The racist legacy of Star Trek

[Hound of UIster]

Just goes to show the double standard.

 

[Melakon]

STOP THE MADNESS!!!

Crying racist these days in many circumstances is akin to the boy who cried wolf; it is just not the case. Consider the time in which TOS was made; racist, hardly. Race is an important issue but when it is used every time someone farts; it loses all relevance and the argument becomes a joke . . . like this thread.

The only people who are taking any of this seriously are the one who missed the fact that the original post is satire.

Well honestly if that's the case; it was done in very poor taste.

Jonathan Swift he ain't.

 

[Dukhat]

So...seven pages in, and cadet "Afrika Bambataa" has yet to chime in with his thoughts other than his first ever post at the TrekBBS.

So either he is just a troll, or he has some serious racial issues himself that really have nothing to do with Star Trek, and he just found some random thing to vent about.

 

[Silvercrest]

A fate shared by countless red shirts.

Of course most of them were White, which means.... I have no idea, but I am sure it means something and I am offended by that!

The redshirt death thing just goes to further prove the racism, implying that only white people are worthy of dying for their cause.

What it the person who was wearing the Redshirt was black, female or Asian? Was does that mean?

It means that the real prejudice of TOS was against red people.

 

[Melakon]

I'm sure if someone pulled random examples from the long running series Good Times, they could build a complaint that there weren't enough white people on the show.

 

[Robert Comsol]

(C-3PO acts a lot like an African American stereotype in early films and series)

Huh?? C-3PO talked and acted like a fussy English butler. You must be thinking of a different robot.

It's satire. OP wasn't serious. Or doesn't genuinely believe his claims.

That wasn't the OP, that was me. Star Wars is full of allusions and analogies to films and series of the 1930's.

Like I said in this earlier post of mine the droids are sold like slaves to new masters to work on a [moisture] farm. Yes, they are just robots, but then George Lucas made Anthony Daniels act like Mantan Moreland ("Moreland's characters were nervous and jumpy, and ready to leap out of his skin at the slightest noise. He could pop his bulging eyes and had a way of making his entire body quake with teeth-chattering tremors"), to whom I was introduced to in a Bill Cosby program about black stereotypes and also watched him perform in a couple of Charlie Chan films as Chan's driver (interestingly, the debates revolving around the Charlie Chan character being an offensive stereotype obfuscate the other issue whether his driver is an offensive stereotype, too).

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but after that I no longer felt Threepio just to be a "fussy English butler" (haven't seen one like him elsewhere, yet) as his roots looked somewhat differently. YMMV.

Bob

 

[Maurice]

Pfft. Threepio and Artoo are more likely inspired by the bickering characters of Tahei and Matashichi from Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress than anything.

Article on that film's influences on Star Wars > LINK

 

[Melakon]

3PO and R2 were also compared to Laurel and Hardy for a while.

Arthur Treacher (some people might only know of him for a fish & chips chain) was famous for playing butlers in the 30s, and served as a sidekick ala Ed McMahon on one of Merv Griffin's talk shows.

 

[Maurice]

3PO and R2 were also compared to Laurel and Hardy for a while.

Arthur Treacher (some people might only know of him for a fish & chips chain) was famous for playing butlers in the 30s, and served as a sidekick ala Ed McMahon on one of Merv Griffin's talk shows.

But Threepio wasn't intended to be butlerish as scripted. Lucas had a "used car salesman" type in mind, planned to overdub Daniels, but apparently came to realize Daniels' delivery was the way to go. Lucas has pointed to The Hidden Fortress as one of his inspirations for Star Wars, and when you watch the film you immediately see it.

 

[T'Girl]

So just because we may not always see them doesn't mean they don't exist.

Actually it basically does. TV shows, stage plays and movies are presentations, until something is shown or mentioned it doesn't exist.

What it the person who was wearing the Redshirt was black, female or Asian? Was does that mean?

Poor fashion choice, they deserve to die.

 

[mos6507]

There were plenty of examples of minorities in TOS besides Uhura, like Lt. Boma (who was high-ranking enough to question Spock's authority) or the flawed genius of Richard Daystrom in an era where many whites still saw blacks as sub-human. Within the cultural backdrop of the 60s, it was extremely progressive. And sometimes it dealt with prejudice head-on, like the questioning of Spock's loyalty in Balance of Terror because he was from a similar race as the Romulans, or how the Horta were thought to be monsters because they are so anatomically different in Devil in the Dark.

 

[Push The Button]

Also Doctor M'Benga, not only a Starfleet physician, but also a specialist on Vulcan physiology.

 

[Dukhat]

3PO and R2 were also compared to Laurel and Hardy for a while.

Arthur Treacher (some people might only know of him for a fish & chips chain) was famous for playing butlers in the 30s, and served as a sidekick ala Ed McMahon on one of Merv Griffin's talk shows.

