Star Trek discriminate Germans

[MiroslavSFCenter]

I think that everyone will agree that Star Trek promote tolerance and diversity, but,...Star Trek franchise discriminate one great nation - Germans. For the record, I'm a Croat.

During long run of the franchise we haven't se even one important character from Germany, only one or two episodic characters, and naturally Germans as nazi soldiers in the TOS/VOY/ENT. That is so obvious discrimination, especially when we know that Germany have one of the biggest fanbases in the world, beside USA.

Let'see - we have British (Reed), French (Picard), Irish (O'Brien), Scotish (Scotty), Japanaese (Sulu, Sato), Russian (Chekov, Rozhenko family), Indian (Bashir), Cuban (Robau), and recurring/episodic Mexican, Italian, etc.

[Star Trek discrimination mode on] So, have only two "good" Germans in Star Trek: Karl Jeager and Kurt Mandl. And New Berlin, and Oberth class.[Star Trek discrimination mode off]. Disgrace...

 

[Roger Wilco]

Isn't Bashir Arab? And what about the Chinese? Also, there's the Danube class.

Anyway, I don't think much of quota/token characters. I doubt Roddenberry deliberately left out a German character and after that - who cares? Racism/discrimination is more or less abolished in Star Trek.

 

[Mach5]

Isn't Bashir Arab?

From MemAlpha:

Ronald D. Moore commented: "In my mind, Julian was of Sudanese (like Sid), Indian, or Pakistani extraction, but that the family's roots were probably in England, hence the accents."

 

[Michael]

I never felt discriminated by Star Trek. Not at all.

Also, I'd like to mirror Roger Wilco's disdain for token characters.

 

[MiroslavSFCenter]

@Roger Wilco
What about Danube? Danube is huge river which flows trough Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Blugaria.

How do you think "who cares"? Is it normal to have double moral, not in series, but between fans like you who try to relativize that obviously deliberate "omission"? So, we haven't racism/discrimination in beautiful world of Star Trek, but we have discrimination in real world with disease called "relativism" or "I don't care", which is imprinted into minds of many so-called enlightened Trekkies.

@NCC-1701
Then I simply can't help you beacuse I'm not miracleworker like Scotty.

 

[Roger Wilco]

@Roger Wilco
What about Danube? Danube is huge river which flows trough Germany, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Germany.

Nothing really, you mentioned "New Berlin" and "Oberth class" ships and I added another one with a German connection.

How do you think "who cares"? Is it normal to have double moral, not in series, but between fans like you who try to relativize that obviously deliberate "omission"? So, we haven't racism/discrimination in beautiful world of Star Trek, but we have discrimination in real world with disease called "relativism" or "I don't care", which is imprinted in to minds of many so-called enlightened Trekkies.

Hey, no need to get defensive, I wasn't attacking you, just voicing a different opinion.

The thing is, that Star Trek is an American show and it's main goal always was to appeal to an American audience. The producers never cared about the international audience nearly as much, so it's quite US-centric obviously. And Germany's 80 million people aren't that much compared to the world's population in general.

If you want to take it that seriously, groups of people who are really underrepresented in Star Trek are:
Chinese, Indians, South-East-Asians, Africans, South-Americans.
Overrepresented: White Americans.

 

[Plecostomus]

Maybe Germany was wiped out in WW3 and after the radiation died down they relocated Scotland there.

 

[MiroslavSFCenter]

The thing is, that Star Trek is an American show and it's main goal always was to appeal to an American audience.

Wait a minute... that is aserious problem. Beacuse Star Trek like to be so-called "nelightend" series with "enlightend" public. So, it is obviously something wrong with "enlightened American Trekkies", NHF. Hint: Double standards.

The producers never cared about the international audience nearly as much, so it's quite US-centric obviously.

An they care about money from TV rights and merchandise?

And Germany's 80 million people aren't that much compared to the world's population in general.

USA and other anglo-saxon countries aren't world population.

If you want to take it that seriously, groups of people who are really underrepresented in Star Trek are:
Chinese, Indians, South-East-Asians, Africans, South-Americans.

And what about people frome Middle/Eastern/SouthEastern Europe?

Overrepresented: White Americans.

Uhura, M'Benga, LaForge, Sulu, Ogawa, Keiko, Sisko family, Worf, Kurn, Kim, Tuvok, Sato, Mayweather, etc., all white American characters/actors.

 

[Roger Wilco]

And what about pepople frome Eastern/SouthEastern Europe?

Well, there's Chekov at least, but you're right.

Uhura, M'Benga, LaForge, Sulu, Ogawa, Keiko, Sisko family, Worf, Kurn, Kim, Tuvok, Sato, Mayweather, etc., all White american characters/actors. Is it a plane, is it a bird or "minority racism"?

Yes, there are some black and Asian characters, but that's only so because of the American demographics. Still, if you compare it to the world population what I said is true - if Star Trek were an accurate depiction of humanity, 2/3 of the characters would be Asian, at least another 1 in 5 would be dark skinned and almost all characters should have an accent when speaking English.

You can call it racism if you want, I call it showbusiness

 

[JustKate]

How do we know there were no German characters? Surely there were characters with German surnames. You can't go by the accents in Trek, you know. After TOS, they didn't bother that much with fake-o Hollywood versions of this accent or that one.

 

[captcalhoun]

what about Aussies and Kiwis?

 

[Roger Wilco]

btw. not to mention that at least 50% of the main characters should be women, which wasn't the case in any of the Star Trek incarnations.

As much as Star Trek is utopian, it is a reflection of it's time too.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

So, there were two good German characters, right? Excluding family, that's one more than French characters or Sudanese characters, etc. I don't really see how that's discrimination. The show isn't designed to get as many Germans as possible in it.

 

[Michael]

The show isn't designed to get as many Germans as possible in it.

Also, I don't think most Germans are so stupid as to watch a show only because it has German characters.

 

[Hambone]

"The Squire of Gothos" featured a character called Lt. Jaeger. A good guy. Trelane specifically pointed out his German heritage.

 

[Red Ranger]

The OP has a point. I only remember one character with an obvious German surname, Lt. Jaeger (sp?) from The Squire of Gothos. I don't see such characters as tokens, myself. My beef is with the lack of major Hispanic characters. Mostly, they're background characters. Now, sure, there have been some Latinos who've played major characters -- Ricardo Montalban, Robert Beltran, and Roxann Biggs-Dawson (her married names) -- but rarely did they play major Latino characters. That's the fault of the mostly white writing staff, who don't have enough imagination to come up with more ethnic character names. -- RR

 

[QuasarVM]

Yeah! Germans perfect rocket propulsion (Werner Von Braun) and look what it gets em...lack of representation on Star Trek!

Life is so unfair. I say more Germans on Star Trek!

Who's with me?!

 

[CorporalClegg]

I thought Morn was German.

 

[JustKate]

According to ancestry.com, Riker is a German name - a variant of Rieck. Just sayin'...

 

[Michael]

According to ancestry.com, Riker is a German name - a variant of Rieck. Just sayin'...

Actually I never heard of anyone with the name Riker or Rieck.

I thought Morn was German.

Not enough Bierbauch.