This is a bit tangential but one of my favourite bits of subtlety in Star Trek comes from the early-ish Deep Space Nine episode “Past Tense”. Sisko and Bashir The two POC humans are immediately detained when they travel to past earth. Meanwhile Dax the literal alien who has visible spots but is also white is allowed to be free. It felt like one of the earliest times Trek really started examining how race was depicted. The episode honestly feels light years away from something like “Code Of Honor”. It’s also telling that DS9 has some of the most interesting and sympathetic depictions of Klingons and, of course, DS9 would deal with race a lot more explicitly later on. But this is all coming from the perspective of a white person so feel free to correct me. I also really wanted to gab about how DS9 was my favourite.
Sorry to use this 4 month old comment for my own purposes, but I just want somewhere to talk about this. I'm currently watching DS9 for the first time, and I was blown away by the episode Badda-Bing Badda-Bang, when Sisko actually addresses the fact that fantasies of the past usually ignore that those periods were only good for a small subset of people. Obviously, it was a pretty minor thing in the episode, but I've never seen that acknowledged in media like that before.
Thanks for mentioning the Jewish people not always being allowed to be white/being white only when it helps the narrative. We don't usually get comments that are more than a cursory 'and that's antisemitism' and then glossed over. Cheers
and there are many non-white passing Jews, whole groups of them. I'm an ashkenazi jew, the white skinned ones. as jew are from the middle east, our original skin color was probably brown. and there's a big diaspora of Ethiopian Jews, with black skin. not to mention jews who are part african.
Another good topic. That is yet another thing I like about DS9. The way they portray the Klingons always felt right to me. I feel like the sympathetic portrayals of Klingons in general were always helpful; because it's good to show that people from a place who look different to us, and may even be our countries enemies in war, can actually be complex people and they aren't all a monolith. I felt like Discovery undid that by making them evil again which disappointed me. (Also, I hope you don't mind me saying, but that shade of lipstick is very flattering to your face. Good choice.)
One thing worth mentioning about the Klingons is that we're told that they are 'efficient farmers' and masterful artisans, in TOS and TGN, but we hardly ever see this illustrated. We've mostly been shown that the Klingons are merchants for the most part, aside from warriors. But is it too much to ask fr the writers to show us more of the farming and artisan classes? Also, the Klingon class hierarchy was mentioned in Star Trek Enterprise, but it is never explained which classes are favored by the ruling houses and each class is ranked. Simply making them composed of warriors makes them even more one note.
I keep remembering how confusing eposodes like "the trouble with tribbles", "errand of mercy" and "Friday's Child" used to make me. The make-up and costumes were just SO BAD I used to think Klingons were humans from another planet rather than aliens. Even later Trek epispdes explicitly show that Humaniods can easilly pass for other species with minor cosmetic surgery. Back before TNG's "The Chase", the answer could have been any number of things. I was born in 1984 so I got to mostly experience TOS in a vacuum. I'd never seen any of the movies, Next Gen hadn't entered syndication yet, and the internet didn't exist. Within the context of TOS alone, it's actually plausable to see Klingons as a competing nation of humans rather than as aliens. In the original pilot, it was implied that part of Starfleet's job was finding and contacting dozens of pre-FTL colonies that fled earth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. By then, those colonies would have had almost 200 years to grow into their own thriving cultures. Maybe the people on "Kronos" (sic) were a civilization of Augments like Khan who just got to a point where they had already conquered themselves an empire by the time earth got around to sending out 5-year missions. While Star Trek went in a different direction with the Klingons, those ideas WERE on the verge of being explored in Andromeda over 30 years later. Not well, it was largely a missed opportunity and the transhuman space fascists were allies of the protagonists about as often as they were enemies. I guess the reason its hard to crtitque supremacism is because supremascism can't be taken in at a glance like other kinds of 'coding'. It's inextricably tied to the coding of the thing that is being claimed to be superior: A Nazi uniform, a burning cross, a red baseball cap, a bundle of sticks, secret handshakes and deliberately misspelled words -- the symbols of hatred constantly change and renew themselves by hiding under some other, more innocuous meaning. Funny that, people who go around feeling superior because they think they're _hiding_ in plain sight when the truth is that nobody outside their little club even cares... Anyway, I have no idea how a show could address the stupidly of Supremacism in the abstract when the coding for such is "The Secret Word Club".
Thank you Jessie! I'm white, and I'm really frustrated with the choice to use aliens as a metaphor for white supremacy. This goes back to the way the Original Series portrayed Starfleet as a utopia, with only 'exotic' alien species representing racism, sexism or other forms of oppression. In my opinion, this allows us to feel superior and removes the need to critique our own biases. We see this all over far right discourse: the idea that oppression doesn't exist 'in the Western world'. That only foreigners grow up in unjust hierarchies, and that idea even acts as justification for disrespecting and enacting violence against them. So the conceit dat Starfleet is perfect in this regard, whereas Klingons are inherently evil is a bad idea didactically. If you want people to change their behavior, they need to see protagonists grappling with those issues in their own lives, not as outsiders. One of Discovery's (and Star Trek's in general) problems in worldbuilding is that it treats societies as expressions of the personality traits of an entire sapient species. There's no history explaining why Klingons are all obsessed with war, or Romulans with deceit or Vulcans with logic. to a degree, these are unchangable facts about them, almost genetically. Thereás very little internal dynamics in these societies: political minorities, cultural movements, historical developments. Which is used to justify violence and mistrust in Star Trek canon, often without the understanding that this way of describing societies is inherently racist and reduces billions of individuals to stock caricatures.
I hear what you’re saying. I feel that Star Trek Enterprise (IIRC) did touch on more Vulcan history and how they came to be so focused on logic. If you haven't watched that series, I'd recommend it for that.
@@helianthropyYeah but the trouble is, the way they went about that story was so badly written that they kinda missed their own points and ruined their own plots. Frankly, the episode Stigma had good intentions, but the writing was garbage. A shame since all the actors put in stellar performances during it.
I had been aware of the Klingons as stand-ins for the Soviets and their assumed stoic barbarism but the Romulans were associated with the Asian countries at the time with those characters’ untrustworthy mysteriousness. Yeah totally PROBLEMATIC at best, racist outright at worst. Definitely shines a better light on the redesign for the Klingons despite the colorism apparent within the narrative. (I just can’t get over the double nostrils). Again I can’t remember the article I read once but it stated: “Star Trek promises much but delivers little” as far as ideology.
This is some good food for thought. I hope that we, as nerds, can continue to have a conversation about representation and prejudice in our media, and ultimately work towards more inclusive character design choices.
Fascinating! I didn’t know Klingons were originally intended as a one-off alien. And good commentary on the racial undertones of the Klingons which too often flies under the radar.
Watched Discovery with the free CBS All Access month. Then last night restarted my chronological trek with Voyager S1E1. Shocking how just a few years ago it was fine to have two "your an Indian" references in a pilot.
Wait until you get to the episode where Chakotay says something like "You're stuck on a planet without technology with the only Indian in the Galaxy who can't start a fire by rubbing two sticks together."
Just a tiny nitpick. Voq was breaking a stereotype, in that he was explicitly albino and thus coded as a villain from the very start. Consider how TREK fans kept wondering if he (or his son) were the mysterious nameless but child-killing "Albino" from DS9. Literally for no better reason than his lack of melanin. Go through film, t.v. and literature to find a positive character who also has albinism. Methinks the only one you might find is Elric of Melibone, who is for all practical purposes a demon. Just a "good" demon. Or an evil elf. There's also some weird science fiction movie from the 1960s about an underground civilization with a waif-like girl rescured by the rugged-jawed Americans (but the rest of her people are slaves or human-sacrificing villains). In fact DSC is the only show or franchise or anything to include two albinos who are not in any meaningful way evil. At some time when we meet see Voq as Tyler, he is middle eastern in appearance, which makes his heroism a nice twist against stereotypes. That last is complex because he is lighter than most Klingons, of course, but as I said I find a positive portrayal of someone with albinism a breath of fresh air. (I am prepping to write a play with a protagonist who has albinism).
Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockinbird" came to mind when reading your comment. People thought he was evil because he looked different but it proved he was not. I can't remember if he was an actual albino or just someone pale because they couldn't go out in the sun; it's been a while since I read that book for school.
Glad you mentioned Lotro. Storytellers seem to use that trope everywhere, commercials, books, tv shows, movies, songs, cartoons. The good character has a light skin/hair/fur/shell/scale and the evil character has a darker skin/hair/fur/shell/scale. One of the things I liked about DS9's Dominion War arc is that they didn't rely on this trope as much.
Excellent analysis, Jessie! I hadn't considered the fact that brown people are always kind of represented as alien life forms in these allegories. As a POC, that's something I'll have to think about more haha. I also had no clue about klingons originally being a conflation of Soviet and Chinese stereotypes. Bummer!
Thanks for your analysis. The interesting thing to me is that when I was a kid I thought the Klingons were coded Near East Easterners (facial hair; dusky complexion; warrior ethic) and it was Vulcans who were supposed to be the Asians (sallow complexion; straight, dark hair; stoic demeanor). To me this suggests that, while some of the racial coding was intentional, much of it could also be the viewer projecting his own racial stereotypes onto alien characters in an effort to understand them.
