What was the state of my known ancestors 4 centuries ago?
I'm mostly Pennsylvania Dutch, but the oldest two American ancestors I have are from the colonies of Massachettues, and they both happen to be of English nobility.... like, technically still nobility, but clearly each generation one step lower on the ladder.
I'm not sure if I can look at England of that era as "my people", and be kinda odd for me to accept this as " my identity" cause I only discovered it a few months ago through a great great grandmother's family tree, and like, a very large chunk of the US coincidently happens to have them as ancestors too- they certainly were not celibate.
For the actual character of Sisko, yeah.... I'm gonna have to say his family likely was till very late, backwards and ignorant racisr holdouts rejecting Federation Holism, a Brotherhood of Man approach, and just went on seething in deep rage. Many parts of the US has ethnic rednecks running separatist groups, when I lived in Alaska, they were fat white people sitting in a torn up yard, in lawnchairs staring me down. In Hawaii, fat Hawaiians in Waimanelo in the far rear clever enough to put spray painted signs up, sitting in lawn chairs drinking beer. I've seen the same thing here in West Virginia, and suspect it exists in a very similar form all over the world as a universal trait all populations produce.
Only way for it to survive that long for it to directly effect Sisko. What does this say about him as a Captain? He developed a Inequality Complex in a era of Utopic Equality. It undoubtedly would conflict with his job if stressed or mentally unbalanced, but seriously, think stating into all those Orbs messed with his head far more. I can't see how it would mess with his head cathartically unless it was the thing central to him. Seriously, several centuries had passed, your ancestors stopped being slaves a century prior to even that, I'm certain I had family members as serfs that far back. Heck, my family almost got shot during the Revolutionary War, as German emigrants refusing to draft in the 18th century. By the 19th century, they all had named their first and middle names after Presidents.
I would truely be justified in saying he is clearly of a family of hard core racists to maintain it that long. That, or he just really, really identified with early 20th century black literature. Perhaps too good of a literature professor at Star Fleet who taught that era too well?
But you also gotta note, even with this negative trait, he did choose to be a open, inclusive starfleet officer. He wasn't making white people under his command pay for ancestral crimes against "his people", unless you count everything he made O'Brien fix at off hours.
Now, beyond this unfortunate accident of a character trait that looks simply bizarre when analyzed literally, from a writers point of view, it was brilliant. You had a actor more than willing to explore these issues that many still identify with, however right or wrong, today. Being a white collar, African American intellectual in the early 20th century sucked. No way was that a good experience, takes a lot of gravitas to tell that story.
I don't think such stories should NOT he told, it is, other than the religious arc of DS9, the best aspect of the story telling. I don't think many people would of intentionally of set out to see that show had it been stand alone, unrelated to Star Trek. Very powerful, very moving.... has the nasty side effect though of making Sisko look like his family came from the most resentful, hateful stock of Louisiana racists, to of lasted that many centuries.
How many Scottish here freak out over the ways the Romans enslaved you, or how many Indians get upset about how Alexander the Great stormed your country, and everytime you see a Greek, something tenses up inside involuntarily?
It's understandable how people can have residual hate for up to 4-5 generations, but there comes a certain point where it becomes obvious you no longer have a good reason to hate them, you just love to hate. If Sisko's family was still grudging at that point, after a few centuries of earth utopia occurring, then.....
But it was genius to do from a storytelling perspective. It resonated with the actor, and I'm sure much of the African American audience. I wish they could of made it occur in a way that didn't make Sisko look like he either had a identity crisis and his in 20th century black liberation literature, or came from a super racist family. The experiences could of came from one of his ancestors, through temporal leaking, or someone the wormhole aliens had contact with via some random artifact. I would of played it that way.
If I had a nervous breakdown, convinced I was a German serf, and that my master was secretly hanging my wife and worried about my son running off to join the army, and my wheat harvest molding- I'm not so sure I would accept that as the real reality. I don't care what the French, Austrians, Russians, or Poles think of me in that timeline, or how often I get whipped, that era is so distant and unappealing to me all these centuries later I just can't begin to care. If I hallucinated that era, I wouldn't feel particularly attached.... nothing scrwaks me. Unfortunately for Sisko, something from that era did relate to him, despite the obvious fact it shouldn't really of all. 4-5 centuries really should start healing those wounds of slavery and discrimination, if your still holding onto that pain without good immediate reasons, you really need to just let go. Just looks silly and absurd.
