The original television series - The one African character, Uhura is nothing more than a telephone operator and note how she sits at the BACK of the bridge. She also protrayed as an object of lust.
Nichelle Nichols was also an important role model for many young African American children and adolescents, according to none other than Dr. Martin Luther King, who urged her to remain with the series after she told him she was considering leaving.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The first Star Trek film released in 1979 features no new African characters which is odd considering that by the 23rd Century there will be over 6 billion Africans on Earth and less than a billion white people. Yet the Enterprise crew appears to 99.9% white.
The
Enterprise crew? The
Enterprise crew was one of the most diverse in the history of Starfleet up to that point. Just look at the number of non-human races standing on the rec deck during the Epsilon IX scene.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – This is one of the most despicable and racist of the Star Trek films. An African Starfleet captain played by the late Paul Winfield is captured by an evil white man and controlled like house slave with an alien slug placed in his brain. Later, after failing his “master”, Winfield’s character kills himself in shame for failing to serve the commands of his white master.
Wrong. Clark Terrell sacrificed himself to save Kirk and the others, as he didn't want to hurt another Starfleet officer. You missed the point of that scene--other than the eel leaving Chekov.
And Terrel was from Canada.
Star Trek: The Voyage Home – We learn in this film that the Federation of Planets (which is supposed to be diverse union of many races) is led by a white alien.
Hiram Roth was human (as far as we know). You're thinking of the Federation President from TUC.
Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country – An African Starfleet Admiral played by the late Brock Peters is portrayed as being an evil, untrustworthy character.
I don't think Cartwright was evil, merely misguided. And the decision to include his character in the conspiracy was meant to show how far-reaching it was, and how many people didn't want peace between the Klingons and the Federation.
Star Trek: The Next Generation – This new series has African actors play characters who are either blind (Geordi La Forge) with the temperament of a house slave or violent aliens such as Lieutenant Worf.
I don't know how others feel, but I've never thought of Geordi as merely a blind man. To me, he represents what people can achieve if they work to overcome their handicaps and weaknesses.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Star Trek manages to redeem itself somewhat with the character of Benjamin Sisko. The series begins with an evil pale alien creature refusing to help Sisko save his wife but at the end of the series it turns out his character is not really African at all but some kind of alien puppet whose fate is controlled by beings who appear to be white women.
You need to stop this, because you've no idea what you're talking about. Sisko was human. His mother was human. Her
body was taken over by a Prophet, but neither she or her son were in any way not human.
Star Trek: Insurrection – In this Star Trek film, the Enterprise comes across and defends an all-white race who are being attacked by a darker skin tone people.
People who happened to be the
exact same race as those they're attacking.
Star Trek: Nemesis - At the end of this film, Picard selects another white male to be his First Officer.
As that was a deleted scene, it's debatable if it actually happened. In any case, Worf eventually becomes Picard's XO.
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'd add that his post contains more ignorance than any of the series or films he's maligning.
--Sran
