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LJ909Jason Johnson
11/30/18 5:49pm
That being said, this episode has been discussed as a watershed moment in American race relations, Hollywood and television history—when in fact, it’s not. It was nothing more than an expansion of white male sexual desire, masquerading as progress...
Sorry. Gonna have to disagree with you here. For one, I doubt Gene Roddenberry was the type of white man to even be thinking about something like that. Star Trek always pushed equality and human togetherness. This was the beginning of that. Besides, who else would Shatner have kissed? She was not only the only female lead character but also the only lead character of color.
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  llaalleellLJ909
  11/30/18 6:13pm
  And wasn’t it written as a kiss between Spock and Uhura but then Shatner got all salty and insisted it be him? I think that complicates the dynamic a bit too given Spock’s (half) alien status.
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  johnseaveyLJ909
  11/30/18 6:55pm
  Roddenberry? HORNY AF. His first pilot was rejected by Paramount because he cast his mistress as one of three women his author stand-in character was “forced” to mate with as part of an hour long harem fantasy, and his response to being told “Stop casting your mistress in your TV series” was to cast her in a different part and tell everyone that NBC was being sexist. He is a big ol’ horndog in every way, shape and form, and Nichols is on the record as saying he made a pass at her but she shot him down cold.
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KeepBringingItJason Johnson
12/01/18 2:57am
“This is not a plea for black men to be featured with more white women on television and movies.”
Just remember that you brought that up.
“Look, I love Viola Davis. But betweenHow to Get Away with Murder andWidows, I’m tired of seeing her snot-nosed, ugly cry after yet another white man of the week did her wrong.”
While I got off the htgawm train ages ago, it seemed other than her husband, her lovers had been women, black and Hispanic men. And “of the week”, really? Really??
“On its own merits, the kiss wasn’t all that sexy or even organic. I place it somewhere between Madonna kissing Drake at Coachella and Michael Jackson awkwardly kissing Iman in the “Remember the Time” music video.”
Who pissed in your Cheerios? I realize you have a point to make but could you leave our most respected veteran black actresses out of it? Because this is trash. And it comes off very much you shitting all over them.
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  Jason JohnsonKeepBringingIt
  12/01/18 11:43am
  Then you’re in your own feelings. I specifically mention Black men and white women becuase that is the assumption of many people reading stories about interracial dating. That any black man critiquing how IR dating with BW/WM is really just pleading for more BM/WW. That is completely not what I’m suggesting. I am critiquing the racism in Hollywood an the larger public discourse that implies an expansion of while male desire is somehow progress when it fact it’s just white supremacy masquerading and new opportunities.
  While Nichols was a part of the process - she clealry agreed to it and thought it was a good idea, the imagery was still empowering to white men, and the decision making, be it Roddenberry (whom it’s rumored she was involved with at some point) or Shattner was still dominated by white men.
  I am not criticizing Viola Davis at all. I’m saying that given the preponderance of shows with white men and black women the fact that we’re supposed to cheer everytime she’s cast with another white man like it’s some act of revolution is ridiculous. Viola Davis with a steady series of black male lovers on prime time would actually be more rare and revolutionary. But she doesn’t control Hollywood.
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  FlamingFeministaJason Johnson
  12/01/18 1:17pm
  Two problems: despite your citing of scholarly research on IR pairings being mostly BW/WM, it just doesn’t feel true according to my lived experience or my vast and varied pop culture consumption. Even accounting for ‘being in my feelings’ about it but trying to be objective, there’s just no way! 1) White men have no need to project their subjugated desires on-screen cuz through privilege, power, and money when have they NOT gotten whatever they want DIRECTLY? 2) White women, despite relative freedom, there are still some remaining taboos so they REALLY REALLY WANT BLACK DICK even if it’s just vicariously. 3) Black women have more buying power and consume more pop culture than BM yet STILL no one is catering to us except a few Black small shows. So who, do you posit, the white creators are trying to appeal to with these BW/WM pairings? I gotta say, I’d have to see the research on this.
  Lastly, I viscerally react and vehemently object to any criticism of Viola, particularly by Black men! The WORLD has watched Black men of every shade parade, laud and loudly praise any woman BUT someone dark-skinned FOREVER! From Others, whites, biracial, light-skinned to just lighter than paper bags. Do NOT begrudge the ONLY dark-skinned Black woman of any prominence right now her tears over any man who loves us publicly! Just don’t, bald-headed Black man who has NEVER been out of style desire-wise!
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Not Enough Day DrinkingJason Johnson
11/30/18 4:56pm
The kiss wasn’t the most groundbreaking thing about Star Trek (and it was shitty kiss because looks like Shattner is trying to eat her...), it was that Uhura, a black woman, was a respected officer and a member of the crew at all. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend the NPR interview Nichols gave:
Ms. NICHOLS: I went in to tell Gene Roddenberry that I was leaving after the first season, and he was very upset about it. And he said, take the weekend and think about what I am trying to achieve here in this show. You’re an integral part and very important to it. And so I said, yes, I would. And that - on Saturday night, I went to an NAACP fundraiser, I believe it was, in Beverly Hills. And one of the promoters came over to me and said, Ms. Nichols, there’s someone who would like to meet you. He says he is your greatest fan.
