Racism in Star Trek

[addy]

This is a very hard subject... you're right, different aliens species became code for different ethnic races, and what could have been a sophisticated take on multiculturalism became reduced to stereotypes and outmoded concepts about "blood-mixing". But the implication was ignored because science fiction is a genre that has always naturally treated races as "other", some interesting bizarre thing far removed from humans to be regarded from an intellectual perspective; nothing more than a mental exercise, just part of world-building and texturing . But when you begin to tackle social themes, like Star Trek did, then the conversation must be handled with more sensitivity.

In the case of Star Trek, they fell into the trap of using race/culture as a character shorthand because hey, its "sci-fi". The same problems arise in fantasy as well, with the argument that since it represents a reality removed from ours, even escapist, then its not problematic at all when all the heroes are caucasian-looking, while shadier characters are dark skinned. See it's thematic, not racist! *Sigh*

One of the problems with star trek is that it was trying to use progressive themes (and sometimes even failing)... but these were themes that were progressive for the time. Having a black woman on TV was already an incredible statement. But if you continue to recycle those same themes (racial distrust and eventual cooperation, as supposed to it not even being an issue anymore) then in modern eyes it just looks clunky and horribly racist by comparison to the progress we've supposedly made since the 60's.