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BLERDBINDER: Black Nerds — Changing the World and Owning Their Inner Geek!

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Black Nerdom is on the rise. Shows like Netflix’s Astronomy Club have proven that there is a demand for it. And in the 21st century, there’s a long list of artists and creators whose contributions serve to dispel the old stereotypes.

Published

6 years ago

March 26, 2020

Oakland Post

The most recent addition to tasteful Black Nerdom is Sherman's Showcase, created by Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin.

The Paradigm of the Black Nerd

By Noah Washington, blerdbinder.com, NNPA Newswire Contributor

The BlerdBinder covers nerdy news for the Black Nerds of the world. We welcome all as we talk about subjects ranging from Movies to Music and Tech to Toys.

When people think about a trendsetter (defined as “one who starts a trend”), their thoughts are usually associated with a certain stereotype that almost never includes Black Nerds.

However, Black Nerdom is on the rise. Shows like Netflix’s Astronomy Club have proven that there is a demand for it. And in the 21^st century, there’s a long list of artists and creators whose contributions serve to dispel the old stereotypes.

Unfortunately, even those that acknowledge the power and reality of the new Black Nerd too often still cling to the stereotype of the nappy-headed Black kid wearing graphic t-shirts, drinking Blue Raspberry Mountain Dew and wrestling with horrible acne. (For the record, the BlerdBinder will never disparage anyone with acne.)

That stereotype has been challenged in the battle over misplaced perceptions that is currently being won by Black Nerds.

Black Nerds like Donald Glover, Issa Rae and Jordan Peele (that’s right, we’re claiming them!) have made some of the most significant advancements in pop culture and — in the same vein — history.

Glover’s breakout role in Community started him down a path that led to international stardom, establishing his personal brand as a man of class and dignity in Gucci loafers and cool jackets while casually channeling a groovy 70s era Black James Dean vibe. But he didn’t start there. He started his journey making YouTube videos with the sketch comedy group, Derrick Comedy. Those videos eventually led to his role as co-writer and co-star as “Master of Disguise” Jason Rogers in 2009’s indie film, Mystery Team. While the film may have showcased Glover’s immense talents, the role itself was far far away from the intergalactic “coolest guy in the galaxy” that would eventually be Glover’s take on Star Wars: A Solo Story’s young Lando Calirrisan.

Much like Glover, the Pam Grier-esque Issae Rae is an excellent example of someone who comes from nerdy and awkward beginnings. Literally! Her breakout claim to fame is her online web series, Awkward Black Girl. Rae successfully parlayed the online video shorts about awkward girl Blackness into celebrity, creating an international sensation that is featured in magazines around the world while disturbing the status quo in Hollywood.

Jordan Peele’s break out opportunity came in 2003 when he was hired as part of the cast of Fox’s Mad TV. He followed that success with Comedy Central’s Key & Peele, where he and fellow Mad TV alumnus, Keegan-Michael Key, American Culture.

The 41-year old Peele’s achievements are vast and diverse and include film credits as director, co-writer, producer and/or star (with Key in Keanu (2016); Spike Lee’s BlackkKlanman (2018), which he produced, receiving a Best Picture nomination from the Academy Awards; TBS’ The Last O.G.; YouTube Platinum’s Weird City (2019); and CBS All Access’ revival of the The Twilight Zone.

While Peele has deservedly received numerous awards and recognition for his contributions, perhaps the most significant is his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his 2017 directorial debut, the horror film Get Out. Peeele also received nominations for Best Picture and Best Director for the film.

In 2019, Peele wrote, produced and directed Us. He is also producing Amazon Prime TV’s Hunters, a series set in 1977 about a group of Nazi hunters who discover that a group of Nazi war criminals are conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in America.

Shows like Blackish and Mixedish also include references to Black Nerdom. This is especially apparent in Blackish’s annual Halloween episodes, where the entire family takes the liberties bestowed by the October holiday to get their Super Geek on. However, even the non-holiday episodes feature a certain level of geekdom and references that would make the developers of Black Trivial Pursuit proud. You can tell that the series’ writers and other creatives working behind the scenes are geeking out at the opportunity to include the show’s many meta-references.

The most recent addition to tasteful Black Nerdom is Sherman’s Showcase, created by Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin. The show gets super meta in its storytelling, going as far as to parody the 1970s Fredrick Douglas Afro Sheen ads. Sherman’s Showcase also showcases the nerdiness of cool talented musicians while doing it in style. John Legend, Ne-Yo, Common and Mary J. Blige have all appeared on the show.

Set design and production values transform Sherman’s Showcase’s the skits and ideas (which come from some truly geeked-out minds in the show’s writer’s room) into undeniable visual and audio spectacles.

Netflix’s Astronomy Club, Season 1

The combination of culture and intelligence establishes the unique perspective that allows creative Black Nerds to develop original stories and visuals. Netflix’s The Astronomy Club offers a diverse and creative group of Black Nerds to develop sketch comedy that has been met with critical acclaim. Insightful sketches like “Dignity and Ambition for Magical Negroes (or the acronym, D.A.M.N. — rehab for character’s like The Help‘s Aibileen Clarke)” or “Weave Surgery Room” are funny on the surface but underscore critical aspects of Black Culture that the show’s group of Nerds magically transform into something funny and special.

Black Nerdom is a force that is taking the world by storm, eliminating the notion that narrowly defined Black Creativity. Gone are the days when a Black creator’s crazy ideas and impossible dreams were deemed “unrelatable” to the majority of the public. This extends to changes in Black Culture as well, where black kids were labeled as “white” just because their interests, intelligence and mode of creativity didn’t align with preconceived notions of Black Culture.

Today, Black Nerds are the trendsetters that are leading an all-encompassing (Black) Culture revolution. So, the next time you make fun of the Black Nerd at school, work or the barbecue, remember that one day she might be your boss.

Oakland Post

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#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

Oakland Post

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

admin

Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,