I Adore Me Some Y’all

Hey, all 1838 of you! Thanks so much for joining the party over here and for giving Dr. deGrasse Tyson so much love! It is the highest ranking of our Crushes so far. And he’s one of our highest ranking posts overall—not quite up there with the quote about “friendzoning,” which is the highest one—but it’s definitely up there. (Would any of you believe me if I said I meant to post it on my personal Tumblr?:-))

I’m glad you’re digging our foray into these woods and, please, stay longer!

Racialicious Crush Of The Week: Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

The dude under the sideburns and ‘fro in this photo 

eventually became this man, our Crush Of The Week.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson does with science—specifically the Universe—for the general audience what Bill Nye the Science Guy does with science for the ‘tween set: makes it accessible, if not fun. At the same time, Dr. Tyson gets major props from his academic cohorts in the physics and astrophysics communities for the work he does, though sometimes the public may not appreciate his upending what they’ve been taught, like the idea that Pluto isn’t the ninth planet in this solar system. (He blames this on the confluence of the discovery of Pluto in 1930 and Walt Disney creating the cartoon character of Pluto the same year.) 

The Manhattan-born, Bronx-reared son of a housewife-turned-gerontologist mother and sociologist father, Dr. Tyson stated he felt “called by the Universe” to be its pupil when he visited the Hayden Planetarium when her was a child. He studied astrophysics at the Bronx High School of Science (a public school that he’s shouted out in interviews and lectures), got his undergrad degree in physics at Harvard, and got his master’s degree and PhD in astrophysics from Columbia University. 

And the Universe has paid him well and in many ways for being its pupil and teaching others about it: he has several books; hosted PBS’ NOVA scienceNOW; earned several honorary degrees; appeared on shows as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report (and even got shouted out by Colbert in his book, I Am America (And So Are You), Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, The Rachel Maddow Show, and Stargate Atlantis. Oh yeah: he was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist” by People Magazine and got an asteroid named after him. 

And Dr. Tyson stays teaching: among other things, he returned to the place where he received his calling as the director of the Hayden Planetarium and has the radio show/podcast StarTalk, where he joshes with performers while dropping knowledge on them—and us—on the everything that is the Universe.