Examples of Americentricism in Trek?

[Basil]

The fact that most people in the world today are non-white, and they predict over 50% of the US will be non-white in 100 years, so at that point in the future there should be A LOT more asians and hispanics, especially if Starfleet is based in San Fransisco, and so many asians into the maths and sciences, I always pictured realistically starfleet would be mostly asian

60% or more of the human population today is Asian. Whites account for closer to 10%.

 

[Basil]

In TOS, it was referred to as "cowboy diplomacy." You come across a planet that was in some way ruled 'wrong,' they'd pick up a phaser and fix it. Despite claims of a Prime Directive, they weekly marched in and made sure things were changed to an apple pie version of "Freedom" and "Democracy."

You don't like Landru? Screw the PD, we'll overthrow it; Vaal - zap that sucker, and give these guys freedom! We are the way, we have the power - we are the universes police force! By and large, the only things that survived the Federation's "fixing them" were the Empires that were too big for the Fed to run over.

That term was never once used in TOS.

Landru and Vaal were interfering with the normal development of the civilizations -- no Prime Directive violation. TOS rarely, if ever, had any direct violation of the Prime Directive as it was described.

 

[Cyke101]

Show me another series that does multiculturalism any better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpXM9bj-WPU



*****

And in regards to Doctor Who, they're nearly the opposite of any claims of Americentrism in Trek -- Doctor Who has no such pretensions about how British it is. The show will proudly go out of its way to promote British culture whenever possible (albeit in funny ways). However, nationalistic pride in most any show from any country would be farrr more veiled and subtle, including American shows such as Trek.

As for my thoughts on actual Americentrism, I agree it exists but it's also just the nature of where the franchise is filmed. I would love for any crew to have a plethora of accents and I'm slightly dismayed that the Universal Translator gives all aliens an American accent, as well as the sheer amount of vessels named after American history, locations, and events.

 

[True Trek Fan]

Looking at Star Trek from a non-American perspective I never thought TOS was overly American in nature other than perhaps a few episodes, A Piece of the Action, Tomorrow is Yesterday, City on the Edge of Forever, Omega Glory, Spectre of the Gun, The Savage Curtan and Assignment Earth, all these are either partialy set in the US or deal directly with American history. Yet TOS also brought us 2 Greek like worls, 1 Roman like world, I Nazi Germany like world and gave us a ship with a diverse ethnic crew, unseen before in US tv history. The ranks like Commodore used in TOS were also not necessarily associate with 'America.' I should also add growing up in Canada I knew William Shatner was Canadian as was James Doohan so as a kid watching the show I never associated their characters as being either American or Scottish (if that makes any sense at all).

For myself it was TWOK that marks a strong departure from TOS and the begining of the militarization of Star Trek, that is when I associate it as being purely American. The militarization of Star Trek started in the second film of the franchise and illustrates the departure from space exploration to space patrol, kinda like the US desire of being the world's policeman. The ranks in Trek become more important, the 'cadets' are emphasized more, military type regalia also becomes more important in the Trek films. I have to admit when I first viewed the promotional trailer for JJ's new Star Trek movie it just looked more and more like a big ad for the US military disguised as a science fiction film. Too bad, the Star Trek of the 1960s use to ask questions, question authoritarian societies, now all it does is sell the idea of authoritarian military society by catch phrases like I dare you to do better, enlist in the US military... err.. I mean starfleet.

 

[LLAP]

Of course Trek is very American in nature, but I quite like that. Endless tokenism would ruin the show.

 

[WillsBabe]

Hood, Defiant, Excalibur, Exeter, Repulse - British

Being British, I always get a bit of a kick out of British named ships.

 

[Cyke101]

Endless tokenism would ruin the show.

The future's bound to be so multicultural that there would be no such thing as tokenism anymore. The global community's getting tighter, as GR envisioned.

Speaking as a citizen of the United States and as a fan of the show, Star Trek isn't just for us, it's for the world.

 

[captcalhoun]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

It kind of makes me wonder if the U.S. collapsed at some point after World War III and it was replaced by something else--perhaps "North American Alliance" or something like that, I dunno...

It's somewhat implied that the East Coast no longer exists. I don't recall any reference to New York, Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbia, Boston, Richmond. The easternmost geographical reference from pre-ENT Trek that I can think of is New Orleans.

ENT of course does have a geographical reference to the East Coast--Florida. Of course, it was shown just to be destroyed.

I like to think everything east of the Mississippi is a nature preserve/memorial, and possibly still slightly radioactive, with no human inhabitants any longer.

um, Archer's from New York state and Trip mentions visiting New York city...

 

[Sci]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

The US government has never been established to no longer exist; the writers have been deliberately vague about the whole thing. I see no reason to think that the US government cannot still exist as a subdivision of United Earth, myself.

ETA:

I have to admit when I first viewed the promotional trailer for JJ's new Star Trek movie it just looked more and more like a big ad for the US military disguised as a science fiction film. Too bad, the Star Trek of the 1960s use to ask questions, question authoritarian societies, now all it does is sell the idea of authoritarian military society by catch phrases like I dare you to do better, enlist in the US military... err.. I mean starfleet.

