thegaymccoy
Representation matters.
Happy Star Trek Day!
silveth
[Image description: Tweet thread from @KendraJames_, September 8, 2017:
It’s #StarTrekDay, and I can’t begin to express how much Sisko and DS9 meant to me as a kid. Not gonna try, I’ll just repeat my fave story.
I got into basically every college I applied to, and when it came down to it I was choosing between Oberlin, Pitze, and I think Occidental.
I was leaning heavily on Pitzer, which seemed like Oberlin with better weather. My parents didn’t want me to to to LA.
(LOL JOKE’S ON THEM TUESDAY WHEN I MOVE THERE ANYWAY, AIN’T IT?)
ANYWAY. I was scrolling Wikipedia in my dorm room onenight trying to look for facts that would convince them to let me go to Pitzer.
I got to the Oberlin page, basically looking for dir, and scrolled down to the “famous alumni” section and say Avery Brooks’ name.
I think it was like 10min later I called my parents and said “I’ll be okay with going to Oberlin, Sisko went there, write the check pls.”
My logic was that, as a famous alum, he’d probably come back and maybe I’d get to meet him.
And my logic panned out– Avery Brooks came back twice. Once to do Death of a Salesman. It was a amazing.
He worked with the AfAm Studies and Theatre departments, and came back a second time to give a lecture during my senior year.
I met him the first time and cried (A lot) while trying to explain what he and Sisko meant to me.
He said, “I know. This is why I did it– so *you* could watch it.” Then I cried some more.
My favourite Avery Brooks quote is from one of his Oberlin talks: “Brown children must be able to participate in contemporary mythology.”]