2) The writing of minority characters rarely reflect POC's reality. It represents what the majority of white writers think minorities should represent: the racial coding and stereotypes the majority society wants to communicate about the "other!" I am going to be honest here because I addressed this issue at a con back in the 90s. I straight up told Behrman, Moore and Estevez (sp) what I thought of their handling of women and minorities. They gave me lip service! If the writers of that time really didn't care if Geordi had a wife or Merriweather a good storyline, why should the black community care about viewing the shows when we are once again tokens of appeasement so whites don't feel bad! And when we are not tokens of appeasement, we are made into the "bad" guy/boogeyman as Brock Peter's Admiral Cartwhright turned out to be in ST VI! These were part of the reason why Robert Beltran and Garrett Wang had shi$$y attitudes at the end of their shows: they felt like a pet who was washed and bathed to be put on display and to say that no racism existed when there indeed was at a level of unacceptability of their characters. That is, it was okay to slight minority characters by giving them little meaning to the story line. For an artist, this is deadly. That minorities are often told by the white majority they were only hired because of their race or only let in universities to fulfill a quota has been a recurrent theme in society. With a few exceptions, most actors of color are exceptional talents. That they are often times not allowed to shine is a reflection of the majority society not wanting to face the fact that there is indeed a high level of professionalism and talent when it comes to people of color and that people of color should a) know their place and b) not outshine their white peers. Hence the reason for the continued stereotypes, racial coding and colorism done using people of color and makeup. If a person has been made into "Menschenmassen" by society, they are disposable and not worthy or respect or a place in society. They are only tools of the society to be used as scapegoats and whipping boys. Salt is further added to the wound when people are not allowed to apply for director and writers unions while their white counterparts are supported and mentored by their white peers. Roxan Dawsen is one of the few women of color who has been able to pull off a directing career while Gates McFadden had to fight tooth and nail to get one episode. Yet, despite her many credits, she hasn't been asked to direct a Discovery or Picard episode, but Jonathan Frakes has done both! LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn also got an opportunity to direct during the TNG and DS9 days, but haven't been asked to direct for Disco or Picard. Likewise, very few minorities have been part of the film and writing crew until recently. Walter Mosely, a Pulitzer prize black writer, was allegedly fired from either Picard or Disco for saying the "N" word and butting heads with writers and producers over artistic differences. Putting his behavior aside (did we not agree not to say the "N" word as to not offend and create a double standard), at issue here is whether or not a television show only hires those who are "fully assimilated and integrated" i.e. without the black power sign and willing to play the game without reminding people of their "differences"! Furthermore, how can racial coding and stereotyping come to an end when women and minorities are not part of the production, writing and creating processes. That said, I will give producers of Picard credit for hiring Hanell Culpepper, a female black award winning director, to direct the first two episodes of the season. The mostly white writers have a tendency to write minority and women characters into boxes i.e. stereotypes and caricatures of what they think the "other" should be is a given. Things take a nose dive when through the use of makeup, digital printing and green screens, old habits of racist stereotypes rear their ugly heads because it can now be hidden under the guise of creativity! When there is a system set up which originally is to protect "white/majority" privilege, this will indeed have its growing pains and repeat offenses of the past! Racial coding is nothing new when there have been hiring practices put in place which make people tokens and not equal players. The reason the country is having so much growing pains is that disenfranchised groups want to be part of the conversation on how government, law, television and yes even the bad guys look! They don't want to be "coded" because of their skin color into something evil or unworthy to be part of the community. To continue racial coding only benefits the majority who want to come out the victors. This majority doesn't see how they have racially coded themselves into being the bad guy. Many Star Trek fans can't accept Burnham as a beautiful, black, intelligent and resourceful leader who makes mistakes in judgement. Women of color have been racially coded as not acceptable partners just as men of color have been coded as threats to society because they want an equal share in the available resources. It is easier to turn Burnham into a Mary Sue caricature and say that she is not up to the game rather than give her a chance, because society has racially coded her as such. People of color saw this back in 1960s and see it in their every day lives today. What has change immensely is that POC are more aware of it than ever. Let's return to reading classic literature of the early 20th century. People of color have been very much aware what racial coding has been going on in books, telly and film. Many parents of color use the Bible to fight against these images by actually telling their children that reading such books are evil. It's preferable than seeing their children gasp and say, "The Orgs are described as black men who are low life apes! How insulting is that mummy!" Over the years of watching and reading science fiction, I've developed a thick skin which I utilize! An episode like Code of Honor, I don't watch and unless Uhura is actually on a Classic Trek with some major lines, I tend not to watch because I am insulted! I have been going to Star Trek conventions since 1987 and even put on several cons on in 80s and 90s, do you think I, as a beautiful black woman with a crack education, was ever seen as a potential wife/dating material by the many single men visiting!? NO! Asking them to dance was like pulling teeth and even the Klingons weren't biting. Mind you my LGTQA brothers and sisters found me fascinating! The racial coding is so ingrained and as a woman of color I am rarely seen by the majority community as having something to offer! It took me moving to Europe to be thought of as a prize! So let's answer your question about the effects of racial coding in Star Trek. It's been there all the time. People of color can identify it from 20 paces! It's used to make minorities look bad unless you are Ricardo Montalban and Benedict Cumberbatch playing Kahn! Then you're cool. It reinforces societal stereotypes in order to discriminate or not allow POC to climb the economic and career ladders. How do most people of color deal with it? When I watch Star Trek and other programs, I simply put it out of my head. I know that with the exception of DS9 and Discovery that racial coding will continue to exist. Why else is Michelle Hurd's Raffi Musiker written as a dead beat mother with a substance abuse problem! I do this because if I don't I will not have any enjoyment in life. I can't live my life always worrying about what racial coding is doing to myself and the people around me. I simply try to be a good person who enjoys Trek because despite it not being perfect! There is a character which is like me in the show and in the 1960s that was good enough for me to become a fan. This is more than most telly has been offering over the years. Only recently in the last three decades has things gotten better and viewers see the pendulum turning away from blatant racial coding to a more acceptance of the "good and bad" guy being accepted over a wide variety of races, ethnicities and genders. Unfortunately, many whites are insulted that they are painted as the "bad guy"! To that, I say suck it up! Racial coding shouldn't only be for minorities! Now, they know how we feel when they have to accept they are being told by telly they are a "bad person"! Doesn't feels so great does it? Maybe films and telly should seriously stop the practice. Unfortunately, it's not so easy after five centuries! Plus, people do need a fantasy they can get which takes them away from their everyday drudgery. That is what Star Trek is despite its flaws.
Legit burst out laughing at the end. Again, parody on point. Proud to be a Patron. Side note: This also helps me as a creator by reminding me to try not to use variation in skin tone as a... 'character/racial design trait'.
You know who I always thought was a bit racial coded? The Vulcans. A lot of their traits were like stereotypical Asian traits, such as being smart, not socially "cool" (Spock was a total nerd come on), the fact that the Vulcans have a yellow hue, black straight hair parried with the bowl cut. I actually thought Spock's actor was east Asian when I first saw Spock on screen, I wasn't aware of the makeup. A lot of Asian habits, like the way we parent, are viewed as cold by westerners. And I say this an Asian that has been to Asia numerous times. The specific area I went to always gets really hot in the summer, and pretty much every woman (except the local hairdresser) had T'pol's haircut. Since the Vulcans were viewed as the good guys in Star Trek, the "Asain coded" traits not being harmful stereotypes, and that fact that they didn't go overboard on the yellow makeup, makes it that I'm not particularly upset, but fascinated. I'm also aware that a lot of the Vulcan's are autistic coded, but I believe there some traits can be counted as classic autistic traits and classic Asian stereotypes
the yellow skin is from there green blood, they doint have green skin because the condition of a desert planet means ther veins will be deeper in there bodys and thus having a lighter hue.
@@flyingfoamtv2169 Well yes, that is the canon explanation. Though it's most likely that the writers designed the vulcans first, than came up with an in-universe explanation for why they look like that. It doesn't change the point since my original comment and the video are analyzing Star Trek on a meta level
This is great timing. I've been watching "Asians Read RPG books" on TH-cam and seeing how messed up the coded shorthand is in, say, D&D's "Oriental Adventures" reminds me a lot of this.
This is a very well thought out video, two thumbs up and a sub. The points you discuss are so important for science fiction fans to have awareness of, facts that I, as a black woman, thought were obvious on first readings and viewings of my favorites (LOTR, Star Trek)
Thank you so much. Your observations were eye-opening. You gave words to things that have bothered me for years, without me understanding why. And I love how you manage to present your case with barely any blame casted.
And if I may another comment: I just watched again George Takei’s interview for the Television Academy. He talks about ST and his experiences with discrimination and stereotypes. interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/george-takei But it’s just also awesome to spend 3.5 hours (‼️) listening to his awesome voice. The Academy has interviewed most ST:TOS actors and many creators so I heartily recommend you take the time to listen to all of these beautiful long-form interviews. Nimoy, Fontana, Justman... Very important witnesses and testimonials. The Takei interview was done in 2004 so it’s before his official coming out, so I wish there was a postscript like they did with Shatner.
"Star Trek Discovery is the best Star Trek." "Everyone prepare for battle!" Damnit, Jessie, why do your sketches have to be so awesome? I was planning on starting my thesis today - now I am probably going to binge-watch more of your videos! :P
Showing up 'cause I'm watching TOS for the first time and yikes, the yellowface. Glad to hear modern Trek is attempting changes after some less than stellar attempts in the past. I enjoyed what I've seen of Klingons so far in DS9, but if it can be seen as still icky, I'm not against changes.
I will say on the difference in skintone in the younger version in the animated short did not bother me as an African American as many black people get darker as we get older, it's not noticeable unless you look at a childhood photo as an adult.
This is a nice topic to address and you covered the issue, I'd like to see if you could go deeper There is an episode of Voyager called Lineage about race, perception and self hate with B'elanna trying to change her child's appearance genetically because of her trauma growing up half Klingon and bad memories about her human father, and there is solid commentary within the Trek universe about those cultural shorthands and stereotypes
For sure! I would love to go even deeper. However, my one caviat is that, as a white person, there’s only so much I can and should say in regards to stuff like that and I want to be respectful
The double edge of Aliens in sci-fi, whatever commentary you making with that race is going to be what define that Race. For example a commentary on the Japanese occupation of Korea is going to define the race you made as one note monsters.
Too bad I hadn't found this 3 years ago when there was actually discussion on this TH-cam topic. As a person of color, I realized a long time ago that the biases of the majority of a society tend to dominate those forms of interactions like entertainment that we tend to consume. I'm a Black man 3 months and 23 days short of 60 as of October 5, 2023 and I remember watching the original Star Trek on a 3 foot wooden box with a 27 inch screen. A question I brought up that my parents laughed their heads off at and brought up when we visited family in Kansas later that year was. I had wondered why all the aliens looked like some form of White person in makeup. Were real aliens just White people? I was either 4 or 5 years old, so I didn't know much about the world seen on television but I was really fond of the Horta as an alien because it didn't seem like a person in makeup. The Moon landing I really enjoyed watching on television, but even that brought up many a question. When you were watching Mission Control, you didn't see many women, Black people, Hispanics ,Asians, or other people you saw around you all the time growing up in a mixed neighborhood in San Diego. If you're going to use people in your society to represent aliens, use all kinds of people and not just the ones you're comfortable with only. Life is full of things that make some of us uncomfortable, but if we aren't willing to face them in our fiction, when will we be comfortable facing them in our reality? I remember a lot of the backlash about the primary protagonist in Discovery when it first came out, and although I liked the show as another form of Star Trek, the responses from some of the more virulent were disappointing.
Thank you so much for this video! Since quarantine has started I've been diving back into my passion for Star Trek, and I've been thinking about this topic for some time. This video was very well done and very informative! I'm definitely going to subscribe.
As usual, an excellent and thought provoking video from Jessie regarding one of the more problematic aspects of Star Trek lore(that being the depiction of various non-white cultures through the lens of the alien other). I had heard this discussion before with regards to the various aliens Star Fleet encounters on its continuing mission. From the Ferengi to the Romulan and even the Vulcan, there are a variety of opinions on this particular topic that I feel warrant additional videos. I would not mind seeing more videos on this topic. For myself, I still feel Star Trek did more good than harm with regards to race relations(though even this series still stumbled from time to time*coughLigonianscough*).
