{"id":15300,"date":"2014-10-05T11:04:17","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T11:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/you-have-to-remember-that-star-trek-exists-in-two\/"},"modified":"2014-10-05T11:04:17","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T11:04:17","slug":"you-have-to-remember-that-star-trek-exists-in-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/you-have-to-remember-that-star-trek-exists-in-two\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

You have to remember that Star Trek exists in two contexts, and while race and gender discrimination supposedly doesn\u2019t exist in the Star Trek world, it\u2019s undeniable that it exists in ours and therefore manifests in the other.<\/p>\n

When 90% of the captains in the Federation are white dudes, one has to start wondering at what point should we start realizing that we are assigning our contemporary privileges on to a show that is supposed to be about progress.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, identity politics are important in television because television doesn\u2019t represent us. I once saw Avery Brooks, and someone asked him what the biggest change in Hollywood has been since he started, and he said that it was nothing. That he was still waiting for the change. That he was still waiting for Hollywood look like the world.<\/p>\n

We need identity representation in the media because it doesn\u2019t exist, whether you like it or not.<\/p>\n

As such, Brooks\u2019 position has always been interesting to me. In Star Trek, his character isn\u2019t defined by race, as you sort of point out. Yet, the first thing we think about when we think of Sisko is that he was the first black captain. That should let you know how important these two contexts a show lies are. There is what it supposed to be, and then there is what it is.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it. The original series of Star Trek was a mess of sexism and neo-colonialism, and TNG has more than a few problems smoothing over cultures to fit Federation standards, and then touting it as a good thing. Star Trek isn\u2019t perfect because the people of today write it, and that\u2019s worth looking at it. That\u2019s why identity in Star Trek is important.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Alison \u201cBoom\u201d Baumgartner, (Comment on \u201cWho Will Be the Next Star Trek Captain<\/a>\u201d)<\/p>\n

Just\u2026going to flail a little here because I love DS9 the most. Sisko was the BEST captain. I wonder how much of that was Avery Brooks? I\u2019ve heard through various interviews that Nana Visitor was very protective of her character and maybe Brooks was as well? It\u2019s not that race wasn\u2019t a part of Sisko \u2014 he collects African masks! He\u2019s from New Orleans and loves to cook Cajun food! He\u2019s interested in his heritage, but not really defined by it. He\u2019s not just black, he\u2019s African-American, the show touches on it but that\u2019s not the story outside of a couple episodes. The most obvious example is the Benny Russel story in \u201cFar Beyond the Stars,\u201d but it comes up more subtly elsewhere. In one episode he\u2019s a little reluctant to LARP in the holodeck in a 1950s setting because fuck that noise. He could easily have been written as a black guy from a human colony, with no connection to earth outside of maybe some folklore, but Sisko is African-American and that is cool as hell. (And I don\u2019t know if it was touched upon in the show, I should rewatch, but his awareness of slavery and segregation must have impacted Sisko\u2019s interactions with the Bajorans, who had recently been through sixty years of occupation by the Cardassians. History teaches us empathy.)<\/p>\n

(Sisko is the best. If I ran into Avery Brooks, I would squeak and fall over, probably.)<\/p>\n

DS9 is so important, y\u2019all.<\/p>\n

(via thaumatropia<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have to remember that Star Trek exists in two contexts, and while race and gender discrimination supposedly doesn\u2019t exist in the Star Trek world, it\u2019s undeniable that it exists in ours and therefore manifests in the other. When 90% of the captains in the Federation are white dudes, one has to start wondering at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-words","post_format-post-format-quote"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-3YM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}