You know the Federation assimilated Nog... Nog turned his back on the Ferengi ways for Starfleet... The article talks about racial attitudes of DS9 towards the Ferengi. Quark understood the Federation was insidious and hew' mons were as vicious as Klingons when times got tough. Nog blindly allow himself to be assimilated by the Federation.
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1046/1182
Conclusion: Assimilation is the Answer
Bernardi argues that the mainstream dominant culture of the Star Trek universe is "depressingly Western and painfully white."(33) Despite its multicultural cast and "melting pot" space station (or perhaps a more apt analogy would be a tossed-salad), DS9 continues the franchise's white vision of the future that Bernardi illustrates. Nog, a recurring character throughout the seven year series, grows from Ferengi boy to a man who adopts the values of a culture that despises his race. DS9 shows us that Nog makes the "right" and "noble" choice and rises above his despised race to embrace the values of the dominant culture. Nog proves that a Ferengi can abandon his "detested" culture's values and become a "credit to his race" from the dominant culture perspective.
This vision of the assimilated "other" is a longtime media stereotype. As Rhodes argues, racist culture needs racist media to promote racist values. The dominant perspective that makes the Ferengi race detested is the same one that validates Nog's rejection of his culture. If the Star Trek franchise truly wants to embrace multiculturalism and diversity then it will have to consider the "other" in non-ethnocentric ways. Star Trek's professed moral mission is to ask "questions of relevant social significance and . . . [offer] wise and timely answers to those questions." (34) Unfortunately the reality of Star Trek is that it continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes and visions of the future that are far from multicultural.
The fans on the Star Trek electronic mailing list called attention to this space-race problem on DS9. They were unable to reach a consensus on whether Nog got into Starfleet on an affirmative action program or not. Of course, using all of the textual data concerning Nog and his Starfleet career there is no concrete evidence to suggest that he was accepted because of affirmative action polices. The electronic mailing list members took a contemporary argument against affirmative action to make sense of Nog's acceptance to Starfleet Academy. However, what the textual evidence does suggest is an even more racist conclusion. The conclusion is that Nog simply stopped being a Ferengi and assimilated into the dominant Star Trek culture thus making himself acceptable. Interestingly, the participants themselves implicitly considered this explanation at least once when Asa suggests that Nog and his father Rom are different, "they're enough of an oddity that they're considered 'strange' by their counterparts." Although the participants differed as to whether the Ferengi were actually based on negative Jewish stereotypes they nonetheless realized the "othered" status of the Ferengi and exposed the dark side of Star Trek's "white" future.
https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1046/1182
Conclusion: Assimilation is the Answer
Bernardi argues that the mainstream dominant culture of the Star Trek universe is "depressingly Western and painfully white."(33) Despite its multicultural cast and "melting pot" space station (or perhaps a more apt analogy would be a tossed-salad), DS9 continues the franchise's white vision of the future that Bernardi illustrates. Nog, a recurring character throughout the seven year series, grows from Ferengi boy to a man who adopts the values of a culture that despises his race. DS9 shows us that Nog makes the "right" and "noble" choice and rises above his despised race to embrace the values of the dominant culture. Nog proves that a Ferengi can abandon his "detested" culture's values and become a "credit to his race" from the dominant culture perspective.
This vision of the assimilated "other" is a longtime media stereotype. As Rhodes argues, racist culture needs racist media to promote racist values. The dominant perspective that makes the Ferengi race detested is the same one that validates Nog's rejection of his culture. If the Star Trek franchise truly wants to embrace multiculturalism and diversity then it will have to consider the "other" in non-ethnocentric ways. Star Trek's professed moral mission is to ask "questions of relevant social significance and . . . [offer] wise and timely answers to those questions." (34) Unfortunately the reality of Star Trek is that it continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes and visions of the future that are far from multicultural.
The fans on the Star Trek electronic mailing list called attention to this space-race problem on DS9. They were unable to reach a consensus on whether Nog got into Starfleet on an affirmative action program or not. Of course, using all of the textual data concerning Nog and his Starfleet career there is no concrete evidence to suggest that he was accepted because of affirmative action polices. The electronic mailing list members took a contemporary argument against affirmative action to make sense of Nog's acceptance to Starfleet Academy. However, what the textual evidence does suggest is an even more racist conclusion. The conclusion is that Nog simply stopped being a Ferengi and assimilated into the dominant Star Trek culture thus making himself acceptable. Interestingly, the participants themselves implicitly considered this explanation at least once when Asa suggests that Nog and his father Rom are different, "they're enough of an oddity that they're considered 'strange' by their counterparts." Although the participants differed as to whether the Ferengi were actually based on negative Jewish stereotypes they nonetheless realized the "othered" status of the Ferengi and exposed the dark side of Star Trek's "white" future.
).
