![]() ![]() My father first taught me how to respect and value diversity while finding a place within your own culture. It was important to him for us to see all kinds of people working together, to see people of color in positions of power. He didn't think we were too young to understand heartbreaking topics like slavery, torture or generational persecution. My dad would point out the morals in each episode. My father was a Trekkie, and he knew I would love the show! My sister, dad and I would watch together during our summer visits and talk about what characters we loved, what technology we wished was real, but also what the stories were trying to say. When you love Star Trek, you are called a Trekkie. There were lessons about true inclusion hidden in sci-fi that this show and my father imparted on me. The future I saw on the screen was so full of possibilities for me, and it was only in my adulthood, as an astrophysicist with over a decade of equity work, that I realized the impact this show had on me. ![]() There are wars, but the Federation's Prime directive is to not interfere with other cultures, to not assert their culture on anyone else. In this future there is no money on Earth humanity is part of a federation of planets where all members, human and alien, work together to explore the galaxy. The phrase "infinite diversity in infinite combinations" comes from Star Trek. This new crew was more interested in science and tackled issues related to race more head-on! The technical jargon I heard coming from Geordi and others on the ship fueled my love for science. This new version of Star Trek also had the Shakespearean-trained actor Patrick Stewart playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard, which was the antithesis of the original Captain James T. He was famous as the lead in the TV cultural phenomena Roots and would later make everyone smile with Reading Rainbow. The Next Generation had the young LeVar Burton as the chief engineer Geordi La Forge. This was a sequel to the original series that aired in the '60s, a show that Martin Luther King Jr. What I really related to - the show that I anticipated each week and bawled when it ended - was Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was before streaming and YouTube, so you had to race home to be in front of that TV to watch multiple Simpsons reruns or the latest episode of In Living Color, the sketch show that I thought I could relate to more than SNL. TV was my escape! It was my first friend. When I was a tween I lived in a small rural town where I stuck out like a piñata in a park. ![]() The show helped me, and my father, find a place within our culture. I do remember when I started to realize that this show, and my father who introduced me to it, built the foundation for my sense of social justice as an astrophysicist of color. I honestly don't remember a time when I didn't love Star Trek. It beeped! The actor playing a space lieutenant looked at her with frustration and said, "Don't do that!" Later that day my dad snapped this picture: My sister raised her hand and said loudly: "It's me!" and then promptly pushed a button on one of the consoles. The premise of the ride was that Klingons went back in time to abduct Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ancestor. There were Starfleet officers doing their jobs, and you felt like you were in an actual episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It had actors dressed up like Klingons and other aliens. OK, it wasn't the "real" TV set - it was even better!Īt the turn of the century, Las Vegas had an attraction called the Star Trek Experience that sadly didn't make enough money to survive. One experience that I hope never fades from my memory is the day I found myself on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. ![]()
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