simon baron-cohen

In addition to thinking of nerds as people who are intellectually focused and slightly obsessive, I’d argue that a lot of us attach a gender (male) and race (white, South Asian, or East Asian) to the stereotype of a nerd. When I asked for suggestions of who pops into mind when you think of the idea of nerdiness, white guys accounted for most of the answers I received. And just do a quick Google image search for "geek"—most of the results you’ll get back will be pictures of skinny, white men in bottle-bottom glasses.