About Us

[email protected] * @blknrdproblems * facebook.com/blacknerdproblems * instagram.com/blacknerdproblems *

Around the time my father graduated with his Master’s Degree in Chemistry, he was watching other guys he grew up with getting drafted to fight in Vietnam. He was a flower child, rocking a Jackson Five afro and hated war and all the trappings that global conflicts brought with it. The only thing my father probably hates as much if not more was how they turned Gimli into comic relief in the Lord of Rings Trilogy. Gimli was a badass in the books, he deserved better than to be the punchline of jokes. Yeah, my pops would nerd hard. Legend says he read Tolkein to me while I was just a potential human inside of my mother, starting at the Silmarillion and ending with Return of the King before I was born. While maybe that sounds like an origin story for me, it really enlightened me to the fact that my love for science fiction and fantasy, comics and Battlestar are not foreign bodies to a young Black enthusiast making his or her way in the world. Even when so many things shout the opposite to you.

Black Nerd Problems came about in a flippant conversation between Omar Holmon and myself as we were probably complaining about the lack of minority representation in DC Comics New 52 most likely. We realized that part of the problem with representation in popular and geek culture isn’t solely on the source, but on the verbal strength of the consumer, on the coverage, on the reporting. We had begun to make friendships with other Black Nerds through social media and the poetry slam community (how Omar and I met) and thought, how cool would it be to control our own narrative? [quote_right]Gimli was a badass in the books, he deserved better than to be the punchline of jokes[/quote_right]To do a little bit more than be the cats pissed off that Young Justice got canceled because too many girls watched it or why there are almost no black people in the Hobbit films; we wanted a seat at the table, a legitimate platform to express our love, support and criticism in the mediums we so fiercely invest in. Sometimes that manifests itself as a simple movie review. Sometimes it looks like an article on why diversity in Cosplay matters or it sounds like podcast between three cats breaking down Tumblr Thirst.

We have a great team of writers and personalities. We have a lot of fun on this site because there is no pretense or ceiling on how we express our nerd-dom and if you enjoy it half as much as we do, we’ll be doing this dance for a long time.

Come on in. Get comfortable. Stay a while. We’re glad you’re here.

Sincerely,

William H. Evans, Editor-In-Chief

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