Basic Trope: A nerdy character of African descent.
- Straight:
- Steven is a black man who's pretty smart, likes super hero comics, books, and passingly participates on internet forums.
- Steven is a black man who pursues a political, economic, or technological/scientific career path.
- Exaggerated:
- Steven's entire life revolves around nerdy interests and careers, to a very unhealthy level.
- All of the Black characters in the story are portrayed as very intelligent.
- Downplayed: Steven shares stereotypical interests in things like basketball and rap music but still pursues an intellectual career path and enjoys nerdy things.
- Steven is a rap artist but also a big Comic Book Geek, so most of his raps overlap with the Nerdcore genre.
- Justified: Steven grew up in a mild mannered community thanks to his parent's hard work and was able to involve himself with more intellectual and geeky things.
- Inverted:
- Jonathan is a white man who displays interest in stereo-typically "Black" things like basketball, rap music, sports clothing, etc.
- Steven is The Ditz.
- Subverted: Steven comes off as a nerdy character simply because he's smart, but ends up being into things like jazz, religion, and has no interest in geeky things.
- Double Subverted: ... then his younger brother introduces him to super hero movies.
- Parodied: Steven is a member of I.N.A.B.N (International Association of Black Nerds) full of nerdy black men and women from America, Europe, Africa, Asia, every other continent, and the Grays.
- Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Steven defines himself by his own race, his interests, or both, depends on the writer
- Averted: Steven is a black male with other character traits as opposed to nerdiness.
- Enforced:
- The writers have history of writing racial caricatures, so the producers demanded Steven be portrayed this way in order to avoid Unfortunate Implications.
- The writer wanted to challenge his internalized biases by creating a character and personality first, then deciding their gender/ethnicity on a dice roll. Steven was the result.
- Lampshaded: "I don't know, I just thought black nerds were an extinct species..."
- Invoked: Steven's family decides to encourage his interests in science, comic books, and other such interests.
- Exploited: Steven's older brother routinely solicits him for comic book, anime, and book knowledge in order to fit in with another group of nerds.
- Defied: Steven's father tries to get him into basketball, his older brother takes him to nighclubs and black music concerts, and his mom takes him to church in order to make him fit in with their friend groups more.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Steven experiences the bigotry in black communities, with some supporting him for being himself, and others accusing him of being "Whitewashed". Unsurprisingly Steven's differing interests and career path leads to befriending similar blacks and people of other races, romantically involved with a man/woman who is similar to him or not black, therefore accusing him of fetishizing other races and unauthentic blacks.
- Reconstructed: Steven decides to distance himself from people who vilify him for not being like them.
- Implied:
- Steve is mainly a Flat Character and Token Black Friend, but he has a model of the Starship Enterprise in his bedroom.
- Steve is a very intelligent character, and is Ambiguously Brown.
- Played for Laughs: Steven is a Genius Ditz.
- Played for Drama: Despite his interests, Steven is looked down upon by the (mostly-white) majority of other nerds, whether through microaggresions or outright racism.
- Played for Horror: Steven is a Mad Scientist and/or Corrupt Politician
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