Sorry the above sounds like the present day 'I don't see colour' statement as if that is something positive. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging someone has a different skin tone, just as long as its no more important as the colour of their eyes or hair. In the Trek sense I am sure if someone described Tuvok as the black Vulcan or Vorick as the white Vulcan they would not freak out, its just another biological descriptor with no political, social or cultural advantage or disadvantage for either person.
Its messed up RL human culture that uses our biological, cultural, etc human differences to divide and mistreat people.
In the Trek universe our human differences are no longer dividers, but society is not 'colour blind' either, the human characters should not be treated as if they are secular, honorary white American humans.
Maybe this needs another thread to discuss
I think there's a difference between the connotation of a white person saying "I don't see color" in the here-and-now given the cultural issues we're still working through as a society, and wondering about whether skin color and racial classifications will still be a thing 300 years from now in a future where social constructs such as money and human religion largely no longer exist. Especially so given that scientists in the present-day feel race, which is just as much a social construct, serves no purpose and should be phased out.
Scietnific American:
More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was concerned that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences between different populations of people. He spoke out against the idea of "white" and "black" as discrete groups, claiming that these distinctions ignored the scope of human diversity.
Science would favor Du Bois. Today, the mainstream belief among scientists is that race is a social construct without biological meaning ... "It's a concept we think is too crude to provide useful information, it's a concept that has social meaning that interferes in the scientific understanding of human genetic diversity and it's a concept that we are not the first to call upon moving away from," said Michael Yudell, a professor of public health at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
And to answer the question about Tuvok or Vorick, I think they would ask what logical purpose does pointing out the color of their skin serve when it comes to making a distinction about them?
BELE: "It is obvious to the most simple-minded that Lokai is of an inferior breed."
SPOCK: "The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself."
BELE: "Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me! Look at me!"
KIRK: "You're black on one side and white on the other."
BELE: "I am black on the right side."
KIRK: "I fail to see the significant difference."
BELE: "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."
