Why are there so few interracial people in Trek?

[eschaton]

I've been a Trek fan since childhood, and one thing as I've gotten older has really irked me about all the series - how few cast members - or even backing characters - there are which are multiracial or no race in particular.

I mean, consider how the Trekverse works. All racial prejudice seems to have been erased. We know interracial marriages are normal - we see a long-term one on TNG/DS9 between Miles and Keiko). Hell, inter-species hybridization is common, and not really stigmatized much within the Federation. Therefore, we should assume that people have been mixing for hundreds of years, meaning there are way more interracial people in the 23rd and 24th centuries than in the present. Yet the vast majority of actors across the series appear to be unambiguously white, with the few nonwhite characters generally recognizable as being a particular ethnic group. Julian Bashir was originally intended as an exception - being "nothing in particular" but they later stepped on this to a certain extent by giving him two Near Eastern/South Asian looking parents.

Even more ridiculous are the cases where isolated planets of Federation colonists are found. Like the TNG episode the Ensigns of Command, or the descendants of the DS9 crew in Children of Time. Despite an initially small, mixed-race crew, there are still recognizably white and black people wandering around. Are we to believe that a racial caste system started, with the black families only marrying among themselves?

Yes, I would not expect that TOS would have gotten this right, given the time period. But I don't know what excuse Berman-era Trek had. And so far Discovery seems to not be doing only modestly better.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I won't argue that Trek doesn't delve deep into human identities. There are a few things to keep in mind:

First, African Americans have implicitly hybrid identities. Indeed, Sisko's family comes from New Oreleans, a particularly fertile ground for cultural and genetic cross - pollination.

Second, casting was what it was. Some decisions were not made by producers.

 

[Tesophius]

It's so far into the future that human phenotypes are easily adjusted at will. We're basically very close to augmenting what our children will look like today, so by 23rd century this should be as simple as getting your beard trimmed. So the concepts of "races"/skin tones should be so different and almost incomprehensible to us in the early 21st century.

 

[Kor]

I've been a Trek fan since childhood, and one thing as I've gotten older has really irked me about all the series - how few cast members - or even backing characters - there are which are multiracial or no race in particular.

I mean, consider how the Trekverse works. All racial prejudice seems to have been erased. We know interracial marriages are normal - we see a long-term one on TNG/DS9 between Miles and Keiko). Hell, inter-species hybridization is common, and not really stigmatized much within the Federation. Therefore, we should assume that people have been mixing for hundreds of years, meaning there are way more interracial people in the 23rd and 24th centuries than in the present. Yet the vast majority of actors across the series appear to be unambiguously white, with the few nonwhite characters generally recognizable as being a particular ethnic group. Julian Bashir was originally intended as an exception - being "nothing in particular" but they later stepped on this to a certain extent by giving him two Near Eastern/South Asian looking parents.

Even more ridiculous are the cases where isolated planets of Federation colonists are found. Like the TNG episode the Ensigns of Command, or the descendants of the DS9 crew in Children of Time. Despite an initially small, mixed-race crew, there are still recognizably white and black people wandering around. Are we to believe that a racial caste system started, with the black families only marrying among themselves?

Yes, I would not expect that TOS would have gotten this right, given the time period. But I don't know what excuse Berman-era Trek had. And so far Discovery seems to not be doing only modestly better.

Yes, I know more multi-ethnic/racial people in real life than I ever see in Trek!

It's more common to see people who are part human and part alien than it is to see human characters with two or more human ethnic backgrounds.

Molly O'Brien is the only one that immediately comes to mind. Marlena Moreau in "Mirror, Mirror" was played by a multiracial actress, but the fictional character's background was not stated.

While it is true that in large swaths of the world, the vast majority of people belong to a particular ethnic group and would probably never even have the possibility of a relationship with someone from another race or another nation, Trek is supposed to depict a united humanity without today's barriers and borders.

Kor

 

[Push The Button]

Spock ?

 

[LJS1138]

It's still basically casting choices. Especially in TNG, which I was writing summaries of for someone who's just started to watch it, I noticed that most of the time, the guest stars have blue eyes. It's not for lack of available multi-racial people, it's just that, for some reason, Hollywood wants to cast the very whitest people it can. :P

Although considering what they did with Code of Honor...

 

[Kemaiku]

It's so far into the future that human phenotypes are easily adjusted at will. We're basically very close to augmenting what our children will look like today, so by 23rd century this should be as simple as getting your beard trimmed. So the concepts of "races"/skin tones should be so different and almost incomprehensible to us in the early 21st century.

So humanity is literally white washing itself?

 

[eschaton]

I understand the practical explanation is that nonwhites are infrequently cast in hollywood - particularly multiracial people. Vin Diesel had an interesting semi-autobiographical short movie about how hard it was to get acting jobs as someone who was racially ambiguous.

That provides some explanation for extras, but I feel like it's real lazy casting when, as I said, they show an isolated planet where nearly everyone is white, but a few random black people are mixed in. As if the late 20th century U.S. racial demographics (at least as understood in Hollywood anyway) are applicable across all of time and space.

It's a bit surprising though, given the Trek series were all filmed in California, there were not more Latino extras and minor characters. That is one very easy way to cast people who look ambiguous - particularly if you don't saddle them with Spanish names (IIRC they originally wanted Bashir to be Latino).

 

[Tesophius]

So humanity is literally white washing itself?

