Racism in Star Wars and Star Trek

Racism in Star Wars and Star Trek

Star Wars | Star Trek

Written: 1999.07.27

Last revised: 2001.04.30

"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character."- Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963

As a member of a visible minority, and one partner in an interracial marriage, I think I have some grounds on which to speak of the issue of racism. Just as you cannot understand love until you've experienced it, you cannot understand racism until you've experienced it first-hand. Unfortunately, I understand racism all too well.

Just below my hairline on the left side, I still bear a scar from a vicious schoolyard racial attack I suffered as a child, at the hands of an adolescent. He wasn't even suspended for trying to bludgeon a small child with a brick, because (as a white teacher explained) he came from a "broken home", which somehow made his behaviour acceptable. The crime was swept under the carpet, but the scar remains. Like an angry white line, it reminds me of the meaning of hate every time I look into a mirror. And in my heart, I still bear scars from many other racist attacks I've suffered throughout my life, including racial slurs from all manner of people and repeated accusations from my wife's German Mennonite relatives that our interracial marriage was "against the will of God". These scars are the reason that I am furious when people who have never suffered from racism try to downplay it, or redefine it to suit their purposes.

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The Definition of Racism

What is racism? If we simply examine the structure of the word, it would appear obvious that the word "racism" should be interpreted just like all of the other "isms". Just as humanism upholds the importance of human rights, nationalism upholds the importance of national differences, and theism upholds the importance of divine beings, racism upholds the importance of race.

Does race matter? In an ideal world, it wouldn't. The fact that I am of Asian descent shouldn't mean anything to anyone, on any grounds, except as a point of purely academic trivia. But that's an ideal world. In the real world, have we been moving toward this ideal, or away from it? Does the "political correctness" movement help, or hurt?

I feel that modern political correctness, far from reducing racism, is actually increasing it. One example is the politically correct terminology for visible minorities. In America, people of African descent are referred to as "African-Americans". People of Asian descent are referred to as "Asian-Americans". People of Indian descent are referred to as "Indian-Americans". Some of these terms are championed by members of those races, but I strongly object to them. If a young black man traces his American lineage back for ten generations, grows up in Detroit and never sees Africa, why should he be referred to as an "African-American"? Doesn't that imply that he's half-African, and half-American? Why isn't he all American? Why aren't the descendants of European settlers referred to as "Anglo-Americans", or "Aryan-Americans"? When I hear one of these hyphenated race names, it implies to me that the person has recently immigrated from Africa, or India, or Asia. Therefore, I see no justification whatsoever to apply such terms to people whose grandparents were born here. It accentuates the differences, and implies that they are "imports", rather than a natural part of the local culture.

The politically correct media is constantly reminding us of the distinction between the alien cultures of non-whites and the presumably domestic culture of whites. The television is awash in documentaries and soundbites about "black culture" or "asian culture" or "latino culture", and people proudly demonstrate their "racial sensitivity" by "respecting" these various "cultures." What a crock ... this show of "respect" is completely racist, no matter what the politically correct brigade may say. To even describe something called "asian culture" is to subtly make two claims:

1. All people descended from Asian immigrants act the same.

2. People of Asian descent have different cultural values than "we" do.

The same is true whenever someone talks about "black culture" or "latino culture". The none-too-subtle implication is that members of visible minorities have conflicted cultural and national loyalties, torn between here and their "homelands". To put it another way, why don't we ever hear about "white culture"? No one talks about "white culture", because everyone knows two things:

1. There are many different types of "white" culture. British, French, Irish, Italians, Germans, Russians, etc. are much different from one another.

2. Once people have been here for more than a generation or two, we should assume that they've adjusted to local cultural values.

Why don't we make those same assumptions about people who aren't white? Are we supposed to perpetuate the notion that all asians act the same, or all blacks act the same? Are we supposed to promote the notion that members of visible minorities are incapable of accepting local cultural values, or that they have some unbreakable spiritual connection to the birthplace of their ancestors which will forever separate them from white people?

Oh, I know, the politically correct brigade might point out that white people aren't the only ones who talk about "black culture", or "asian culture". Well, that doesn't prove anything. No one ever said that white people are the only racists in the world, so you can't prove that an act isn't racist by showing that a non-white person does it. I've seen black people accuse other black people of "not acting black enough", and I've seen asians accuse other asians of "being yellow on the outside, and white on the inside." It's truly disgusting to me that a member of a visible minority can actually be criticized for not conforming to racial stereotypes.

So if you want to be racially sensitive, don't bullshit me about your great respect and admiration