What it means to be a Blerd - and why it's cool now

Black nerds, or Blerds, are mainstream these days. From comic book superheroes on the big screen, like Black Panther or Storm, to hip-hop artists celebrating their affinity for anime, Blerds are a growing part of pop culture. But it wasn’t always like this. For a lot of Black kids growing up before the 2000s, there weren’t many people on screens or in comic books that looked like them.