Thanks for digging into the history of this, Jessie. I appreciate that Vulcans have been depicted with a variety of skin tones, so they didn't simply replicate Tolkein's elves. But the more homogeneous, and largely negative, depiction of dark-skinned Klingons has bothered me for quite a while. I see this as a demonstration of implicit racism. I want to believe in the good intentions of Star Trek writers... but we really have to actively interrogate our cultural conditioning, if we want to do better.
Subject aside, you seem much more comfortable with yourself.. your body language speaks volumes :) Annnnd as to the subject matter, I had no.idea the klinzhai were based on asian culture.. or that they were initially, single use aliens, so this was quite enlightening in that respect. Thanks!
I wish to note that John Colicos claimed the Klingon makeup was improvised by himself and the makeup artist, that when he arrived that first day to shoot nobody knew how a Klingon was supposed to look like, so they settled for a generic bad guy look: dark olive skin, thick eyebrows, Fu Manchu moustache, and lots of attitude. He said the makeup was effective, fast and easy to apply, so it worked for the rest of the series. Source, mostly Memory Alpha, Klingon makeup. So, it seems we would have John Colicos to blame for thinking a "Fu Manchu" moustache equals bad guy.
This was fun, I liked the 'skit' portion. And yeah, Klingons and other alien races have been problematic during the entirety of Trek's run. That's something we have to look at, and learn from. That's not a bad thing to acknowledge.
As an Asian who actually grew up in Asia, I've always seen Klingon culture as defined by hyper-masculinity rather than Asian. It's probably because I did not know that Americans perceive us as secretive and honour-driven. Now that you mention it, the TOS-era design, with the Fu Manchu moustache and names like Kang and Chang, are obviously racist. But I think TNG-era design is neutral enough. It should be okay to hire people of whatever race to play aliens of whatever skin color. Klingons are never intended to represent black people and there are also blue and green skins in the Trek universe. The only reason black face and yellow face might be problematic is that Hollywood has a tendency to give jobs to White people even when there are equally qualified Black and Asian actors auditioning for the job. But while the hiring practice may be offensive to the actors, the make up itself shouldn't be offensive to Black or Asian communities.
I'm seeing this for the first time (because algorithm is mysterious) - I just wanted to pop in and say that I'm fully aware you're a HUGE deal bigshot ect ect writer and director now with access to amazing cast and crew; (and probably have the next 12 months of projects conceptualized) This format is fun and watching you play different roles in scene with... you... is really enjoyable. You also seem to be enjoying yourself as well. I hope to discover more like these in "the archives" or, if we're *very* lucky, a revisit to this approach again in the future. You're very talented at acting scenes opposite yourself but I can't recall a post "Nature of Work" era video where you carried more than two. Once again, just making the comment because it's impressive and the enjoyment seems to have been on your end as well.
This one was hard to watch, but i'm glad you made this. It's kinda pertinent right now. We all have biases, we need to see them, understand them and reject them (the bias, not the people)
Thank You I love Star Trek But Gene Roddenburry and Tolkien were not entirely "ahead" of their times. I look forward to the day when everyone can play together with respect. I'm a Fan of Color and I think you got most of it very right.
I've just started watching The Next Generation and last night I watched the episode from the first season where they brought three Klingons on board and one dies and Worf has an existential crisis until they turned out to be bad guys lol. Anyway, it made me want to google Klingons so I did and then I went down this whole rabbithole. Major coincidence!
Star Trek fans collectively hating on the STD Klingons is satisfying. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates them. They look like a bad imitation of orcs. I was really looking forward to STD and the premise of a Vulcan-raised human Starfleet officer and a more diverse crew had so much potential. The hate towards Voyager, Enterprise, and Picard is really unfair imo, but Discovery has earned the wrath. TNG, DS9, and Voyager are definitely still my favourite Treks. I remember watching the Klingons in TOS and thinking 'yikes, this is kinda racist' and moving on. I never realised just how deep and severe this issue was until this video. Thanks for shedding a light on it and making us reflect upon it.
I found this very informative. I was completely oblivious to the Asian racial coding of the Klingons. And it also didn't occur to me that black face applied to alien character costumes. I learned a lot. Thank you! :)
Wow. Growing up when Russia was THE enemy, I always thought the Kilngons were a stand in for Soviet Russia. Didn't know the Asian influence, but makes sense, as most of the writers would've lived through WW2. But, must admit, I was never a Klingon fan, so especially in TNG, kinda tuned out to all their "cultural" stuff & didn't think about it at all. BTW, while I think its kinda sweet people are being sensitive & asking if its okay to dress as Kilngons, I'd also say, isn't over kill? As while maybe modeled on the histories of certain races, they aren't real? (Sorry, Klingon fans!)
Excellent video Jesse! Very well written and well researched content. I had never thought about the Asian influences in the development of the the Klingons way back in TOS. love the channel.
Damn, you give great video essay. Love it when you do this. When I was old enough to start thinking critically I noticed that the TOS Klingons were white Americans' views on Asians, while the Movie through ENT Klingons were white American's views on Black people. Then the Kelvin and DISCO Klingons came out and I saw clear connections to white American's views on Islamic and Arabic cultures. Could be just me reading too much into things but it's almost as if the Klingons get a generational reboot for whatever is scaring white people the most at the moment. If in ten years or so the Klingons are suddenly coded as trans then we'll know I'm onto something . Though, now that I think about it, with Voq's transformation which engenders distrust from his lover over who "he" really is, we might already be there.
To me as a black man I prefer the idea of Klingon's as black why because there a strong fearsome race with a honor code there not meant to be fucked with is was like my generations Wakanda in terms of who is racist. I'm inclined to think the J RR Tolkien might have been a racist because he was from that time with it was cool to dump on none white. HP Love Craft and all. As for Gene Roddenberry i would say he was more tone death then anything ells as he tried to tell a story of inclusions. In TOS i dont know what the Klingons were all about
As a wannabe writer, I do get lost in these issues - I spent ages planning for A Nanowrimo novel last November, trying to be fair and representative, (though protagonist was a white man, it was only because I wanted to base him on Patton Oswalt), however in some cases I just stumbled into accidental racism - I wanted to have the pilot of a ship be a Jewish woman, (based on female fighter pilots in the Israeli airforce, though wasn't touching on Israel/Palestine issues so far in the future), however I'd also decided that she was somewhat enigmatic and we would learn later in the novel that she was in fact the niece of one of the antagonists, and all of the bad guys motives were profit and power, and had a massive crisis in confidence because I'd not intended to have a powerful profit hungry jew working in the background, it read wrong. Ended up switching his familial connection to another team member and writing away the enigmatic past. In the grand scheme of things, not a massive problem and while I felt really bad about it at the time, I am happy that I stopped the issue, when trying to craft characters is easy to fall into pitfalls without ever meaning to. I don't believe I am racist, at least in an overt sense, but yay doesn't mean I can't be passively racist, it indeed accidentally. This in no way a defence of how some species are presented in Star Trek or other shows, clearly there was intent in the design of these species that people just weren't challenged on, even today. And the format of television doesn't lend itself to nuance, a species had to be communicated in just a few minutes and writers take shortcuts, mostly by paying to stereotypes, to communicate to the audience - it's why even today, with all the advancements in textiles and materials and computer graphics, the vast majority of alien races are humanoid. None of it is right,and in no way do I want to excuse it, I just don't know necessarily how they can do better until audiences are more open, (which I think they are, but the vocally active audience isn't) . TV can lead the way, but if no one watches it does more harm than good, because the feedback studios and creative heat is that people didn't want to see it. It's probably all above my head, and I've probably strayed to pieces I didn't want to be - I just got to thinking.
Just started watching Star Trek Discovery and was pretty disappointed seeing the Klingon designs. Thank you for making this (great) video and showing that other people are thinking about these issues too!
I really liked your video. It is very informative and educating. I really love the Klingons (not the Discovery ones actually because in fact I think they were turned into a faceless mass who chant with no sense of humour or personality, but then I'm not a big fan of Discovery, sorry) but I completely understand what you're saying and it made me think. So thank you for that. I wonder what are your thoughts about the Farengii and the Jewish stereotypes, that is something that always bothered me about them. I know they were developed more in DS9 where Quark becomes practically Shylock. I'll be interested to s what you think. Thank you for your video, keep up with your work and good luck with your surgery.
As having a dad from Egypt who looked much like the original Klingons, I always assumed that they were imitating Arabs. My dad has a Klingon temperament. Also, on the original series their make up was cheaper than the Romulans who were intended to be the adversary in a number of scripts. PS. Love the necklace. Very cool.
I grew up with the TNG show so i prefer how they were shown in that show. I didn't really see them as Asian at first i thought cause Michel Dorn( not relation) is black the Klingon's were a black race and i thought it was cool as I'm half black. I think the Klingon cutler became more interesting in the TNG i like how there a combination of viking and samurai culter. Witch i thought it was neet. In terms of redesign i'm cool with shows doing somthing new the old stuff is still there
Great and thoughtful video that puts into words my massive unease with aspects of the Klingons, but explains it better than I ever could. Thanks Jessie
I just wish Star Trek let different races of the various species to exist. They did it somewhat with Vulcans with having darker skinned members of the species, but not to the extent I would have liked. Klingons could have had white actors be white and had other races, like Spanish or Asian actors, playing the species as well and not just black or white actors in order to really diversify them. They should have done it with all the species in general.
Huh. Could have sworn I left a comment here hours ago, but it seems to be gone now...* scratches head * Anyhoo, awesome video, great analysis, intro/outro skit is hilarious.
I've thought that about Klingons for years, and mentioned it in a Star Trek forum where we were discussing TNG/DS9/VOY Klingons. People were so puzzled. I think about half the time, Black actors were cast in those roles [and good for Trek, hiring Black actors!], and while Trek did mix the Bushido and Klingon Code of Honor, the constant "warrior" and "threatening//hair-trigger-tempered" aspect ticked me off because of the racial coding. Tony Todd, in the background of your Worf picture, is also a Black actor. The main good thing about Klingons in TNG-era Trek is, many Black actors were employed, and showed us what great acting skills they had. On Voq and the new Klingons, I liked that Voq was the outcast because he was albino -- I think this may have been a way for Discovery to tell white people they aren't always accepted wherever they go, but YMMV. Yes, the Klingons were species-ist [racist?], but they were viewed as "our enemies". So this could be viewed as racist, or it could be viewed as minority writers saying, "this is how you white people see everyone outside your race. And we have pride, and cohesion, and you will not always be in charge." I think that's why the old white guy Trekfans overreacted to DSC's "shoving SJW agenda down our throats" -- they felt threatened, not only by this, but by Burnham being the main character. How dare they not have a white male captain! [Though I confess I loved Lorca before he became all (REDACTED)] I loved the Klingon redesign, they looked SO ALIEN. Which, it was about feckin time IMO. I agree with you on the prosthetics around their mouths though. Many of the Klingons have grey skin like L'Rell and Kol. I saw a mix of skin tones. These portraits were of their time; Tolkien wrote in the '30s, Roddenberry, in the '60s, and TNG &c. in the '80s/'90s. In the '80s and '90s internal racist impulses were still not recognized by white liberals, and everything racist was buried deep in the liberal community, but it often came out in film and TV writing. Great and funny intro, especially the Disco uniform and the mention of canon, LOL! Agree with you on '60s Nimoy!
