Star Trek: Deep Space Nine // S06E13: Far Beyond the Stars

benny russell (the cover of my notebook for my nonfiction class this semester) 

The dreamer and the dream

          You can deny me all you want but you cannot deny Ben Sisko. He exists! That future, that space station, all those people, they exist in here. In my mind, I created it. And every one of you know it. You read it. It’s here.

- Benny Russell (DS9 - 6x13)

In 1998 we first got to see the ds9 episode “far beyond the stars”, in which Sisko experiences violence and racism through the life of a black sci fi writer in the 1950s. 22 years later it is absolutely unacceptable that the story could have been set in 2020 and he would still have faced racism, hatred and injustice. We don’t deserve to look back at it as a “lesson from the past” because he would still have had to fear for and fight for his basic human rights - that is the reality of being black in 2020. Racism and police violence isn’t a story of the past, this is the reality we are living in right now, this is the reason why its important to fight and speak up. (This is also obviously about more than just star trek, I just wanted to make my stance clear and show my support in a way that was authentic to the content I post here. I want to make it clear that if you like my art and disagree with black lives matter, then my art is not for you.)  

Benny Russell Talks Truth About Racism in 1950′s America in Far Beyond The Stars (½)

Original Dialogue:

BENNY: No, it’s about my story, isn’t it? That’s what this is all about. He didn’t want to publish my story and we all know why. Because my hero is a coloured man.
PABST: Hey! This magazine belongs to Mister Stone. If he doesn’t want to publish this month, we don’t publish this month. End of story.
BENNY: That doesn’t make it right and you know it.