15 DAYS OF DEEP SPACE NINE
day 11: favourite episode  ✧ far beyond the stars
   ↳  But maybe, just maybe, Benny isn’t the dream, we are. Maybe we’re nothing more than figments of his imagination. For all we know, at this very moment, somewhere far beyond all those distant stars, Benny Russell is dreaming of us. 

"Is that gunfire?"

Tell me, please. Who am I?
Don’t you know? You are the dreamer, and the dream.

"You are the dreamer. And the dream."

"Captain Benjamin Sisko sat looking out the window …"

#i just watched far beyond the stars and i’m Emotional

IT IS SUCH A GOOD EPISODE AND IT HAS SO MUCH HEART AND IT CARES SO MUCH ABOUT THE RACIAL ISSUES BOTH BENNY AND THE SISKO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT AND HAS SUCH A LOVE FOR THE EARLY YEARS OF SCI FI PUBLISHING WHILE NOT GLOSSING OVER THE PROBLEMS

I mean, I’ve read fans saying they don’t get why Sisko cares so much about racial issues that he doesn’t want to go to Vic’s because a man like him wouldn’t have been welcome there in the early 60s, and why Avery Brooks asked for the finale ending to be changed to show that Sisko would return to his family, that he wasn’t a black man who abandoned his pregnant wife and soon-to-be baby like the negative stereotype that is so prevalent.

It’s because it matters. 

In TOS, Uhura said that the word ‘negress’ didn’t bother her: ‘But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century we’ve learned not to fear words.’ But Uhura can only say that because she was born into a time when, already, the people around her would not be using words like that to denigrate her and keep her down. The early feminist writer Olive Schreiner wrote a parable about the road to freedom for women, that there was a huge chasm in the way, and woman after woman trying to walk that road fell into the chasm and perished without reaching the goal. But over time their bones would pile up and fill the chasm, and one day a woman would be able to walk safely over, without knowing any of the suffering of those who had gone before her. Uhura is in that position, unknowingly walking over the bones of black women who went before her, because the road over them has been paved for a long time. Of course, it’s a line put into her mouth by white male writers, with a 1960s utopian view of the future that was not very aware of its own contradictions and biases. I’m not saying it reflects what Nichelle Nichols thought (I wonder what she did think of the line?) or what the ‘real’ Uhura I have in my mind would say. She might have a thing or two to say about Lincoln interrupting her to comment on how ‘charming’ she was while she was speaking to the Captain and doing her job.

Sisko, by contrast, is written as a man who has been able to freely walk across the bridge to freedom, but never forgets about all the bones of black people underneath, all the black people who lived during times of racial oppression and died before real equality, peace and respect were established and stayed in place long enough to become normal, long enough that the word ‘Negress’ would just sound old-fashioned, not insulting or hostile, to a black woman. But each one of them who strove for freedom and equality made it a little more possible for others who came later to achieve it.

Star Trek, in any of its forms, has never really approached the goal of portraying ‘infinite diversity in infinite combinations’ or true equality and respect between different races and sentient species. But there have been improvements along the way.

JJ Abrams not withstanding.

the Star Trek DS9 actors without their maks in Star Trek:DS9 - Far Beyond the Stars - a great Star Trek statement against  racism

Star Trek:DS9 - Far Beyond the Stars - a great Star Trek statement against  racism

“Call anybody you want, they can’t do anything to me, not any more, and nor can any of you. I am a human being, dammit! You can deny me all you want but you can’t deny Ben Sisko – He exists! That future, that space station, all those people – they exist in here! (pointing to his head) In my mind. I created it. And everyone of you knew it, you read it. It’s here. (pointing to his head again) Do you hear what I’m telling you? You can pulp a story but you cannot destroy an idea, don’t you understand, that’s ancient knowledge, you cannot destroy an idea. (becoming hysterical) That future – I created it, and it’s real! Don’t you understand? It is real. I created it. And it’s real! It’s REAL! Oh God!"  - Benny Russell (Benjamin Sisko)

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Far_Beyond_the_Stars_%28episode%29

http://de.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Jenseits_der_Sterne

Far Beyond the Stars: Part Two

Rest easy, Brother Benny…