Maybe I'm kinda naive, but I didn't see the Asian influence in the Klingons (aside from TOS). For me, the exceptions were that their language was apparently based on Mongolian, and the more Samurai depiction of them in Star Trek 6. Honestly, by the time of TNG, they come across more like Vikings, with the Romulans seeming far more like an analog to the Chinese. After all, the UFP- basically Star Trek's equivalent of the UN- established an alliance with the Klingons (after the fall of their Berlin Wall), while the duplicitous Romulans remain an unknowable enemy (ie, China) and later a reluctant ally against the Dominion.
Hmmm , I think that the crux of your point is heavily reliant on the Klingons being 'evil villains'. Only I don't think Star Trek portrays them in that way, they seem more like the occasional antagonist, that can also be turned to friendship, as the Organians stated would happen in "Errand of Mercy", and when the crew would ultimately join together with the Klingons in "Day of the Dove". You fail to mention that this is the first show to have an interracial kiss, and inspired people like MLK and Whoopi Goldberg. Also was blatantly anti-racist with episodes such as "Let that Be Your Last Battlefield". Its important to be constructively critical of our benefactors here as you are doing, but it is also really important to recognize unprecedented progress as well. Cheers.
Maybe not evil but still with many qualities that could be considered brutish or backward. She did also state that in later series they became less overtly "bad" and with more admirable behaviours.
Technicalities: it was not the first show to have an interracial kiss, the same way Buffy The Vampire slayer was not the first show that had a musical episode. They were however the ones that got the most people to talk about it at the time :)
I always thought that the next generation klingons were heavily modeled after arab stereotypes. But now that you say it, there is a lot borrowed from feudal japan too. Now I want to see a klingon version of james clavells "shogun".
I for one would love to see a Klingon version of Macbeth...I know there was a Klingon Hamlet years ago, but Macbeth as a story is just so much more Klingon.
For some strange reason the first part of my essay disappeared! Hmmm! Well, I hope you understand what I wrote! As for whites dressing up as Klingons, the makeup is so difficult that often times it is better to use a shade darker to make the plastic sculpting look better! I don't mind that they use a dark brown or even black. Everyone knows it is a Klingon and they are not being racist. So no problem with that. The only thing that I dislike is the CONSTANT representation of people of color as simply bad people. That's a huge no! However, as I said below, because people of color are rarely at the table to make key decisions, racial coding will continue because many, not all, whites simply refuse to understand what they are doing wrong nor do they want "the other" in the decision making process. Hence the reason why there are in many aspects of life in the US economy such as books and entertainment which caters to people based on race so that they have positive minorities. Because many shows use tokenism to represent people of color, sci-fic is not viewed so often by people of color. The reason there is so many issues with Discovery is that society isn't ready to live in a world which Disco represents. Not only does society want to racially code people of color, they also want to do it the LGBTQA communities to have the "bad or other" to fight against or ostracize so the majority stays in power and are perceived as better than what they actually are.
This was a really interesting video! Thank you for enlightening me :) I knew only bits and pieces of their conception, but not as much as you presented here :)
This is interesting i for some reason always seen the klingons as Native Americans. I guess do to the worrier race and culture/society they were similar especially with the war and victory songs and even some of the klingon language sound Native American sometimes. But it's an interesting take
@@JessieGender1 Jess, whilst I love you and encourage what you're doing enthusiastically, you're talking to the tiny crowd here. I don't get (and cant because of their nature) the in-jokes of the next generation (which you are, even if you are a really mature woman, which you are also). And even as a life-long Trekkie, I really don't have the time in running my department at this law firm to delve into the depths of everything real fans delve into. Unlike the supposed President, I'll actually read your summaries and explanations. If you choose to provide them as necessary to advise you. I am not as deep in this lore as you are, dear.
@@JessieGender1 Look at the beautifull geekiness following my post (that responds to one of yours, not mine). I'm capable of that, but don't really have time to do that deep analysis these days about a fictional world. Alas. Just analyzing how clients' stock issues or mergers work (or don't) is the limit of my "what if" analysis right now..
Just looking at these posts, I can find myself in a dorm room or a tour bus in the 1980s. (stage management (me) and technicians were not on the band bus, which was good. Getting into a venue at dawn meant a department heads' meeting at 5:30 as the bus was approaching the venue.) However even then, my off time was thinking about the same things. and wondering how everything fits together.
3:28 I was going to make a joke about Worfs misogyny and xenophobia were less about being him being klingon and more about him being Russian buuuut i decided i don't want to joke about that stuff. Also his family are actually from Belarus.
Interesting to note that the Klingons never had the whole "honor"/Samurai-esque thing attached to them until TNG. Even the Klingons in ST:6 didn't exhibit any of that, just that they were a proud race (like, who isn't really). In TOS, they were often depicted as back-stabbers, conniving usurpers, sometimes bribing native people with weapons, murdering civilians. Then they got cloaking devices in ST:3... not too honorable!
Also, I think it's worth noting how degrading it was for the late Syrian-American actor Michael Ansara (who played Mr. Freeze in Batman: TAS) who played Kang in TOS, had to put shoe polish over his brown skin; he's brownfacing his own race. And I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the names Kor, Kang and Koloth make a very unsettling acronym.
1960s Klingon designs were limited by money, time and imagination. Also The Romulon designs were basically white. Both were limited by having to have all actors who portrayed them as being part of the same species.
I always thought the Klingons were more like a mix of the Atila the hun.Vikings ..an Mongals .with some native Amrican...I loved the Klingons I was part of a fandom a role play group KaG in the 1990s, Then Ring of Fire Fleet. I also worked at Paramounts Great America. Park as a Klingon.when there was a Star Trek actors program. Then Las Vagus. Stat Trek the experience. Thur out the 90s. Then back thur 2000s. Got back into Fandom till 2010.doing Klingon for Cons and promos. So in a way part of me iner seldom was Klingon. Went by the name of Trebor Kordoch....I don't like at all the way Klingorks are in STD. Looking like potato heads made of steaming Poop. No way. So my love for the Klingons. Of Next Gen.thue out to Star Trek Enterprise. Died it started to change in J J, Abrams films. But was Destroyed. In Star Trek Decrassory,oh I mentioned Disgusting. Oh I mentioned Discovery. S T,D,.yep a true virus before Cov 19. Adding hair did not help..damage already done. So I say to the Klingons I knew R i,P. Unless in Pacard session. 2 that the Klingons we knew an lover will return.say with Worf.retuning in the form we know. But please don make word into,a Patao.Klingork.poop head.then it's R,i.p. for Star Trek for me foever........I just want the spirits of Songs of Stories of honor a glory again. Ki.,Qapla. TREBOR.,Robert Anthony..Pacifica California.
The og klingon designs were racist, but i think when they were redesigned for the movie were alien enough there were removed enough from people. I think its ok that they have real life inspiration from mongols, or other human warrior cultures. And I think those are really the klingons everyone loves. The klingons in discovery are incredibly different than the ones we are are familiar with, and frankly probably shouldnt have even been called klingons. I think its kinda of like radically changing vulcans, I dont think that would gonover well either. Worf was always one my fav characters, so his design and alien race are kinda of important to me.
I feel it's changing to some degree now and if you look at Star Trek Picard or any of the new Innovations you see people who are Vulcan Romulan cardassian whoever who have different pigmentation some are dark skin some light skin some medium.. I'm nearly 52 to I grew up in the 70s and there were loads of stereotypes in the old westerns you have white actors dressed up as Asians white actors dressed up as Native Americans. It in those days black people just didn't existed the old westerns. A lot of it is Jane but it just depends on the situation you'll still see it. A friend of mine is a huge Tolkien Lord of the Rings Hobbit fan. In the movie they were basically no actors of Color cast I said that's weird Lisa dumb and in the books there are no black people or Asian people or anyting in Middle Earth. And I said what that's weird it's all make-believe you can have dark skin Hobbits or medium skin Hobbits or black elves medium skin elves that didn't have to be just one skin color. I loved all of the Lord of the Ring movies The Hobbit movies but being African-American I noticed didn't mean the movies weren't great but I still noticed. I still feel things are changing and hopefully they'll continue to change for the better.
Some good points about the normaly well-intentioned Roddenberry's classic villians. This was not new even back in the sixties. You had an even more obvious negative Asian stereotypical Alien villain in Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless--and this characterization predated the second World War. So much racism baked into this country's history. The Founding Fathers may have said: this idea certainly has potential but it's going to take a Hell of a lot of work. Yes, even from many of the best intentioned people.
This is a bit tangential but one of my favourite bits of subtlety in Star Trek comes from the early-ish Deep Space Nine episode “Past Tense”. Sisko and Bashir The two POC humans are immediately detained when they travel to past earth. Meanwhile Dax the literal alien who has visible spots but is also white is allowed to be free. It felt like one of the earliest times Trek really started examining how race was depicted. The episode honestly feels light years away from something like “Code Of Honor”. It’s also telling that DS9 has some of the most interesting and sympathetic depictions of Klingons and, of course, DS9 would deal with race a lot more explicitly later on. But this is all coming from the perspective of a white person so feel free to correct me. I also really wanted to gab about how DS9 was my favourite.
Mackenzie Fleetwood DS9 got it right so often!
Yes! Absolutely! That is one of my favourite episodes, so great on so many levels!
Sorry to use this 4 month old comment for my own purposes, but I just want somewhere to talk about this. I'm currently watching DS9 for the first time, and I was blown away by the episode Badda-Bing Badda-Bang, when Sisko actually addresses the fact that fantasies of the past usually ignore that those periods were only good for a small subset of people. Obviously, it was a pretty minor thing in the episode, but I've never seen that acknowledged in media like that before.
Emperor Ming of Mongo from Flash Gordon fame . he had that Fu Manchu look.
Thanks for mentioning the Jewish people not always being allowed to be white/being white only when it helps the narrative. We don't usually get comments that are more than a cursory 'and that's antisemitism' and then glossed over. Cheers
and there are many non-white passing Jews, whole groups of them. I'm an ashkenazi jew, the white skinned ones. as jew are from the middle east, our original skin color was probably brown. and there's a big diaspora of Ethiopian Jews, with black skin. not to mention jews who are part african.