But Threepio wasn't intended to be butlerish as scripted. Lucas had a "used car salesman" type in mind, planned to overdub Daniels, but apparently came to realize Daniels' delivery was the way to go. Lucas has pointed to The Hidden Fortress as one of his inspirations for Star Wars, and when you watch the film you immediately see it.

I have "The Hidden Fortress" and I can attest to Maurice's claim. The movie starts with the two aforementioned characters scrambling through the desert hurling insults at each other, which was clearly where Lucas got the idea for the droids scrambling across Tatooine.

 

[Maurice]

3PO and R2 were also compared to Laurel and Hardy for a while.

Arthur Treacher (some people might only know of him for a fish & chips chain) was famous for playing butlers in the 30s, and served as a sidekick ala Ed McMahon on one of Merv Griffin's talk shows.

But Threepio wasn't intended to be butlerish as scripted. Lucas had a "used car salesman" type in mind, planned to overdub Daniels, but apparently came to realize Daniels' delivery was the way to go. Lucas has pointed to The Hidden Fortress as one of his inspirations for Star Wars, and when you watch the film you immediately see it.

I have "The Hidden Fortress" and I can attest to Maurice's claim. The movie starts with the two aforementioned characters scrambling through the desert hurling insults at each other, which was clearly where Lucas got the idea for the droids scrambling across Tatooine.

Not only that, but the story is largely told from the POV of these two "peasants".

 

[urbandefault]

Nichelle's MLK story is like the prize fish someone claims they caught but you never see -- it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

The first time I heard it, I thought the same thing. It very well could be false, but since I don't have any reason to believe that she's a serial liar, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, though I won't defend this story vehemently.

A shame we can't ask him ourselves :/

MLK's niece tells the same story. That doesn't make it any more or less true, but it does corroborate it.

 

[varek]

I disagree. The people behind the original Star Trek made great efforts to have diversity on the bridge, and in other places in the Trek universe. As for the other examples, I think you're searching hard for it, and since you're looking for racism, you will find it.

I agree. Star Trek was one of the few shows at that time that gave people of different races a chance to work together, productively. The best Captain in the series, IMO, is Captain Sisko, who became a Prophet of the Bajorans.

My stepdad complains that some shows make fun of old people. But, I say, comedies make fun of everyone, not limiting their humor to one group or another.

I think Star Trek drama was similar, in presenting people of all races with all types of personalities. Lt. Uhuru has been one of the most-popular of the TOS crew, and Dr. Richard Daystrom was considered to be one of the most-intelligent humans ever.

 

[Pauln6]

In particular, Star Trek has a ton of black characters. If anything they're shy a bit on other ethnicities such as asian, south asian, middle-eastern, and maybe gingers.

I recall with hilarity when my nan (who WAS racist) anounced that she disliked shows that featured too many black people while watching an episode of TNG. The show featured a black engineer, a black helmsman, a black dude playing a Klingon, and a black transporter chief. And I love Star Trek because I hadn't even noticed. It really is what it is - a diverse group of actors doing their jobs.

Now if you want to start a new thread saying Star Trek is sexist, I'm with you on that.

 

[Melakon]

But Threepio wasn't intended to be butlerish as scripted. Lucas had a "used car salesman" type in mind, planned to overdub Daniels, but apparently came to realize Daniels' delivery was the way to go. Lucas has pointed to The Hidden Fortress as one of his inspirations for Star Wars, and when you watch the film you immediately see it.

I have "The Hidden Fortress" and I can attest to Maurice's claim. The movie starts with the two aforementioned characters scrambling through the desert hurling insults at each other, which was clearly where Lucas got the idea for the droids scrambling across Tatooine.

Not only that, but the story is largely told from the POV of these two "peasants".

I'm familiar with the history of Star Wars using The Hidden Fortress as source material, but I've not seen the film. I've not seen any of Kurosawa's films I think, only American adaptations. In my fictional sci-fi universe, some of my control consoles and small vehicles like jetbikes are marked Kurosawa as a manufacturer's nameplate.

I should look for that and Seven Samurai at the used video store right up the street.

Hopefully I can find something on dvd that is undubbed and with subtitles, or has an optional dubbed version.

 

[Armored Saint]

and maybe gingers.

And the Children Shall Lead is pretty offensive: They tried to depict an old green ghost as an evil being despite the fact he was clearly manipulated by this ginger boy. GINGERS ARE EVIL!

 

[Pauln6]

and maybe gingers.

And the Children Shall Lead is pretty offensive: They tried to depict an old green ghost as an evil being despite the fact he was clearly manipulated by this ginger boy. GINGERS ARE EVIL!

You're forgetting the way McGyvers ruthlessly manipulated Khan and then betrayed him just so she could get him onto that planet and away from all those other mini-skirted hussies.