Berli's Trek Shack
Race in Star Trek, Part Three
Klingons, Jem'Hadar and Tuvok
Under Construction
Portrayal of Black men on Star Trek is really nothing to brag about.
Race in Star Trek: Is Star Trek Racist?
The evolution of this article.
A look at the racial/ethnic coding of the Star Trek races. Although they were nominally exotic aliens from all over the galaxy, the races of Star Trek have more often than not been stand-ins for various nations on Earth.
When Sisko was promoted to Captain on Deep Space Nine, the Star Trek franchise finally put a African-American on equal footing with the two famous, white captains of the previous two series. Despite that (and all the headway made on DS9) all of the series had some issues when it came to the crew - human and alien.
What was, is again. Or is it? If you've seen The Galileo 7, you know Spock didn't always have an easy ride. He was alien and cold, and that rubbed some people the wrong way. But if Spock sometimes had it rough, Tuvok is never given a break. Throughout the Voyager series, he's been verbally abused by everyone, from the Captain on down. Maybe it's just a "coincidence," but I know Kirk never treated Spock the way Janeway treats Tuvok.
Star Trek's woes with regards to race are endemic of the situation in all science fiction and all television - recently, in some ways, worse. Star Trek held up a shining ideal of tolerance for all races, religions, nations, creeds, a world united for peace. It wasn't such a bad idea. It's fashionable now to act like things will never get better in America - but that very defeatism feeds into the problem. The real way to bring Star Trek to life isn't silly costumes or exotic technology, but by building the sort of society that we hold in our dreams.
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This site created and maintained by Berli.
Posted May 6, 2001.