@@erdood3235 real talk.
Another good topic. That is yet another thing I like about DS9. The way they portray the Klingons always felt right to me. I feel like the sympathetic portrayals of Klingons in general were always helpful; because it's good to show that people from a place who look different to us, and may even be our countries enemies in war, can actually be complex people and they aren't all a monolith. I felt like Discovery undid that by making them evil again which disappointed me.
(Also, I hope you don't mind me saying, but that shade of lipstick is very flattering to your face. Good choice.)
One thing worth mentioning about the Klingons is that we're told that they are 'efficient farmers' and masterful artisans, in TOS and TGN, but we hardly ever see this illustrated. We've mostly been shown that the Klingons are merchants for the most part, aside from warriors. But is it too much to ask fr the writers to show us more of the farming and artisan classes? Also, the Klingon class hierarchy was mentioned in Star Trek Enterprise, but it is never explained which classes are favored by the ruling houses and each class is ranked. Simply making them composed of warriors makes them even more one note.
The last time I was this early to a video, Sisko still had hair
I keep remembering how confusing eposodes like "the trouble with tribbles", "errand of mercy" and "Friday's Child" used to make me. The make-up and costumes were just SO BAD I used to think Klingons were humans from another planet rather than aliens. Even later Trek epispdes explicitly show that Humaniods can easilly pass for other species with minor cosmetic surgery. Back before TNG's "The Chase", the answer could have been any number of things.
I was born in 1984 so I got to mostly experience TOS in a vacuum. I'd never seen any of the movies, Next Gen hadn't entered syndication yet, and the internet didn't exist.
Within the context of TOS alone, it's actually plausable to see Klingons as a competing nation of humans rather than as aliens. In the original pilot, it was implied that part of Starfleet's job was finding and contacting dozens of pre-FTL colonies that fled earth in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
By then, those colonies would have had almost 200 years to grow into their own thriving cultures. Maybe the people on "Kronos" (sic) were a civilization of Augments like Khan who just got to a point where they had already conquered themselves an empire by the time earth got around to sending out 5-year missions.
While Star Trek went in a different direction with the Klingons, those ideas WERE on the verge of being explored in Andromeda over 30 years later. Not well, it was largely a missed opportunity and the transhuman space fascists were allies of the protagonists about as often as they were enemies.
I guess the reason its hard to crtitque supremacism is because supremascism can't be taken in at a glance like other kinds of 'coding'. It's inextricably tied to the coding of the thing that is being claimed to be superior:
A Nazi uniform, a burning cross, a red baseball cap, a bundle of sticks, secret handshakes and deliberately misspelled words -- the symbols of hatred constantly change and renew themselves by hiding under some other, more innocuous meaning.
Funny that, people who go around feeling superior because they think they're _hiding_ in plain sight when the truth is that nobody outside their little club even cares...
Anyway, I have no idea how a show could address the stupidly of Supremacism in the abstract when the coding for such is "The Secret Word Club".
Thank you Jessie! I'm white, and I'm really frustrated with the choice to use aliens as a metaphor for white supremacy. This goes back to the way the Original Series portrayed Starfleet as a utopia, with only 'exotic' alien species representing racism, sexism or other forms of oppression. In my opinion, this allows us to feel superior and removes the need to critique our own biases. We see this all over far right discourse: the idea that oppression doesn't exist 'in the Western world'. That only foreigners grow up in unjust hierarchies, and that idea even acts as justification for disrespecting and enacting violence against them. So the conceit dat Starfleet is perfect in this regard, whereas Klingons are inherently evil is a bad idea didactically. If you want people to change their behavior, they need to see protagonists grappling with those issues in their own lives, not as outsiders. One of Discovery's (and Star Trek's in general) problems in worldbuilding is that it treats societies as expressions of the personality traits of an entire sapient species. There's no history explaining why Klingons are all obsessed with war, or Romulans with deceit or Vulcans with logic. to a degree, these are unchangable facts about them, almost genetically. Thereás very little internal dynamics in these societies: political minorities, cultural movements, historical developments. Which is used to justify violence and mistrust in Star Trek canon, often without the understanding that this way of describing societies is inherently racist and reduces billions of individuals to stock caricatures.
I hear what you’re saying. I feel that Star Trek Enterprise (IIRC) did touch on more Vulcan history and how they came to be so focused on logic. If you haven't watched that series, I'd recommend it for that.
@@helianthropyYeah but the trouble is, the way they went about that story was so badly written that they kinda missed their own points and ruined their own plots. Frankly, the episode Stigma had good intentions, but the writing was garbage. A shame since all the actors put in stellar performances during it.
I had been aware of the Klingons as stand-ins for the Soviets and their assumed stoic barbarism but the Romulans were associated with the Asian countries at the time with those characters’ untrustworthy mysteriousness. Yeah totally PROBLEMATIC at best, racist outright at worst. Definitely shines a better light on the redesign for the Klingons despite the colorism apparent within the narrative. (I just can’t get over the double nostrils). Again I can’t remember the article I read once but it stated: “Star Trek promises much but delivers little” as far as ideology.
This opening sketch made me laugh so much.
This is some good food for thought. I hope that we, as nerds, can continue to have a conversation about representation and prejudice in our media, and ultimately work towards more inclusive character design choices.
Fascinating! I didn’t know Klingons were originally intended as a one-off alien. And good commentary on the racial undertones of the Klingons which too often flies under the radar.
Watched Discovery with the free CBS All Access month. Then last night restarted my chronological trek with Voyager S1E1. Shocking how just a few years ago it was fine to have two "your an Indian" references in a pilot.
Wait until you get to the episode where Chakotay says something like "You're stuck on a planet without technology with the only Indian in the Galaxy who can't start a fire by rubbing two sticks together."
Just a tiny nitpick. Voq was breaking a stereotype, in that he was explicitly albino and thus coded as a villain from the very start. Consider how TREK fans kept wondering if he (or his son) were the mysterious nameless but child-killing "Albino" from DS9. Literally for no better reason than his lack of melanin. Go through film, t.v. and literature to find a positive character who also has albinism. Methinks the only one you might find is Elric of Melibone, who is for all practical purposes a demon. Just a "good" demon. Or an evil elf.
There's also some weird science fiction movie from the 1960s about an underground civilization with a waif-like girl rescured by the rugged-jawed Americans (but the rest of her people are slaves or human-sacrificing villains).
In fact DSC is the only show or franchise or anything to include two albinos who are not in any meaningful way evil.
At some time when we meet see Voq as Tyler, he is middle eastern in appearance, which makes his heroism a nice twist against stereotypes.
That last is complex because he is lighter than most Klingons, of course, but as I said I find a positive portrayal of someone with albinism a breath of fresh air.
(I am prepping to write a play with a protagonist who has albinism).
Boo Radley in "To Kill a Mockinbird" came to mind when reading your comment. People thought he was evil because he looked different but it proved he was not. I can't remember if he was an actual albino or just someone pale because they couldn't go out in the sun; it's been a while since I read that book for school.
But Albino's are historically villains in African cultures, so there will always be discrimination.
Elric is never - ever - characterized as "good"
@@uncleorev It is a stretch, yeah, but it makes my point even more valid.
Glad you mentioned Lotro. Storytellers seem to use that trope everywhere, commercials, books, tv shows, movies, songs, cartoons. The good character has a light skin/hair/fur/shell/scale and the evil character has a darker skin/hair/fur/shell/scale. One of the things I liked about DS9's Dominion War arc is that they didn't rely on this trope as much.
Gowron eyes are awesome.
I hope as we get more shows we develop more to a species. Like the DS9 Klingon chef.
Excellent analysis, Jessie! I hadn't considered the fact that brown people are always kind of represented as alien life forms in these allegories. As a POC, that's something I'll have to think about more haha.
I also had no clue about klingons originally being a conflation of Soviet and Chinese stereotypes. Bummer!
Thanks for your analysis.
The interesting thing to me is that when I was a kid I thought the Klingons were coded Near East Easterners (facial hair; dusky complexion; warrior ethic) and it was Vulcans who were supposed to be the Asians (sallow complexion; straight, dark hair; stoic demeanor). To me this suggests that, while some of the racial coding was intentional, much of it could also be the viewer projecting his own racial stereotypes onto alien characters in an effort to understand them.
2) The writing of minority characters rarely reflect POC's reality. It represents what the majority of white writers think minorities should represent: the racial coding and stereotypes the majority society wants to communicate about the "other!" I am going to be honest here because I addressed this issue at a con back in the 90s. I straight up told Behrman, Moore and Estevez (sp) what I thought of their handling of women and minorities. They gave me lip service! If the writers of that time really didn't care if Geordi had a wife or Merriweather a good storyline, why should the black community care about viewing the shows when we are once again tokens of appeasement so whites don't feel bad! And when we are not tokens of appeasement, we are made into the "bad" guy/boogeyman as Brock Peter's Admiral Cartwhright turned out to be in ST VI! These were part of the reason why Robert Beltran and Garrett Wang had shi$$y attitudes at the end of their shows: they felt like a pet who was washed and bathed to be put on display and to say that no racism existed when there indeed was at a level of unacceptability of their characters. That is, it was okay to slight minority characters by giving them little meaning to the story line. For an artist, this is deadly. That minorities are often told by the white majority they were only hired because of their race or only let in universities to fulfill a quota has been a recurrent theme in society. With a few exceptions, most actors of color are exceptional talents. That they are often times not allowed to shine is a reflection of the majority society not wanting to face the fact that there is indeed a high level of professionalism and talent when it comes to people of color and that people of color should a) know their place and b) not outshine their white peers. Hence the reason for the continued stereotypes, racial coding and colorism done using people of color and makeup. If a person has been made into "Menschenmassen" by society, they are disposable and not worthy or respect or a place in society. They are only tools of the society to be used as scapegoats and whipping boys.
Salt is further added to the wound when people are not allowed to apply for director and writers unions while their white counterparts are supported and mentored by their white peers. Roxan Dawsen is one of the few women of color who has been able to pull off a directing career while Gates McFadden had to fight tooth and nail to get one episode. Yet, despite her many credits, she hasn't been asked to direct a Discovery or Picard episode, but Jonathan Frakes has done both! LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn also got an opportunity to direct during the TNG and DS9 days, but haven't been asked to direct for Disco or Picard. Likewise, very few minorities have been part of the film and writing crew until recently. Walter Mosely, a Pulitzer prize black writer, was allegedly fired from either Picard or Disco for saying the "N" word and butting heads with writers and producers over artistic differences. Putting his behavior aside (did we not agree not to say the "N" word as to not offend and create a double standard), at issue here is whether or not a television show only hires those who are "fully assimilated and integrated" i.e. without the black power sign and willing to play the game without reminding people of their "differences"! Furthermore, how can racial coding and stereotyping come to an end when women and minorities are not part of the production, writing and creating processes. That said, I will give producers of Picard credit for hiring Hanell Culpepper, a female black award winning director, to direct the first two episodes of the season.
