(Writing from an American perspective) It’s pretty easy for a white person not to be exposed to a lot of things that are aimed at black people, even if you’re not actively trying to avoid them. Then you assume that the same thing happens for black people, but "white culture is mainstream; everyone grows up exposed to it. Nerdy black Americans aren’t enjoying other cultures. It’s their culture, too.
I’m a black male that grew up in South-east GA in the 80’s. I was listening to Culture Club and Thompson Twins, so I been outed as a nerd a long, long time. I also collected comic books which no other black kid I know was doing.
I also listened to Prince and Run-DMC so I was also cool.
Replace Georgia with Detroit and we’re the same. I remember I used to have a (white) girlfriend who hated that i was a fan of Bon Jovi.
Except that, as I mentioned upthread, “nerd culture” didn’t use to be as mainstream as it is nowadays (or at least, that’s my perception), so you might not have been exposed to it if you didn’t run with a nerdy crowd.
The principle holds. Then or now, a nerdy black kid is more readily exposed to nerdy things that happen to be from or about white people, than the reverse.
For that matter, the principle holds when most any other interest-area is swapped out for “nerdy.”
Right. I agree that nerdy things are more readily available these days, but, for example, the little black kid who’s predisposed to liking science fiction has the same access to Star Trek as the little white future nerd. It used to be harder to find more Sci-Fi shows and books, but once the seed had been planted, you had the option of seeking out similar things, and you could grow up on Sci-Fi, Fantasy, comics, etc. even if you couldn’t find anyone to play D&D or cosplay with.
I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper,
She’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper,
Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?
Be a Pepper. Drink Dr Pepper.
or
I’m Brian ----- and so’s my wife.
Take your pick. 
raises hand Mind you, hereabouts hip hop often sings with a Latino accent or includes Roma words, whereas a bit further north it may get part of the lyrics in Arabic or Yoruba… we’d need confirmation as this is just a guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of German-language rappers are Turks.
So much this. You can like these things without ever identifying yourself as a “geek”. You can be totally into hip hop and play basketball and any number of stereotypical “black” things, and also know all the ends and outs of Star Trek and Lord of the Rings just because.
As a little girl, I could practically recite all the lines in “Planet of the Apes” because I had watched it and its sequels a million times. Because they aired on TBS pretty much every weekend, along with “Conan the Barbarian”, “The Beastmaster”, and “Godzilla”. And my life-long favorite B-movie, “Swamp Thing.” I didn’t know I was being “geeky” by watching these things. It’s just that we didn’t have cable, and TBS always had something I halfway liked.
I want point out that nerdiness manifests in different ways, too.
De La Soul? nerd rappers, having fun with wordplay and being proud of their uncool roots.
A Tribe Called Quest? Okay, so Q-Tip is cool as hell, but a total music nerd with the types of sounds he sampled from music that wasn’t considered cool, kinda like what Timbaland did with Missy when he started incorporating raga hooks in his beats. Huge fodder for music nerds trying to figure who he was sampling.
Wu-Tang? The RZA named the group after the Kung-fu movies he loves. He’s a chess nerd, too.
And Amir ?uestlove Thompson of The Roots wrote a wonderful warm memoir about growing up a black music nerd in Philly.
Nerdiness is everywhere.
My favourite intersection of hip hop and nerdity is Dream Warriors, the Canadian contemporaries of golden-era DLS and ATCQ - e.g with a track called “12 Sided Dice”, you know they had to be nerds of the first order. I remember reading an NME or MM interview with them where they spoke about a set with giant dice to leap out of, and getting stuck in one “Just like the pods in Spinal Tap” and thinking how awesome it was that they watched the same movies I did. We all do what the OP talks about - I remember being surprised when I first saw a picture of punk band Bad Brains. Pleasantly surprised, though, which I think is the critical bit.
I think it was Wired Al that designated it in his song “White and Nerdy”
Um, I beg to differ. CC and the TT were the height of cutting edge and cool.
Weren’t they?!
I saw a black guy wearing an Andrew Luck jersey yesterday.
Which proves something or other.
Linguist John McWhorter explores this in his book Losing the Race. Among other things, he discusses how nerdy black kids in his locale were very much pressured to hide or abandon their intellectual curiosities, at a quite specific age (around seventh grade, IIRC) – a cultural reality he laments.
I am white, and Canadian, and have thus far had few opportunities to get to know anyone African Canadian or “Carriblean-Canadian” other “Black” people. I really enjoyed watching the Nightly Show because I felt I learned things from it, and I loved Larry Wilmore calling himself a “Blerd”.
Talking about Rap music, I am not generally a fan, but I have really started enjoying First Nations hip-hop. “A Tribe Called Red” is one group that is getting recognition, but there are a lot of other artists out of Toronto and Winnipeg and across the country . Some really cool stuff is happening there for anyone who is interested in this genre.
I am an avid (fanatically avid) follower of long distance sled dog racing. I don’t know if following races like the Iditarod, the Yukon Quest and the Finnmarksløpet are “nerdy” not do think participating in them would be nerd like.
I was very pleasantly surprised to see my favorite musher, Lance Mackey lend some advice and assistance to Newton Marshall, Jamaica’s first participant (and finisher) in the 2010 Iditarod. He raced several other times and even won the Herbie Nayokpuk Memorial Award!