PPS: Lots of white people around here
Oct. 17th, 2010 05:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI was, until I got distracted by shiny objects, vaguely trying to keep track of ethnic mix on the Enterprise D. I should do actual counting but I was mostly watching Trek to distract from illness or insomnia so did not apply brain. Far as I can tell there's some attempt to mix up the random people in corridors, but white is still dominant and other ethnicities are minority. Which, if you look at your actual Earth and pretend the ship represents the whole planet, is actually rather creepy.
Of the main characters there's a lot of white humans, mostly male, a very white android, some aliens who are played by black people, and Geordi LaForge, who gets to be black and human at once. That's a 'could do better'. The original series had Uhura and Sulu. And they'd put some thought into representing the whole planet, with Chekov and with people being meant to be from different continents. On Enterprise NX 01 there's 3 white males, a black man, an Asian woman, and two aliens, one male one female. I still like DS9 best. Women who talk to each other! At least two whole black people on a regular basis! And Keiko. And Bashir. And lots of aliens too. Variety going on there.
It bothers me though, how often we see a future that's mostly looking like now, only less varied. I can look around the library at college on any day and I'll see a more varied cross section of humanity than I ever have on the starship Enterprise. It makes the future look like it has a selection process. It should be for everyone.
Of the main characters there's a lot of white humans, mostly male, a very white android, some aliens who are played by black people, and Geordi LaForge, who gets to be black and human at once. That's a 'could do better'. The original series had Uhura and Sulu. And they'd put some thought into representing the whole planet, with Chekov and with people being meant to be from different continents. On Enterprise NX 01 there's 3 white males, a black man, an Asian woman, and two aliens, one male one female. I still like DS9 best. Women who talk to each other! At least two whole black people on a regular basis! And Keiko. And Bashir. And lots of aliens too. Variety going on there.
It bothers me though, how often we see a future that's mostly looking like now, only less varied. I can look around the library at college on any day and I'll see a more varied cross section of humanity than I ever have on the starship Enterprise. It makes the future look like it has a selection process. It should be for everyone.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-19 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-20 11:28 am (UTC)have noticed female engineers - when they need someone to be in a romance or to be over emotional and fail a bit. There was a lot of diversity in Chief Engineers before Geordi was one. But then there were a lot of white men in engineering. Is weird.