The mostly white writers have a tendency to write minority and women characters into boxes i.e. stereotypes and caricatures of what they think the "other" should be is a given. Things take a nose dive when through the use of makeup, digital printing and green screens, old habits of racist stereotypes rear their ugly heads because it can now be hidden under the guise of creativity!
When there is a system set up which originally is to protect "white/majority" privilege, this will indeed have its growing pains and repeat offenses of the past! Racial coding is nothing new when there have been hiring practices put in place which make people tokens and not equal players. The reason the country is having so much growing pains is that disenfranchised groups want to be part of the conversation on how government, law, television and yes even the bad guys look! They don't want to be "coded" because of their skin color into something evil or unworthy to be part of the community. To continue racial coding only benefits the majority who want to come out the victors. This majority doesn't see how they have racially coded themselves into being the bad guy.
Many Star Trek fans can't accept Burnham as a beautiful, black, intelligent and resourceful leader who makes mistakes in judgement. Women of color have been racially coded as not acceptable partners just as men of color have been coded as threats to society because they want an equal share in the available resources. It is easier to turn Burnham into a Mary Sue caricature and say that she is not up to the game rather than give her a chance, because society has racially coded her as such. People of color saw this back in 1960s and see it in their every day lives today. What has change immensely is that POC are more aware of it than ever.
Let's return to reading classic literature of the early 20th century. People of color have been very much aware what racial coding has been going on in books, telly and film. Many parents of color use the Bible to fight against these images by actually telling their children that reading such books are evil. It's preferable than seeing their children gasp and say, "The Orgs are described as black men who are low life apes! How insulting is that mummy!" Over the years of watching and reading science fiction, I've developed a thick skin which I utilize! An episode like Code of Honor, I don't watch and unless Uhura is actually on a Classic Trek with some major lines, I tend not to watch because I am insulted!
I have been going to Star Trek conventions since 1987 and even put on several cons on in 80s and 90s, do you think I, as a beautiful black woman with a crack education, was ever seen as a potential wife/dating material by the many single men visiting!? NO! Asking them to dance was like pulling teeth and even the Klingons weren't biting. Mind you my LGTQA brothers and sisters found me fascinating! The racial coding is so ingrained and as a woman of color I am rarely seen by the majority community as having something to offer! It took me moving to Europe to be thought of as a prize!
So let's answer your question about the effects of racial coding in Star Trek. It's been there all the time. People of color can identify it from 20 paces! It's used to make minorities look bad unless you are Ricardo Montalban and Benedict Cumberbatch playing Kahn! Then you're cool. It reinforces societal stereotypes in order to discriminate or not allow POC to climb the economic and career ladders. How do most people of color deal with it? When I watch Star Trek and other programs, I simply put it out of my head. I know that with the exception of DS9 and Discovery that racial coding will continue to exist. Why else is Michelle Hurd's Raffi Musiker written as a dead beat mother with a substance abuse problem!
I do this because if I don't I will not have any enjoyment in life. I can't live my life always worrying about what racial coding is doing to myself and the people around me. I simply try to be a good person who enjoys Trek because despite it not being perfect! There is a character which is like me in the show and in the 1960s that was good enough for me to become a fan. This is more than most telly has been offering over the years. Only recently in the last three decades has things gotten better and viewers see the pendulum turning away from blatant racial coding to a more acceptance of the "good and bad" guy being accepted over a wide variety of races, ethnicities and genders. Unfortunately, many whites are insulted that they are painted as the "bad guy"! To that, I say suck it up! Racial coding shouldn't only be for minorities! Now, they know how we feel when they have to accept they are being told by telly they are a "bad person"! Doesn't feels so great does it? Maybe films and telly should seriously stop the practice. Unfortunately, it's not so easy after five centuries! Plus, people do need a fantasy they can get which takes them away from their everyday drudgery. That is what Star Trek is despite its flaws.
Great analysis. Great humor. Yours has become my favorite TH-cam Trek channel. Thank you.
Legit burst out laughing at the end. Again, parody on point. Proud to be a Patron. Side note: This also helps me as a creator by reminding me to try not to use variation in skin tone as a... 'character/racial design trait'.
You know who I always thought was a bit racial coded? The Vulcans. A lot of their traits were like stereotypical Asian traits, such as being smart, not socially "cool" (Spock was a total nerd come on), the fact that the Vulcans have a yellow hue, black straight hair parried with the bowl cut. I actually thought Spock's actor was east Asian when I first saw Spock on screen, I wasn't aware of the makeup. A lot of Asian habits, like the way we parent, are viewed as cold by westerners. And I say this an Asian that has been to Asia numerous times. The specific area I went to always gets really hot in the summer, and pretty much every woman (except the local hairdresser) had T'pol's haircut. Since the Vulcans were viewed as the good guys in Star Trek, the "Asain coded" traits not being harmful stereotypes, and that fact that they didn't go overboard on the yellow makeup, makes it that I'm not particularly upset, but fascinated. I'm also aware that a lot of the Vulcan's are autistic coded, but I believe there some traits can be counted as classic autistic traits and classic Asian stereotypes
the yellow skin is from there green blood, they doint have green skin because the condition of a desert planet means ther veins will be deeper in there bodys and thus having a lighter hue.
@@flyingfoamtv2169 Well yes, that is the canon explanation. Though it's most likely that the writers designed the vulcans first, than came up with an in-universe explanation for why they look like that. It doesn't change the point since my original comment and the video are analyzing Star Trek on a meta level
This is great timing. I've been watching "Asians Read RPG books" on TH-cam and seeing how messed up the coded shorthand is in, say, D&D's "Oriental Adventures" reminds me a lot of this.
TOS was a paradoxical show. it was progressive but at times highly racist, sexist, and misogynistic.
This is a very well thought out video, two thumbs up and a sub. The points you discuss are so important for science fiction fans to have awareness of, facts that I, as a black woman, thought were obvious on first readings and viewings of my favorites (LOTR, Star Trek)
Thank you so much. Your observations were eye-opening. You gave words to things that have bothered me for years, without me understanding why. And I love how you manage to present your case with barely any blame casted.
And if I may another comment: I just watched again George Takei’s interview for the Television Academy. He talks about ST and his experiences with discrimination and stereotypes.
interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/george-takei
But it’s just also awesome to spend 3.5 hours (‼️) listening to his awesome voice. The Academy has interviewed most ST:TOS actors and many creators so I heartily recommend you take the time to listen to all of these beautiful long-form interviews. Nimoy, Fontana, Justman... Very important witnesses and testimonials. The Takei interview was done in 2004 so it’s before his official coming out, so I wish there was a postscript like they did with Shatner.
Thanks for sharing! I’ll check it out
"Star Trek Discovery is the best Star Trek."
"Everyone prepare for battle!"
Damnit, Jessie, why do your sketches have to be so awesome? I was planning on starting my thesis today - now I am probably going to binge-watch more of your videos! :P
Showing up 'cause I'm watching TOS for the first time and yikes, the yellowface. Glad to hear modern Trek is attempting changes after some less than stellar attempts in the past. I enjoyed what I've seen of Klingons so far in DS9, but if it can be seen as still icky, I'm not against changes.
I will say on the difference in skintone in the younger version in the animated short did not bother me as an African American as many black people get darker as we get older, it's not noticeable unless you look at a childhood photo as an adult.
This is a nice topic to address and you covered the issue, I'd like to see if you could go deeper
There is an episode of Voyager called Lineage about race, perception and self hate with B'elanna trying to change her child's appearance genetically because of her trauma growing up half Klingon and bad memories about her human father, and there is solid commentary within the Trek universe about those cultural shorthands and stereotypes
For sure! I would love to go even deeper. However, my one caviat is that, as a white person, there’s only so much I can and should say in regards to stuff like that and I want to be respectful
The double edge of Aliens in sci-fi, whatever commentary you making with that race is going to be what define that Race. For example a commentary on the Japanese occupation of Korea is going to define the race you made as one note monsters.
Too bad I hadn't found this 3 years ago when there was actually discussion on this TH-cam topic. As a person of color, I realized a long time ago that the biases of the majority of a society tend to dominate those forms of interactions like entertainment that we tend to consume. I'm a Black man 3 months and 23 days short of 60 as of October 5, 2023 and I remember watching the original Star Trek on a 3 foot wooden box with a 27 inch screen. A question I brought up that my parents laughed their heads off at and brought up when we visited family in Kansas later that year was. I had wondered why all the aliens looked like some form of White person in makeup. Were real aliens just White people? I was either 4 or 5 years old, so I didn't know much about the world seen on television but I was really fond of the Horta as an alien because it didn't seem like a person in makeup. The Moon landing I really enjoyed watching on television, but even that brought up many a question. When you were watching Mission Control, you didn't see many women, Black people, Hispanics ,Asians, or other people you saw around you all the time growing up in a mixed neighborhood in San Diego.
If you're going to use people in your society to represent aliens, use all kinds of people and not just the ones you're comfortable with only. Life is full of things that make some of us uncomfortable, but if we aren't willing to face them in our fiction, when will we be comfortable facing them in our reality? I remember a lot of the backlash about the primary protagonist in Discovery when it first came out, and although I liked the show as another form of Star Trek, the responses from some of the more virulent were disappointing.
Thank you so much for this video! Since quarantine has started I've been diving back into my passion for Star Trek, and I've been thinking about this topic for some time. This video was very well done and very informative! I'm definitely going to subscribe.
Thanks 😊
As usual, an excellent and thought provoking video from Jessie regarding one of the more problematic aspects of Star Trek lore(that being the depiction of various non-white cultures through the lens of the alien other). I had heard this discussion before with regards to the various aliens Star Fleet encounters on its continuing mission. From the Ferengi to the Romulan and even the Vulcan, there are a variety of opinions on this particular topic that I feel warrant additional videos. I would not mind seeing more videos on this topic. For myself, I still feel Star Trek did more good than harm with regards to race relations(though even this series still stumbled from time to time*coughLigonianscough*).
Thanks for digging into the history of this, Jessie. I appreciate that Vulcans have been depicted with a variety of skin tones, so they didn't simply replicate Tolkein's elves. But the more homogeneous, and largely negative, depiction of dark-skinned Klingons has bothered me for quite a while. I see this as a demonstration of implicit racism. I want to believe in the good intentions of Star Trek writers... but we really have to actively interrogate our cultural conditioning, if we want to do better.
