It’s a typical moment in the broadcast life of Black Tribbles, airing weekly on the Germantown-based online radio station G-town Radio: a quintet of black Philly natives who laugh, geek out, and bust the occasional rhyme about superheroes, sci-fi and all sorts of fantastical pop culture. It’s a labor of love for this crew—though they all hope turning pro is in the cards for the show’s future.
Its name comes from the classic Star Trek comedy episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles,” about a race of adorably fuzzy little alien critters—purring, throbbing balls of happy fur that radiate love and, along the way, reproduce new tribbles at a startling rate. “I was a little worried people would think it was a strictly Star Trek show,” says Len, the show’s producer, “but I knew I didn’t want ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ in the title. A tribble is this round furry thing that’s so cute you want to hug it, but it’s still cool. It’s one of the most memorable things that was ever on Star Trek even though all it did was sit there and multiply. Also, it’s kind of obscure—and so is a black nerd. You don’t see many black nerds in pop culture.”

It’s that simple fact that makes Black Tribbles so remarkable. In real life, there have always been lots of black nerds, both the everyday ones—like the 900 geeks of color who rapidly sounded off a roll call in May 2009, when a viral Internet survey asked nonwhite sci-fi fans on LiveJournal to come say hello and prove they existed—and the historically influential ones, like mathematician Benjamin Banneker, scientist George Washington Carver, author Octavia Butler and astronaut Mae Jemison. But in pop culture? Black nerds depicted as an actual part of black America? In the onslaught of media imagery that television, magazines, movies and comic books hurl at us every day? Not so much. For a long time, it was pretty much just Steve Urkel, the clichéd brainiac on the ’90s sitcom Family Matters, whose nasal whine, physical clumsiness and giant glasses underlined every week for eight years the idea that geek and cool were polar opposites.

“I was always called Urkel growing up,” says Jason, rolling his eyes. “Really? That’s all we get? White nerds can grow up and become scientists and get hot chicks, and I get Urkel?”

Even Star Trek’s much-heralded vision of a peaceful post-racial future has only ever shown us a single black character at a time—Lt. Uhura in the 1960s show, Geordi La Forge in the ’80s, Benjamin Sisko in the ’90s—amid a sea of white faces.

Black Tribbles bucks that trend. For two hours a week, five hip, funny, well-rounded young black adults let their geek flags fly on air in a freewheeling bull session that thrives on the fact that there’s no pretension, no self-conscious radio shtick—just microphones present while a bunch of friends talk about what they love most, from comic books and fantasy movies to science and history and ancient mythology. And they do so in a hip-hop-flavored atmosphere that’s as likely to name-check Dr. Dre as it is Doctor Who.