What Lt. Uhura and ‘Star Trek’ can teach Americans today as we head boldly to the future
It was sad to read about the death of Nichelle Nichols. Nichols played Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek.” She helped us imagine a future in which science and reason helped create a more just and equitable world.
Despite its kitschy aesthetic, melodramatic plotlines and miniskirts, “Star Trek” championed progressive values. A recent book by José-Antonio Orosco, “Star Trek’s Philosophy of Peace and Justice,” recounts the idealism of the show and its spin-offs. Orosco argues that “Star Trek” offers a vision of “a more just and humane future.”
Uhura was an important part of that vision. She was a Black woman officer, an expert in linguistics, working on the bridge of a starship. Yes, this was just a TV show. But it broke new ground in American culture. When Uhura shared an on-screen kiss with Captain Kirk, this was likely the first interracial kiss ever shown on television.
Apparently Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan. He encouraged Nichols to keep working on the show when she was considering quitting. King reminded her of the cultural importance of seeing Black women in positions of power on TV.
Orosco explains that the cast of “Star Trek was deliberately diverse. In addition to Uruha, there was an Irish engineer, an Asian helmsman and a Russian navigator. And Mr. Spock was an alien who wrestled with his mixed identity — part human, part Vulcan.
According to Orosco, series creator Gene Rodenberry insisted that the show carry a message of social justice. The motto for Roddenberry’s ideal was “infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” In the show, this was portrayed as a Vulcan concept. Rodenberry explained the idea as “learning to delight in our essential differences as well as learning to recognize our similarities.” What a wonderful idea: celebrating our differences, while acknowledging our commonality.
Rodenberry thought we needed to learn this lesson before actually blasting off to alien worlds. He said, “until humans learn to tolerate — no that’s not enough; to positively value each other — until we can value the diversity on Earth, then we don’t deserve to go into outer space and encounter infinite diversity out there.”
This point is worth considering as we send spacecraft to Mars and use space telescopes to peer into the cosmos. Are we morally prepared to deal with what we might encounter out there?
History provides a cautionary tale about the human exploratory urge. The European exploration of the Americas was accompanied by ruthless colonialism, which essentially destroyed native cultures. Human expansion has also wreaked havoc on nonhuman species.
This brings us to that other moral maxim of “Star Trek,” “the prime directive.” This is a philosophy of non-interference. It instructs us to explore without believing that we have a right to intervene. As “Star Trek” fans know, there are dilemmas created by the prime directive. What should we do about others who seem intent on destroying themselves? The prime directive tells us to be cautious about assuming we know what is good for others.
The goal is to temper hubris and restrain greed, while purifying the exploratory urge. Maybe we can learn from the mistakes we’ve made in the past. It also helps to have an image of the future in which curiosity is distinguished from conquest.
Exploration ought to teach us humility. The universe is much bigger than we are. There is much we do not know. We have no right to expand our power at the expense of other sentient beings.
Nichelle Nichols wrote a book 25 year ago, “Beyond Uhura,” in which she tried to explain “Star Trek’s” popularity. She said, “Star Trek did not promise that people would magically become better, but that they would progress.” She continued, “ideally, humankind would be guided in its quest by reason and justice.” She concluded by explaining that “Star Trek” imagined a future in which human beings would come to see the “ultimate futility of armed conflict, terrorism, dictatorial rule, prejudice, and disregard for the environment.”
That vision should guide us as we boldly go where no one has gone before. We need to continue imagining a more inclusive future. We should celebrate our differences, while recognizing our similarities. We should cultivate science, logic, and reason. And we should explore without conquering.
Andrew Fiala is a professor of philosophy and director of The Ethics Center at Fresno State. Contact him: fiala.andrew@gmail.com.