Yes, this is a video essay that's been long overdue! Been looking around for one on this topic forever.
Subject aside, you seem much more comfortable with yourself.. your body language speaks volumes :)
Annnnd as to the subject matter, I had no.idea the klinzhai were based on asian culture.. or that they were initially, single use aliens, so this was quite enlightening in that respect. Thanks!
I wish to note that John Colicos claimed the Klingon makeup was improvised by himself and the makeup artist, that when he arrived that first day to shoot nobody knew how a Klingon was supposed to look like, so they settled for a generic bad guy look: dark olive skin, thick eyebrows, Fu Manchu moustache, and lots of attitude. He said the makeup was effective, fast and easy to apply, so it worked for the rest of the series. Source, mostly Memory Alpha, Klingon makeup.
So, it seems we would have John Colicos to blame for thinking a "Fu Manchu" moustache equals bad guy.
My favorite Klingon will always be the Klingon lawyer from DS9. I feel like he should get more recognition as a one-off character, he was so good.
This was fun, I liked the 'skit' portion. And yeah, Klingons and other alien races have been problematic during the entirety of Trek's run. That's something we have to look at, and learn from. That's not a bad thing to acknowledge.
As an Asian who actually grew up in Asia, I've always seen Klingon culture as defined by hyper-masculinity rather than Asian. It's probably because I did not know that Americans perceive us as secretive and honour-driven. Now that you mention it, the TOS-era design, with the Fu Manchu moustache and names like Kang and Chang, are obviously racist. But I think TNG-era design is neutral enough. It should be okay to hire people of whatever race to play aliens of whatever skin color. Klingons are never intended to represent black people and there are also blue and green skins in the Trek universe. The only reason black face and yellow face might be problematic is that Hollywood has a tendency to give jobs to White people even when there are equally qualified Black and Asian actors auditioning for the job. But while the hiring practice may be offensive to the actors, the make up itself shouldn't be offensive to Black or Asian communities.
It is strange that they morphed from metaphorical communists to viking samurai.
I'm seeing this for the first time (because algorithm is mysterious) - I just wanted to pop in and say that I'm fully aware you're a HUGE deal bigshot ect ect writer and director now with access to amazing cast and crew; (and probably have the next 12 months of projects conceptualized)
This format is fun and watching you play different roles in scene with... you... is really enjoyable. You also seem to be enjoying yourself as well.
I hope to discover more like these in "the archives" or, if we're *very* lucky, a revisit to this approach again in the future. You're very talented at acting scenes opposite yourself but I can't recall a post "Nature of Work" era video where you carried more than two.
Once again, just making the comment because it's impressive and the enjoyment seems to have been on your end as well.
This one was hard to watch, but i'm glad you made this. It's kinda pertinent right now.
We all have biases, we need to see them, understand them and reject them (the bias, not the people)
Orcs come from Roman Mythology, it was a curse for doing bad things to corpses.
Thank You I love Star Trek But Gene Roddenburry and Tolkien were not entirely "ahead" of their times. I look forward to the day when everyone can play together with respect. I'm a Fan of Color and I think you got most of it very right.
I've just started watching The Next Generation and last night I watched the episode from the first season where they brought three Klingons on board and one dies and Worf has an existential crisis until they turned out to be bad guys lol. Anyway, it made me want to google Klingons so I did and then I went down this whole rabbithole. Major coincidence!
Star Trek fans collectively hating on the STD Klingons is satisfying. I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates them. They look like a bad imitation of orcs.
I was really looking forward to STD and the premise of a Vulcan-raised human Starfleet officer and a more diverse crew had so much potential. The hate towards Voyager, Enterprise, and Picard is really unfair imo, but Discovery has earned the wrath. TNG, DS9, and Voyager are definitely still my favourite Treks.
I remember watching the Klingons in TOS and thinking 'yikes, this is kinda racist' and moving on. I never realised just how deep and severe this issue was until this video. Thanks for shedding a light on it and making us reflect upon it.
I found this very informative. I was completely oblivious to the Asian racial coding of the Klingons. And it also didn't occur to me that black face applied to alien character costumes. I learned a lot. Thank you! :)
Wow. Growing up when Russia was THE enemy, I always thought the Kilngons were a stand in for Soviet Russia. Didn't know the Asian influence, but makes sense, as most of the writers would've lived through WW2.
But, must admit, I was never a Klingon fan, so especially in TNG, kinda tuned out to all their "cultural" stuff & didn't think about it at all.
BTW, while I think its kinda sweet people are being sensitive & asking if its okay to dress as Kilngons, I'd also say, isn't over kill? As while maybe modeled on the histories of certain races, they aren't real? (Sorry, Klingon fans!)
Excellent video Jesse! Very well written and well researched content. I had never thought about the Asian influences in the development of the the Klingons way back in TOS. love the channel.
Damn, you give great video essay. Love it when you do this. When I was old enough to start thinking critically I noticed that the TOS Klingons were white Americans' views on Asians, while the Movie through ENT Klingons were white American's views on Black people. Then the Kelvin and DISCO Klingons came out and I saw clear connections to white American's views on Islamic and Arabic cultures. Could be just me reading too much into things but it's almost as if the Klingons get a generational reboot for whatever is scaring white people the most at the moment. If in ten years or so the Klingons are suddenly coded as trans then we'll know I'm onto something . Though, now that I think about it, with Voq's transformation which engenders distrust from his lover over who "he" really is, we might already be there.
I always thought they represented Ghengis Khan
To me as a black man I prefer the idea of Klingon's as black why because there a strong fearsome race with a honor code there not meant to be fucked with is was like my generations Wakanda in terms of who is racist. I'm inclined to think the J RR Tolkien might have been a racist because he was from that time with it was cool to dump on none white. HP Love Craft and all. As for Gene Roddenberry i would say he was more tone death then anything ells as he tried to tell a story of inclusions. In TOS i dont know what the Klingons were all about
As a wannabe writer, I do get lost in these issues - I spent ages planning for A Nanowrimo novel last November, trying to be fair and representative, (though protagonist was a white man, it was only because I wanted to base him on Patton Oswalt), however in some cases I just stumbled into accidental racism - I wanted to have the pilot of a ship be a Jewish woman, (based on female fighter pilots in the Israeli airforce, though wasn't touching on Israel/Palestine issues so far in the future), however I'd also decided that she was somewhat enigmatic and we would learn later in the novel that she was in fact the niece of one of the antagonists, and all of the bad guys motives were profit and power, and had a massive crisis in confidence because I'd not intended to have a powerful profit hungry jew working in the background, it read wrong. Ended up switching his familial connection to another team member and writing away the enigmatic past. In the grand scheme of things, not a massive problem and while I felt really bad about it at the time, I am happy that I stopped the issue, when trying to craft characters is easy to fall into pitfalls without ever meaning to. I don't believe I am racist, at least in an overt sense, but yay doesn't mean I can't be passively racist, it indeed accidentally.
This in no way a defence of how some species are presented in Star Trek or other shows, clearly there was intent in the design of these species that people just weren't challenged on, even today. And the format of television doesn't lend itself to nuance, a species had to be communicated in just a few minutes and writers take shortcuts, mostly by paying to stereotypes, to communicate to the audience - it's why even today, with all the advancements in textiles and materials and computer graphics, the vast majority of alien races are humanoid.
None of it is right,and in no way do I want to excuse it, I just don't know necessarily how they can do better until audiences are more open, (which I think they are, but the vocally active audience isn't) . TV can lead the way, but if no one watches it does more harm than good, because the feedback studios and creative heat is that people didn't want to see it.
It's probably all above my head, and I've probably strayed to pieces I didn't want to be - I just got to thinking.
UNDERRATED
Just started watching Star Trek Discovery and was pretty disappointed seeing the Klingon designs. Thank you for making this (great) video and showing that other people are thinking about these issues too!
yesh, the darker skinned klingons reminded me of racist african sterotypes in that show.
Klingons also remind me of Vikings.
I really liked your video. It is very informative and educating. I really love the Klingons (not the Discovery ones actually because in fact I think they were turned into a faceless mass who chant with no sense of humour or personality, but then I'm not a big fan of Discovery, sorry) but I completely understand what you're saying and it made me think. So thank you for that.
I wonder what are your thoughts about the Farengii and the Jewish stereotypes, that is something that always bothered me about them. I know they were developed more in DS9 where Quark becomes practically Shylock. I'll be interested to s what you think.
Thank you for your video, keep up with your work and good luck with your surgery.
Why did the Klingon open by wishing the Captain success?
I'm glad to have found such a deeply thoughtful and articulate trekky, subscribed.
Thank you so much ❤️🖖😊
As having a dad from Egypt who looked much like the original Klingons, I always assumed that they were imitating Arabs. My dad has a Klingon temperament. Also, on the original series their make up was cheaper than the Romulans who were intended to be the adversary in a number of scripts. PS. Love the necklace. Very cool.
I grew up with the TNG show so i prefer how they were shown in that show. I didn't really see them as Asian at first i thought cause Michel Dorn( not relation) is black the Klingon's were a black race and i thought it was cool as I'm half black. I think the Klingon cutler became more interesting in the TNG i like how there a combination of viking and samurai culter. Witch i thought it was neet. In terms of redesign i'm cool with shows doing somthing new the old stuff is still there
Amazing commentary as usual. I feel like you could teach a course on Star Trek as it relates to everything.
Great and thoughtful video that puts into words my massive unease with aspects of the Klingons, but explains it better than I ever could. Thanks Jessie
Another thought-provoking analysis with some delicious humour to help it go down. Very nice work :)
Can't believe I missed this video the first time around! Glad you gave it a shout out in your Cancel Culture/Accountability video.
I love for Gowron’s crazy eyes.
Jessie, I'm starting to think you make these videos as an excuse to buy Star Trek tops xD
Shhhhhhhh
I just wish Star Trek let different races of the various species to exist. They did it somewhat with Vulcans with having darker skinned members of the species, but not to the extent I would have liked.
Klingons could have had white actors be white and had other races, like Spanish or Asian actors, playing the species as well and not just black or white actors in order to really diversify them. They should have done it with all the species in general.
Huh. Could have sworn I left a comment here hours ago, but it seems to be gone now...* scratches head * Anyhoo, awesome video, great analysis, intro/outro skit is hilarious.
I've thought that about Klingons for years, and mentioned it in a Star Trek forum where we were discussing TNG/DS9/VOY Klingons. People were so puzzled. I think about half the time, Black actors were cast in those roles [and good for Trek, hiring Black actors!], and while Trek did mix the Bushido and Klingon Code of Honor, the constant "warrior" and "threatening//hair-trigger-tempered" aspect ticked me off because of the racial coding. Tony Todd, in the background of your Worf picture, is also a Black actor. The main good thing about Klingons in TNG-era Trek is, many Black actors were employed, and showed us what great acting skills they had.
