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When we talk about how #StarTrek 
has championed it’s characters of color, it’s essential to remind ourselves of where it failed as well. Remember, Nichelle almost left because Uhura rarely left the bridge or had lines beyond “Hailing frequencies open.” https://screenrant.com/star-trek-uhura-facts-trivia/
has championed it’s characters of color, it’s essential to remind ourselves of where it failed as well. Remember, Nichelle almost left because Uhura rarely left the bridge or had lines beyond “Hailing frequencies open.” https://screenrant.com/star-trek-uhura-facts-trivia/
Uhura didn’t have a first name for 16 years. She got it in a book where the author had to write character biographies. Most of the intimate character development Uhura experienced was relegated to books. https://twitter.com/nerdtrekpodcast/status/1274426459919015936?s=21
“While shooting “Star Trek” episodes in the late 1960s, Nichols didn’t feel any discrimination on the set, but felt it in other parts of the studio, especially where she wasn’t allowed to enter the studio through a particular gate where the other actors could go through.”
“That’s right. There were instances where I was turned away from entering the studio at the walk-on gate, and I had to go all the way around to the front gate, sign-in and come back. A guard on the set told me -
- I had no right being there — that they had replaced a blue-eyed blonde with me,” she remembered.
“I went through crap, man. Racism was alive and rampant there. Some people said I wasn’t good enough, saying things like, ‘I don’t know how you got this role.’
“I went through crap, man. Racism was alive and rampant there. Some people said I wasn’t good enough, saying things like, ‘I don’t know how you got this role.’
And they kept waiting for me to complain and raise hell about it, but I decided to ignore it. I never went to Gene [Roddenberry] about it.” https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_1244343
The year before Nichelle experienced racism at her workplace in CA, the Watts riots took place in Los Angeles: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots. MLk had already begun marching in 1965 and continued until his murder in 1968. While she may not have told Roddenberry about the harassment -
- claiming the lack of activism on behalf of Roddenberry and the crew was “a product of the time” feels ignorant. Anti-racist platforms must translate statements into action. Nichelle did not feel safe or valued at work. Her character had few scenes and even fewer lines.
Yet, Martin Luther King Jr. said to Nichelle when she confided her plan to leave:
“When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud . . . they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd century.
( https://www.startrek.com/news/nichelle-nichols-remembers-dr-king)
“When we see you, we see ourselves, and we see ourselves as intelligent and beautiful and proud . . . they cannot destroy us because we are there in the 23rd century.
( https://www.startrek.com/news/nichelle-nichols-remembers-dr-king)
It is crucial that we not only consider but recognize and respect all that both Nichelle had her character endured and sacrificed in order to deliver the message that the future includes black people. She RETURNED to her workplace with the same guards who turned her away.
Anti-racist platforms MUST be turned from statements into action. None of these conversations about #StarTrek ’s failures are meant to cancel where the franchise succeeds, only to illuminate where it failed so that we can all do better.
Donate to: https://techaccess.org
’s failures are meant to cancel where the franchise succeeds, only to illuminate where it failed so that we can all do better. Donate to: https://techaccess.org
Technology Access Foundation is listed as one of Nichelle’s preferred charities and works to improve access to STEM opportunities for students of color and underrepresented communities.”