And I’m thinking a Trekker, you know. And I turn, and before I could get up, I looked across the way and there was the face of Dr. Martin Luther King smiling at me and walking toward me. And he started laughing. By the time he reached me, he said, yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan. I am that Trekkie.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. NICHOLS: And I was speechless. He complimented me on the manner in which I’d created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you. He said, no, no, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you on the - to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for. So, I said to him, thank you so much. And I’m going to miss my co-stars.
And his face got very, very serious. And he said, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I told Gene just yesterday that I’m going to leave the show after the first year because I’ve been offered - and he stopped me and said: You cannot do that. And I was stunned. He said, don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch. I was speechless.
https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942461/Star-Treks-Uhura-Reflects-On-MLK-Encounter
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  GirlwithNoName64Not Enough Day Drinking
  11/30/18 5:05pm
  Was this NPR or Drunk HIstory? I swear this was word for word what was on the Drunk HIstory episode featuring Nichols’ story. I guess I can learn things from Comedy Central!
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  connoisseur of spiritsNot Enough Day Drinking
  11/30/18 5:26pm
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is THE GREATEST AMERICAN OF ALL-TIME, and it’s not even close.
  (So far, at least. When someone takes his dream and turns it into a vision with a plan and then makes it happen, that person will perhaps equal him, but no one will ever surpass him.)
  And, remember that his final and most difficult lesson was to teach us just how evil the people that oppose this LOVE are and the depths of depravity they embrace in their cold, dead hearts of stone.
  This love must be FIERCE to create “On Earth as it is in Heaven”!
  But hatred is anathema to our achievement of His Dream, for hatred is the way of our avowed enemies.
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Sue PerwominJason Johnson
11/30/18 5:07pm
Seems like an intentional and willful omission of ALLLLLL the Black man and non-black woman pairings in popular culture since 1967's Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—which predates the Uhuru Kirk kiss by a full year and had a far more significant cultural impact—I wonder why?
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  FlamingFeministaSue Perwomin
  12/01/18 2:54am
  Once again, anyone care to address what Black WOMEN want?! Not just light-skinned or biracial women but Black women of all hues, particularly dark? Then not just how MEN THINK we want/should want but how women want to their actual desires to be portrayed?!
  I agree with most of what the matchmaker posted because it’s been my anecdotal experience dating A LOT. Except the same sticking point; that preferences for white men include Black women. Unlike any other preference that is allowable or acceptable or tolerated, Black women CAN NEVER feel free to even THINK they prefer any man over Black!! Nunca! Not amongst Black women (where she will be shouted down and thrown out of the room!), neither in the presence of white women (who will use the opening to start the questions about Black penises BEFORE being shunned!) or any other ethnicity’s women (where she will get extreme side-eyed) and definitely not within a 20 mile radius of Black men unless she’s got her gun out and pointed (because she will be verbally assaulted and physically intimidated). I have experienced all these scenarios IRL just for stating that I’m OPEN to interracial dating before I can even add all my qualifiers!
  Also, no one ASKS Black women if we want to be portrayed being TENDERLY made love to (instead of thrown against walls or bent over in a frenzy!) by any ethnicity! Or have our short cuts, mid-length or reasonable weaves caressed and immortalized on tv or in songs. No one ASKS if we want our brown and dark-skinned kids with greased and combed 4C hair to be spoken to KINDLY and patiently when they offer up Cheerios! No one ever asks us or places us in positions to make those decisions. Even Lt. Uhura was just told what it was going to be!
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  Jason JohnsonSue Perwomin
  12/01/18 11:31am
  Please go ahead and list them. Because citing a movie from over 50 years ago doesn’t bolster your point. Name just 10 straight black male white female romantic pairings on television in 2018 and I’ll double it with black female white male pairings. It’s not even close. My work omitted nothing, the numbers you seek just aren’t there
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BiturbowagonJason Johnson
11/30/18 8:24pm
Your points in the big picture are valid, but I think your application of them to this episode of Star Trek is off base.
Someone else posted Ms. Nichols’s anecdote.
There are several aspects that you don’t address:
- Note how Kirk and Uhura fight against the kiss. This is not an accident. This was a way to make the kiss palatable to the censors.
- A kiss between a black man and a white woman probably would not have passed the censors. They did what they could get away with.
- There wasn’t a major male black character in Star Trek for a white female character to kiss. Would a white female character have kissed a red-shirt black ensign to his death? Perhaps.
- Yes, Gene Roddenberry enjoyed skin and sexiness, but it wasn’t limited to one skin color for women. Just look at all the outfits on women in Star Trek, especially TOS. They had fun seeing what they could get past the censors. Underboob, anyone? Massive Klingon cleavage in TNG? Also look at non-Star Trek movies that he made. He enjoyed showing barely-clothed female tushies and chests, no matter who. I don’t think it was white supremacist of him, at least not any more so than a white man of any agency exercising his agency. It may be some other -ist, but not that one.
