Do nerds speak hyperwhite?
Interesting little article in the NYTimes Magazine today about the language of nerds. Specifically, it summarizes the research of Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at UCSB who thinks high school nerds use language that is devoid of African American slang, and thus gain part of their social stigma from being “hyperwhite.” From the article,
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. […] 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. On the other hand, the code of conspicuous intellectualism in the nerd cliques Bucholtz observed may shut out “black students who chose not to openly display their abilities.” […] Even more problematic, “Nerds’ dismissal of black cultural practices often led them to discount the possibility of friendship with black students,” even if the nerds were involved in political activities like protesting against the dismantling of affirmative action in California schools.
Interesting stuff, even if the paper described dates to 2001. Whether or not it’s true, though, do you think it applies outside the microcosm of high school? Most of the adult nerds I know use lots of words and phrases from African American culture, but while it’s usually in the normal course of conversation, African American terms are also often used in jest. If some one asks a bunch of laptop-hunched, furiously coding nerds whether they are having fun, and one of them deadpans, “Yes. We are getting dumb,” is that hyperwhiteness in action?