Have you actually seen the film? Kirk breaks regulations and disobeys orders left and right throughout the film -- and he turns out to be right every time he does. Believe me, nothing in the new movie encourages people not to question authority!

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

The US government has never been established to no longer exist; the writers have been deliberately vague about the whole thing. I see no reason to think that the US government cannot still exist as a subdivision of United Earth, myself.

The writers have only referrred to the U.S. government in the past tense in Trek, but never in the present tense. It's definitely plausible that the U.S. was among the "major nations" that fell during or after World War III as mentioned in First Contact. Like other former Earth nations, only individual cities seem to have survived and they probably operate under the aegis of the United Earth government and exist as geographical locations.

 

[SFRabid]

Of course Trek is very American in nature, but I quite like that. Endless tokenism would ruin the show.

I agree. Whenever these threads pop up my first thought is "Well duh!" Written in the United States. Filmed in the United States. Primary targeted audience in the United States. It's OK people. It's fiction, not statistics. When I watch the British comedies on PBS, the original Iron Chef, or other shows created in other countries I would not dream of trying to globalize the content. That would take away the charm.

 

[JustKate]

^ Yeah. If you can manage multiculturalism naturally (e.g., use writers or story consultants who are representatives of the culture you want to reference), it's great. But if it's forced (e.g., writers inserting references to a culture they no more about than what they can find in an encyclopedia), it's probably going to be awful, just awful. Heck, there's no "probably" about it - it is awful, just awful.

 

[Triskelion]

In response to my earlier post about show me another series that does multiculturalism any better - funny how most, if not all of those series mentioned are American productions....?

America is a multicultural place. Promoting its values is not ethnic or provincial. Two accusations others are eager to levy - still waiting for more multicultural efforts from other countries....? You know, to give the US something to emulate, from these high-minded cultures?

 

[Myasishchev]

It's interesting that for something considered "too American" at times, the United States apparently no longer exists in Trek. Oh, the cities and states still do, but the United States government is generally referred to in the past tense in the various Trek shows.

It kind of makes me wonder if the U.S. collapsed at some point after World War III and it was replaced by something else--perhaps "North American Alliance" or something like that, I dunno...

It's somewhat implied that the East Coast no longer exists. I don't recall any reference to New York, Washington, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbia, Boston, Richmond. The easternmost geographical reference from pre-ENT Trek that I can think of is New Orleans.

ENT of course does have a geographical reference to the East Coast--Florida. Of course, it was shown just to be destroyed.

I like to think everything east of the Mississippi is a nature preserve/memorial, and possibly still slightly radioactive, with no human inhabitants any longer.

um, Archer's from New York state and Trip mentions visiting New York city...

God, Enterprise could even ruin a good post-apocalypse, couldn't it?

 

[Cyke101]

In response to my earlier post about show me another series that does multiculturalism any better - funny how most, if not all of those series mentioned are American productions....?

I'll be honest, your post was the perfect excuse to bring in the show. The theme song has been stuck in my head since the 3rd grade!

 

[MyCylon]

I think one of the things that most noticeably makes Trek 'feel' American to me (apart from the very simple fact that it is produced in the US) is hero worship. My impression is that there is a stronger belief in heroes, generally speaking, than in Europe, for that matter.

Trek's leading figures tend to be leading figures with very few real flaws. Even Kirk in the new movie, despite his failings, ends up a pretty unquestioned hero and leader.

I'm not quite sure if I'm nailing this point quite the way I'd like to. So I hope you'll know what I mean.

 

[Anji]

I think it has to be "Americancentric". It is written by Americans, I mean, how can it not reflect our ideals and culture? And is it so wrong for it to be Americancentric? Don't we have a right to reflect our opinions and ideals too?

And c'mon, would anybody like Doctor Who if it wasn't British in flavor? Get real!

 

[Cyke101]

I think it has to be "Americancentric". It is written by Americans, I mean, how can it not reflect our ideals and culture? And is it so wrong for it to be Americancentric? Don't we have a right to reflect our opinions and ideals too?

And c'mon, would anybody like Doctor Who if it wasn't British in flavor? Get real!

As mentioned before, though, the difference between Trek and Doctor Who is that Doctor Who virtually wraps itself in the Union Jack, whereas Trek doesn't do that.

If Trek *is* Americentric, it isn't as blatant and obvious as Doctor Who. No one's waving the flag and imposing controversial traditions upon other races.
If Trek *isn't* Americentric, then Trek doesn't depend on American pride in order to make the brand, unlike Doctor Who which very much depends on its Britishness for its charm.

In both cases, for or against examples of Americentrism, it doesn't compare to Doctor Who.

 

[JustKate]

^ I don't know that the OP considered "Americentric" to be an accusation, exactly. I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing, at least I didn't take it that way. It's not an accusation to say "This American thing is American," surely?

 

[Cyke101]

^ I don't know that the OP considered "Americentric" to be an accusation, exactly. I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing, at least I didn't take it that way.

Maybe accusation was a bad word choice, you're right. I've edited my post and tried to restore neutrality.