spockslash:

spockslash:

@transcendental-is-em   My circle of Star Trek friends, then as now, yearned for a world without racial or any other type of prejudice. The vision of a united Earth, and of a Starfleet where men, women and aliens all worked side-by-side, and each individual was valued and promoted for their abilities – not gender or race – was a weekly refuge from the awfulness of the world we were living in, from the ugliness that was tearing apart the county and our heightened fear of nuclear war. It was a vision of hope that honestly was necessary to our sanity sometimes. We wanted so badly to live in the world that Star Trek showed us every week.

The murder of Dr. King in April of 1968 was both devastating and terrifying; we feared for the future of civil rights. We feared civil war in our country. So when in November of that same year, the kiss between Kirk and Uhura was shown on TV, it was a very big deal! It was deeply controversial, and not just in the South – although many places in the south were vocal about banning Star Trek because of it.

I can remember it being discussed on the radio and at work, and how in my not-southern town, many people reacted with anger and disgust. For my friends and I, it felt incredibly brave, and we were tearful with pride that OUR SHOW would dare to go there. As often happened when we watched a new Trek episode, our commitment to fighting for civil rights was invigorated.

These days, Plato’s Stepchildren is not one of my favorite episodes. I squirm at how the Enterprise crew are forced to act against their will, at the violation of it. I regret that that was the story line that showed the first interracial kiss. But I remember the emotional impact it had at the time, and I value the episode within its historical context.

You didn’t ask about this, but I think anyone who reads my blog already knows what a fan I am of the Culber/Stamets kiss. I’m proud that Star Trek, 49 years after Plato’s Stepchildren, is still daring to show a vision of a world that you and I want to live in.

I’m reblogging this because I forgot to mention the important fact that until just one year before Plato’s Stepchildren aired it was against the law in nearly 1/3 of the United States for a Black person to be married to a white person. Or date a white person. Or live with a white person. Or have a sexual relationship with a white person.

During the whole first year that Star Trek was on the air, there was a battle going through the courts that ended in the Supreme Court forcing the south to end it’s “anti-miscegenation” laws. And the south was not happy. So when Plato’s Stepchildren aired, it was tapping into a very raw nerve of the times.