New Trek, old problem

I am absolutely a Star Trek fan and one of the main reasons for that is Lt. Uhura. As an African American girl growing up in the 1970s there were few positive role models in the media. I noticed at a very young age that blacks in movies died first. The film did not have to be a horror movie either. The black character was doomed no matter the genre. So as a child when I saw a black woman on television, I waited for her to die on the show. She didn't. In fact, no black character ever died on the original Star Trek series. They were all intelligent professionals. Some were crazy or unbalanced in some way but all were intelligent and treated as equals. This is what made me watch the show...positive images of people who looked like me.

Flash forward to the new Star Trek film. I think it is one of the best Trek movies made with one glaring exception...Uhura. While Uhura in the original show drew me in, the new Uhura annoys and repels me. The reason is simple. Why does the new Uhura have a long, flowing ponytail, almost no body curves and lighter skin? In short, why does she look more white than the original Uhura? The other characters have good resemblance to the original characters. Why is it that the only major black character in Star Trek watered down by making her look more European than African, which is what she is supposed to be, not African American, but African. But the problem is deeper than that.

While nothing can be done about the fascination Hollywood has for stick thin women with no curves, if you look at the photos above it was clearly possible to make the new Uhura appear more African. With a simple hair style and make-up change, Zoe Saldana suddenly looks like Uhura. But that is not the image you see in the film. I can understand updating the hair style but a long flowing ponytail screams white, not African. Her make-up also appears to lighten her skin tone. The two images speak volumes for what the filmmakers could have had versus what they did have.

For years Hollywood has done this. People with darker skin and stronger African features get fewer roles. People who look biracial but can pass as black get roles that could go to darker people. With the success of Star Trek (mostly because of the good writing and not because Uhura is suddenly doing a Michael Jackson and turning white), the producers will resist changing Uhura's look. Nevermind Uhura's look changed in almost every Trek film made with the original cast.

I have mentioned my annoyance with this trend to some ethnicity-free friends. That's what another friend calls white people. The response I usually get is total non-concern or questions about why it upsets me. Well, I have always struggled with a response to that reaction. What do you say when something that upsets you is of no concern to another? It is a serious issues but they see it as you being 'overly sensitive'. Well, I think I have the response, and it is based on biological facts. I will just ask how would they feel if James T. Kirk walked on to the bridge of the Enterprise with a permanent tan and kinky hair? If it is OK to make Africans look more European, should it not be OK to make whites look more ethnic?

There are several multi-racial actors who can pass for either an ethnic or white character. I think this is a good thing but the problem I see is when a black character is watered down. There is no logical reason for Uhura to look less African. If the original character was a success, why water her down now?

Gene Roddenberry made Star Trek to show the world that skin color, ethnicity, country of origin no longer mattered. The cast was specifically created to show we all had matured. Checkov was Russian, but worked well with the Americans. Uhura was African, but that did not stop Kirk from having an attraction to her...that's in the new film also. Spock is multi-species, Vulcan and human. He could be said to represent many of the emotions biracial people have today. Scotty is from Scotland, Sulu was originally meant to represent Asia in general...hence the name. He is Japanese, born in San Francisco, but his name is from a body of water, not a specific Japanese province. McCoy represented the southern states of America, yet was not a dumb country bumpkin, nor was he a racist. Roddenberry had a great vision of what humans could become and it is just sad that Hollywood has lost sight of that in regards to the way Uhura was presented in the new movie. I hope in the sequel, we know there will be one...this movie made too much money...they will remember Uhura is black. Of course, they may have watered her down because she has several intimate scene with Spock. For whatever reasons, people are less offended watching a light-skinned black person kiss a white person than if a dark-skinned black person were laying the lip-lock...but that's a subject for a whole different blog post.