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  Jason JohnsonBiturbowagon
  12/01/18 11:47am
  My point, was less about THAT episode from 50 years ago than it was about how foolish it is to consider the subsequent 50 years to be real progress. It was revolutionary but only inasmuch as it showed something that was always know. White guys like sleeping with all different kinds of women. Surprise? But in the last 50 years most shows continue with this dynamic because ultimately it’s what white people are comfortable with. That’s not progress. It’s white supremacy repackaged.
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  #WhatmeworryJason Johnson
  12/14/18 12:24pm
  Im agreeing with Biturbowagon. Your article is great as an observation on the history of interracial relationships, but it should not be taken as a criticism of that particular TV episode. IMO, it is a first step, as any journey must begin with a first step. There is a lot of ‘looking back’ going on these days and again, IMO, this is ok for comparison and educational purposes, but none of this should be used to condemn actions of 50 years ago any more than has already happened. Going back 150 years race relations were terribly inhuman. Go back 50 years and they were bad, but getting better. Today, still better, but of course, not perfect yet.
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BrianJason Johnson
11/30/18 5:16pm
So basically old TV show is criticized for being old.... Trek did get better... DS9 (Benjamin Sisko and Cassidy Yates) and Worf gets to be the “Black Man” playing Poke The Caucasian... sorta...
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  VincentPriceLostHisLaughBrian
  11/30/18 6:41pm
  No cap, Worf loved him some white women LMAO. He also hated his independent Klingon baby mother but I guess knowing his tastes, that goes without saying.
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  Jason JohnsonBrian
  12/01/18 11:28am
  I do not criticize an old tv show for being old. I criticize modern media for praising a show for being progressive when it really wasn’t all that revolutionary and for the subsequent 50 years which haven’t been all that ground breaking either.
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PooJavelinIsSickOfLosingBurnerPasswordsJason Johnson
11/30/18 5:22pm
Interesting point; this episode wasn’t shown by the BBC until the early ‘90s, which was about the fourth screening of the series!
The inter-racial aspect was no issue, but an episode based around eugenics raised the possibility of awkward questions for senior political figures and members of the royalty, who were quite happy the public had forgotten they were all for this between the wars!
Similarly, they refused to show “The High Ground” from TNG because of Data’s reference to the Irish Unification of 2024!
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MelaninjaJason Johnson
12/01/18 8:47am
I don’t find anything “ground breaking” about interracial relationshios. Nothing wrong with them, but I do worry about people who do it just for sexual or trendy reasons. What’s funny is that white men are the only men I’m NOT interested in usually, I can count on one hand how many I’ve been attracted to, but Black, Brown, Latino, Asian, and multiracial men have all appealed to me. I honestly think interracial is just code for Black/White or Dark/Light couples, because when I dated latino or brown men, nobody called us interracial or cared. My ex is South Asian with brown skin but he’s clearly not Black and people assumes he’s Middle Eastern (he’s Pakistani), but not once in our relationship were we referred to as an interracial couple by anyone who isn’t Pakistani. We never dealt with the looks that my sister who is married to a white man still gets in public.
Same thing when I dated a latino guy throughout high school, the mindset among Black folks, whites, and some latinos is that “he has black in him anyway”. When two brown poc date nobody looks twice even though they’re not the same race, its when the contrast of color is very different like a pale East Asian with an African that they will consider two poc “interracial”
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Old white guyJason Johnson
11/30/18 6:30pm
And here I thought the Willis’ on the Jefferson’s were revolutionary. But just another white man with black woman (although Tom did really good for a pudgy white man - maybe that’s also showing the white privilege of getting what you want, so to speak).
But you’re right, I can’t think of too many black men with white women over the last 40 years where the black man wasn’t either a gangsta, or someone else for others in the film to ‘fear’.
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King BeauregardJason Johnson
12/03/18 8:47am
Gonna toss this out even though it’s kind of tangential. As Roddenberyologists know, Gene’s biggest gig prior to “Star Trek” was “Have Gun - Will Travel”, a pretty good Western about an educated, philosophical gun for hire. You can always tell a Roddenberry episode because the women are written like shit — they’re either completely emotionally out of control, or they’re intelligent but cunning and conniving. They’re either one thing or the other, and it’s maddening. When HGWT is on, I am known to frequently mutter “goddamn Roddenberry”, like the Maggie O’Bannion episode when Maggie hopes Paladin gets beaten up because she’s starting to fall in love with him because of course she is.
But, here’s the thing: Roddenberry was also doing his level best to write solid woman characters. He just sucked at it by modern standards. He was arguably leagues ahead of the competition just by trying to write women who had agency, but decades later, we have the benefit of a much better grasp of how to write women well.
So, I acknowledge that Roddenberry was doing the best he could to move forward, with his 1920s brain, in the 1950s and 1960s, even if his handling of women just doesn’t hold up today. “Perspective”, I think, is what the kids are calling it.
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