) is that… Dawg, a geek could be your true match.  Stop being basic (closed minded) and embrace that black geek love.  We’re smart af, can hold a conversation like a muff***a, and we look at a lot of stuff in more creative ways.  Don’t be a c**t and think that someone can’t make you happy because they’re entertained by something that you believe is beneath you.  Embrace your differences and give it a shot.  And if nothing else works for you, then ponder on this:

Black geeks are amazing in bed.  If we’re open to watching s**t like “Outlaw Star”, then just imagine what else we’re watching…

Thank me later.

​So, Childish Gambino dropped a wonderful video for his song, “This Is America” (that you can find a dope ass piece about the video on this very site) and Black America lost its collective mind.  There have been plenty of comments, videos, and articles breaking down the myriad of messages in Donald Glover’s brilliant work.  Some people don’t care much for the song (I don’t think it holds up very well without the accompanying video), but the adoration for the music video appears to be unanimous.  Or at least it appeared to be unanimous.

SUMMON THE HOTEPS!!!

Of course the Hoteps came through like an aggressive, angry, cocoa butter flood, and brought up the fact that he has a white girlfriend and due to this he is not worthy of being “woke”.  The narrative soon shifted to what it means to be black enough to deliver positive messages and subtext for your people.  I’ll just put it out there now: F**k anybody who believes that bulls**t.  It makes no sense to dismiss someone because of the skin color of who they love.  That essentially turns you into the thing that you hate and that pattern of thought should not serve as a means to disqualify a person’s opinion or position in their community.  Something interesting happened over the course of the 2,000th Great Social Media Ragnarok that dramatically shifted the argument.  Some people adopted the theory that black women don’t want the black male geek.

I immediately called bulls**t.

As a dark-skinned big fella who loves himself some Spider-Man, I checked off all of the boxes that would prevent me from getting play according to a popular perception of the world during the 90’s and most of the 00’s.  For a while I did hide the geek that lied beneath.  Think of it in the way the Bruce Banner tries to hide The Hulk, but with WAY more success and WAY less rage.  The biggest things I had going for me growing up was that I knew how to hold a conversation and I had black knowledge on my side. 

Then “Iron Man” dropped.  Then “The Incredible Hulk” dropped.  Then “Thor” dropped.
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All of a sudden, a lot of black women were interested in super heroes, but they didn’t know a lot about it.

​BLACK MALE GEEKS WERE FINALLY A F*****G THING!!!  Keep in mind that this was around the time Rick Ross, a dark skinned big man with a beard, had ebony queens seeking out dark skinned big men with beards.  It was my opportunity to be my ENTIRE self when talking to women about the things I liked.  I didn’t have to end my description of myself at “…and I like sports, of course.”  Now I could end with “… and I’m a huge comic book, God of War, Dragon Ball Z, Samurai Jack, and wrestling fan.”  The paradigm had shifted dramatically and we had inherited the Earth.  

Because of my experience with this, I couldn’t grasp the notion that black women wouldn’t go for a black geek in 20-f*****ng-got damn-18.  My wife wasn’t into all of this Marvel/DC s**t until my web-slinging, tombstone piledriver using, Kamehameha throwing ass introduced her to that universe.  Dating is hard, especially for millennials, but not to the point where I had to hide my geek level.  It’s something that just wasn’t my reality.  I originally came into writing this piece thinking that I was just going to roast geeks who still couldn’t get with some Ebony Ecstasy and blamed their geekiness for their lack of game. 

​Hell I posted a meme on the NJL FB page kinda-sorda pointing to the fact that people who believed that ish couldn’t close the deal because they weren’t attractive enough to the target demographic.

Then you see testimonials like this and think there’s no way in hell black geeks aren’t getting it in:

“It was like 4am and I was with my cousin. We’d gone out to Nitelyfe of all places and some dude she was seeing at the time wanted to go to iHop, I just wanted to go home so my attitude was hella salty. He invited a friend to, I guess, keep me calm but I was pretty much ignoring the poor fool. I was drunk, tired, he wasn’t attractive to me at all and I’m not nice enough for small talk. Pretty much sat there on mute while we waited for our food. I can’t remember what happened but I remember chuckling and saying, “OK Quinn Blackwood.” Under my breath. He kinda leaned back and looked at me and said, “What you know about Anne Rice?” Now I’m pretty much looking at him the same way asking the same question. We start geeking out because she’s apparently our favorite author. Everybody at the table is giving us that look non-geeky people give when two of us unexpectedly find each other in public and start having a conversation they can’t follow. I think I decided I was going to screw this unicorn of a man the moment Anne’s name exited his mouth because how many dudes do you know that go to Nitelyfe AND read shit like Anne f*****g Rice?”- M

Dawg if Anne f*****g Rice out here getting people *insert long-ass inappropriate, graphic, COUNTRY descriptions of sex* then just imagine what Batman and Iron Man are getting ninjas out here!  When being a black geek and dating, confidence is definitely a key trait.  Without it, you ain’t s**t.  There are black, strong, smart, THICK geeky women who want to talk to you about the end of the Dragon Ball Super Tournament of Power or why the Nintendo Switch is an abomination in the presence of Odin.

YOU JUST NEED TO BE BETTER!!!

Or do you?  The more I researched this topic, the more I learned about the other side of this coin.  Apparently some people are trash enough to still tease and roast others because of the things that they like.

I didn’t expect to write this much about this topic, but I guess I have to split it up.  Come back for Part 2!!!
 
J2

J2 remembers the first time he was disrespected.  The event occurred when one of his friends tried to tell him that Barney was a better show the Batman: The Animated Series.  Legend has it, they’re still in the Shadow Realm singing that damn Barney song.