On Voq and the new Klingons, I liked that Voq was the outcast because he was albino -- I think this may have been a way for Discovery to tell white people they aren't always accepted wherever they go, but YMMV. Yes, the Klingons were species-ist [racist?], but they were viewed as "our enemies". So this could be viewed as racist, or it could be viewed as minority writers saying, "this is how you white people see everyone outside your race. And we have pride, and cohesion, and you will not always be in charge." I think that's why the old white guy Trekfans overreacted to DSC's "shoving SJW agenda down our throats" -- they felt threatened, not only by this, but by Burnham being the main character. How dare they not have a white male captain! [Though I confess I loved Lorca before he became all (REDACTED)]
I loved the Klingon redesign, they looked SO ALIEN. Which, it was about feckin time IMO. I agree with you on the prosthetics around their mouths though. Many of the Klingons have grey skin like L'Rell and Kol. I saw a mix of skin tones.
These portraits were of their time; Tolkien wrote in the '30s, Roddenberry, in the '60s, and TNG &c. in the '80s/'90s. In the '80s and '90s internal racist impulses were still not recognized by white liberals, and everything racist was buried deep in the liberal community, but it often came out in film and TV writing.
Great and funny intro, especially the Disco uniform and the mention of canon, LOL! Agree with you on '60s Nimoy!
Maybe I'm kinda naive, but I didn't see the Asian influence in the Klingons (aside from TOS). For me, the exceptions were that their language was apparently based on Mongolian, and the more Samurai depiction of them in Star Trek 6. Honestly, by the time of TNG, they come across more like Vikings, with the Romulans seeming far more like an analog to the Chinese. After all, the UFP- basically Star Trek's equivalent of the UN- established an alliance with the Klingons (after the fall of their Berlin Wall), while the duplicitous Romulans remain an unknowable enemy (ie, China) and later a reluctant ally against the Dominion.
Thank you for this amazing and important video Jessie! 🖖🏼
Hmmm , I think that the crux of your point is heavily reliant on the Klingons being 'evil villains'. Only I don't think Star Trek portrays them in that way, they seem more like the occasional antagonist, that can also be turned to friendship, as the Organians stated would happen in "Errand of Mercy", and when the crew would ultimately join together with the Klingons in "Day of the Dove". You fail to mention that this is the first show to have an interracial kiss, and inspired people like MLK and Whoopi Goldberg. Also was blatantly anti-racist with episodes such as "Let that Be Your Last Battlefield". Its important to be constructively critical of our benefactors here as you are doing, but it is also really important to recognize unprecedented progress as well. Cheers.
Maybe not evil but still with many qualities that could be considered brutish or backward. She did also state that in later series they became less overtly "bad" and with more admirable behaviours.
Technicalities: it was not the first show to have an interracial kiss, the same way Buffy The Vampire slayer was not the first show that had a musical episode. They were however the ones that got the most people to talk about it at the time :)
I always thought that the next generation klingons were heavily modeled after arab stereotypes. But now that you say it, there is a lot borrowed from feudal japan too.
Now I want to see a klingon version of james clavells "shogun".
I for one would love to see a Klingon version of Macbeth...I know there was a Klingon Hamlet years ago, but Macbeth as a story is just so much more Klingon.
Good stuff. Thanks JG :) Thoughtful and entertaining. Star Trek can teach us even more in deconstructing it.
Now I find myself wondering how many Starfleet crew members have muttered "I hate this fucking job" on the bridge of a starship...
For some strange reason the first part of my essay disappeared! Hmmm! Well, I hope you understand what I wrote! As for whites dressing up as Klingons, the makeup is so difficult that often times it is better to use a shade darker to make the plastic sculpting look better! I don't mind that they use a dark brown or even black. Everyone knows it is a Klingon and they are not being racist. So no problem with that. The only thing that I dislike is the CONSTANT representation of people of color as simply bad people. That's a huge no! However, as I said below, because people of color are rarely at the table to make key decisions, racial coding will continue because many, not all, whites simply refuse to understand what they are doing wrong nor do they want "the other" in the decision making process. Hence the reason why there are in many aspects of life in the US economy such as books and entertainment which caters to people based on race so that they have positive minorities. Because many shows use tokenism to represent people of color, sci-fic is not viewed so often by people of color. The reason there is so many issues with Discovery is that society isn't ready to live in a world which Disco represents. Not only does society want to racially code people of color, they also want to do it the LGBTQA communities to have the "bad or other" to fight against or ostracize so the majority stays in power and are perceived as better than what they actually are.
This was a really interesting video! Thank you for enlightening me :) I knew only bits and pieces of their conception, but not as much as you presented here :)
This is interesting i for some reason always seen the klingons as Native Americans. I guess do to the worrier race and culture/society they were similar especially with the war and victory songs and even some of the klingon language sound Native American sometimes. But it's an interesting take
fuckin love your channel, found it 2 days ago. subbed.
Got a couple minutes in, and realised I'm not the audience for this video.
How come? I ask in all sincerity
@@JessieGender1 Jess, whilst I love you and encourage what you're doing enthusiastically, you're talking to the tiny crowd here. I don't get (and cant because of their nature) the in-jokes of the next generation (which you are, even if you are a really mature woman, which you are also). And even as a life-long Trekkie, I really don't have the time in running my department at this law firm to delve into the depths of everything real fans delve into. Unlike the supposed President, I'll actually read your summaries and explanations. If you choose to provide them as necessary to advise you. I am not as deep in this lore as you are, dear.
@@JessieGender1 Look at the beautifull geekiness following my post (that responds to one of yours, not mine). I'm capable of that, but don't really have time to do that deep analysis these days about a fictional world. Alas. Just analyzing how clients' stock issues or mergers work (or don't) is the limit of my "what if" analysis right now..
Just looking at these posts, I can find myself in a dorm room or a tour bus in the 1980s. (stage management (me) and technicians were not on the band bus, which was good. Getting into a venue at dawn meant a department heads' meeting at 5:30 as the bus was approaching the venue.) However even then, my off time was thinking about the same things. and wondering how everything fits together.
Excellent and informative as always Jessie!
3:28 I was going to make a joke about Worfs misogyny and xenophobia were less about being him being klingon and more about him being Russian buuuut i decided i don't want to joke about that stuff.
Also his family are actually from Belarus.
Captains log: bones touched... my...butthole.
Looks like TH-cam suggested a nifty channel to me. Have a like, a sub and keep up the good work!
I got PTSD flashback from seeing the Discovery klingons 😩
Interesting to note that the Klingons never had the whole "honor"/Samurai-esque thing attached to them until TNG. Even the Klingons in ST:6 didn't exhibit any of that, just that they were a proud race (like, who isn't really). In TOS, they were often depicted as back-stabbers, conniving usurpers, sometimes bribing native people with weapons, murdering civilians. Then they got cloaking devices in ST:3... not too honorable!
Also, I think it's worth noting how degrading it was for the late Syrian-American actor Michael Ansara (who played Mr. Freeze in Batman: TAS) who played Kang in TOS, had to put shoe polish over his brown skin; he's brownfacing his own race. And I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the names Kor, Kang and Koloth make a very unsettling acronym.
The ending dialogue made me LOL.
1960s Klingon designs were limited by money, time and imagination. Also The Romulon designs were basically white. Both were limited by having to have all actors who portrayed them as being part of the same species.
"Bad Feminist" by Roxane Gay is a fantastic book!!!
I always thought the Klingons were more like a mix of the Atila the hun.Vikings ..an Mongals .with some native Amrican...I loved the Klingons I was part of a fandom a role play group KaG in the 1990s, Then Ring of Fire Fleet. I also worked at Paramounts Great America. Park as a Klingon.when there was a Star Trek actors program. Then Las Vagus. Stat Trek the experience. Thur out the 90s. Then back thur 2000s. Got back into Fandom till 2010.doing Klingon for Cons and promos. So in a way part of me iner seldom was Klingon. Went by the name of Trebor Kordoch....I don't like at all the way Klingorks are in STD. Looking like potato heads made of steaming Poop. No way. So my love for the Klingons. Of Next Gen.thue out to Star Trek Enterprise. Died it started to change in J J, Abrams films. But was Destroyed. In Star Trek Decrassory,oh I mentioned Disgusting. Oh I mentioned Discovery. S T,D,.yep a true virus before Cov 19. Adding hair did not help..damage already done. So I say to the Klingons I knew R i,P. Unless in Pacard session. 2 that the Klingons we knew an lover will return.say with Worf.retuning in the form we know. But please don make word into,a Patao.Klingork.poop head.then it's R,i.p. for Star Trek for me foever........I just want the spirits of Songs of Stories of honor a glory again. Ki.,Qapla. TREBOR.,Robert Anthony..Pacifica California.
I read that as radical coding and thought this was going to be a video about the early days of the internet/90s hackers.
The og klingon designs were racist, but i think when they were redesigned for the movie were alien enough there were removed enough from people. I think its ok that they have real life inspiration from mongols, or other human warrior cultures. And I think those are really the klingons everyone loves. The klingons in discovery are incredibly different than the ones we are are familiar with, and frankly probably shouldnt have even been called klingons. I think its kinda of like radically changing vulcans, I dont think that would gonover well either. Worf was always one my fav characters, so his design and alien race are kinda of important to me.
Very well thought out as usual!
Star Trek VI was the best version of the Klingons.
I agree with that statement
I feel it's changing to some degree now and if you look at Star Trek Picard or any of the new Innovations you see people who are Vulcan Romulan cardassian whoever who have different pigmentation some are dark skin some light skin some medium.. I'm nearly 52 to I grew up in the 70s and there were loads of stereotypes in the old westerns you have white actors dressed up as Asians white actors dressed up as Native Americans. It in those days black people just didn't existed the old westerns. A lot of it is Jane but it just depends on the situation you'll still see it. A friend of mine is a huge Tolkien Lord of the Rings Hobbit fan. In the movie they were basically no actors of Color cast I said that's weird Lisa dumb and in the books there are no black people or Asian people or anyting in Middle Earth. And I said what that's weird it's all make-believe you can have dark skin Hobbits or medium skin Hobbits or black elves medium skin elves that didn't have to be just one skin color. I loved all of the Lord of the Ring movies The Hobbit movies but being African-American I noticed didn't mean the movies weren't great but I still noticed. I still feel things are changing and hopefully they'll continue to change for the better.
Some good points about the normaly well-intentioned Roddenberry's classic villians. This was not new even back in the sixties. You had an even more obvious negative Asian stereotypical Alien villain in Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless--and this characterization predated the second World War. So much racism baked into this country's history.
The Founding Fathers may have said: this idea certainly has potential but it's going to take a Hell of a lot of work. Yes, even from many of the best intentioned people.