Artsy, Jockish, Brainy, Geeky

As I have dug through my identity as a nerd, as a black man, and where they intersect (and don't), I have hit upon certain ways I go against the grain in all of those arenas.

I even wrote a column about my nerd sacrileges.

I left out one, and here it is. I am an artsy-intellectual nerd, and I like sports.

Yup, call me a traitor. As an artsy nerd, I'm supposed to be totally at odds with jocks and sports.

I used to buy this hype myself, to some degree. It likely began with the simple fact that I was better at one column then the other. I wasn't naturally good at any sports, so I wasn't as interested as other kids. I can't play basketball well. Never played football. Barely touched baseball.


But I did have natural ability at the arts: singing, dancing, acting, drawing. And the intellectual: math, science, literature. So, I picked arts/intellect as my hobbies rather than sports.


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