I don't know, but whatever they're doing shouldn't be interpreted from a 21st century perspective. They could all be green or have four arms, these traits should be optional by then and wouldn't carry the meaning we ascribe to skin tones in our age.

 

[Kemaiku]

Yeah, I really doubt that's what's happening.

 

[Kor]

Spock ?

Like I said, there are more part-human, part-alien characters than there are multi-ethnic/racial full human characters.

Kor

 

[JesterFace]

there are more part-human, part-alien characters

Sometimes I think it's weird that there can even be such things, hybrids from two different races/species from different planets. There aren't even another species on this planet that can have offspring with humans and these hybrids are products of different races from different planets... There MUST be some genetic engineering involved for it to be possible.

And next comes the TNG and 'The Chase' explanation?

 

[Griffeytrek]

It has to do with the somewhat hypocritical and contradictory nature of Hollywood itself. For all of the far left liberalism that those in Hollywood espouse it should be noted that Hollywood is the one industry where Race, Age, Sex, and things like boob size are actual conditions of employment. This leads to the effect whereby the whole backend casting and hiring industry likes to neatly categorize things. To put an actor or applicant in a nice little box to be used when all the requirements pop up on the casting sheet. ("Actor, male, 20-25, black, non street" yeah just imagine if Walmart posted a job listing like that?) Mixed Race actors fuck with their nice neat little categories. And like all inconvenient things in LaLaLand, this means they immediately get ignored.

 

[Six of Twelve]

Alexander Siddig, who was originally cast as Siddig el Fadil, who played Bashir, is himself biracial. His mother is British, and his father of Arab ethnicity from Sudan. The Bashir character is of similar background on the show.

I did find it a bit eye rolling that when Sisko was finally partnered on the show, many light years from Earth, that Kasidy Yates, just happened to be a human of the same race/ ethnicity. I'd always thought that with his increasing affinity with the Bajoran people that he'd have ended up with a Bajoran woman of whatever color.

 

[Tesophius]

What's non-street?

 

[Griffeytrek]

Alexander Siddig, who was originally cast as Siddig el Fadil, who played Bashir, is himself biracial. His mother is British, and his father of Arab ethnicity from Sudan. The Bashir character is of similar background on the show.

I did find it a bit eye rolling that when Sisko was finally partnered on the show, many light years from Earth, that Kasidy Yates, just happened to be a human of the same race/ ethnicity. I'd always thought that with his increasing affinity with the Bajoran people that he'd have ended up with a Bajoran woman of whatever color.

Well you have to take the established character traits into account. Sisco is clearly an ass man. It's all about the booty. And them Bajoran babes just had nothin going on to the rear.

What's non-street?

Hollywoods casting catch phrase for "doesn't look or talk like a black guy from the hood." Also can be though of as a polite way of saying "no thugs". Remember class these are the elitists that like to lecture the rest of us on race relations and diversity.

 

[eschaton]

I did find it a bit eye rolling that when Sisko was finally partnered on the show, many light years from Earth, that Kasidy Yates, just happened to be a human of the same race/ ethnicity. I'd always thought that with his increasing affinity with the Bajoran people that he'd have ended up with a Bajoran woman of whatever color.

I'm positive this was due to intervention by Avery Brooks. He purposefully made several insertions into DS9 reflecting contemporary American race relations (e.g., comments that he didn't like the holodeck casino program because in the real world black people wouldn't be allowed in at that time, and changing the last episode to show Sisko would "come back" so that the series didn't end with a black man abandoning his wife and unborn child). All of his love interests over the course of the show were played by black women (unless you count his hookup with mirror Jadzia) which I take to be something he requested, since other black actors in the Trek canon had white partners (including Worf on DS9).

 

[1001001]

I'm positive this was due to intervention by Avery Brooks. He purposefully made several insertions into DS9 reflecting contemporary American race relations (e.g., comments that he didn't like the holodeck casino program because in the real world black people wouldn't be allowed in at that time, and changing the last episode to show Sisko would "come back" so that the series didn't end with a black man abandoning his wife and unborn child). All of his love interests over the course of the show were played by black women (unless you count his hookup with mirror Jadzia) which I take to be something he requested, since other black actors in the Trek canon had white partners (including Worf on DS9).

If we're counting Worf as "Black" then so was Tuvok, and his spouse was also Black.

 

[Griffeytrek]

I'm positive this was due to intervention by Avery Brooks. He purposefully made several insertions into DS9 reflecting contemporary American race relations (e.g., comments that he didn't like the holodeck casino program because in the real world black people wouldn't be allowed in at that time, and changing the last episode to show Sisko would "come back" so that the series didn't end with a black man abandoning his wife and unborn child). All of his love interests over the course of the show were played by black women (unless you count his hookup with mirror Jadzia) which I take to be something he requested, since other black actors in the Trek canon had white partners (including Worf on DS9).

Brooks did have something to do with it. He felt it was important to use the pulpit of the show to feature or showcase a stable black nuclear family. To be more "role model" than diversity checklist. Both his choices in lady loves and his requested changes to the last episode were in service to that goal. To push back at the then obvious social disintegration of black families in America and hold up some small story showing "it doesn't have to be this way". It's much the same purpose and effect as Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable was injecting into the national zeitgeist at the same time. And it did have effect. Far more so then I suspect either the actors or their producers realize.

 

[Nyotarules]

In universe reason, humans are still Eurocentric and prejudiced, they like to believe they are not. Real life reason, see in universe reason.