‘Why, The Very Name Is Racist’: Human-centrism In Star Trek
The UFP too often is lacking in meaningful alien influence as a result of lazy writing
Chekov : We do believe all planets have a sovereign claim to inalienable human rights.
Azetbur : Inalien? If you could only hear yourselves. Human rights. Why, the very name is racist. The Federation is no more than a “homo sapiens only” club.
— Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Over the years, I've returned to this tense dinner scene between the Klingons and members of the Enterprise crew in The Undiscovered Country.
Perhaps she stated it rather forcefully, but I really think that Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto) makes a pretty fair critique of the Federation, and in a meta sense, Star Trek itself.
Her words ring in my mind whenever I cringe watching anything in Star Trek which reinforces this notion of human cultural hegemony and sometimes could be described as “human supremacy.”
To be sure, examples of this are sometimes more subtle than others. But, taken over time, this is an unmistakable phenomenon in Star Trek which spans across series.
Perhaps the series in which this is least pronounced is Star Trek: Enterprise, because its pre-Federation setting and its explicit point-of-view of humans’ first interactions with alien species.
From an out-of-universe perspective, I don't believe that this human hegemony is really entirely intentional. More often, it's just the product of lazy writing.
Writers of Star Trek, time and again, have used established human and Earth customs, technology and such as shorthand to quickly convey story and character beats in ways — if the viewer were to take a step back — that places the desires and comfort of humanity first and foremost while being incredibly dismissive of alien cultures and mores.
Nothing typifies this, I think, better than a scene from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Chain of Command.”
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Captain Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox) temporarily has taken over the Enterprise-D ahead of some difficult diplomacy — and potential hostilities — with the Cardassians.
Jellico welcomes a Cardassian delegation aboard the Enterprise, and when he greets them it is with a very human handshake.
Although I have long considered Jellico to be one of the most obtuse and unimaginative captains Starfleet has ever produced, one would think that he would be at least somewhat willing to embrace non-human customs given the stakes involved.
It even seems apparent in the way actor John Durbin plays Cardassian Gul Lemec that he initially sort of gawks, for even a moment, at Jellico’s outstretched hand like, “What am I supposed to do with that?” before kind of humoring the human by returning the handshake.
Again, clearly the writer of this episode — already a two-parter — wasn't giving this scene a lot of attention compared to more-consequential scenes to come.
The sadness, however, is that Star Trek has proven it can be more thoughtful and respectful of alien customs and mores when its creatives actually try.
Such was the case in the original series episode, “Journey To Babel,” which introduced us to Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) parents.
The legendary DC Fontana, who wrote the episode, deftly created an appropriately alien way for Sarek (Mark Lenard) and his wife, Amanda (Jane Wyatt) to express their bond, through finger touching.
The brilliance of this device is that it doesn't slow down the story’s pace. And rather than take us out of the story, it actually immerses us further because it makes Vulcans more — not less — alien rather than just pointy-eared humans.
And all it took was a little thought and imagination by Fontana to accomplish this.
The franchise would do well for more writers to follow her lead.
I have no desire to belabor my point, but here are but a couple of examples in which a vast and purportedly diverse federation of planets seems to center humans above others:
How come Earth is given the designation of “Sector 001,” when it was just one of several founding members of the Federation?
And why, when it comes to starship design, Starfleet uniformly embraces the human saucer-and-nacelles design for warp drive and completely eschews the even more-established ring configuration?
If you watch across the franchise with an eye to this, no doubt that you will find your own examples as well.
Again, none of this is intended to cast malign intentions on decades of work by the creative teams behind the franchise.
Rather, it's meant to point to what you might call a blind spot in Star Trek world-building that — if given just a little bit more thought and attention — would dramatically enhance the franchise's well-deserved reputation for diversity and equality.
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