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Jessie Earl
Jessie Earl

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Star Trek Strange New Worlds Doesn't Understand Race (VIDEO ESSAY)

Star Trek Strange New Worlds keeps doing biological essentialism and we need to talk about it.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Doesn't Understand Race (VIDEO ESSAY)

Comments

May I just say that how much I love you and how you parse and articulate these nuanced issues. You make both my logic and emotions tingle!

Angela B. Sims

Great video! I agree about Star Trek's/SNW's deep misunderstanding of culture vs. DNA, and you call it out well. I also wanted to note that aliens in ST can represent both other human races/cultures and other species with genetic traits that are different from humans'. (As you said, biology is a factor in our behavior.) As I understand it, Vulcans have the culture they do because they are (as a generalization) genetically prone to stronger emotions than humans (which made the Spock-is-human episode from SNW season 2 180 degrees backwards, if you ask me: he'd feel more chill as a human). So I just want to be a little careful about discounting biology in-universe. As to that clip, likewise, if it were purely a genetic change, I'd expect the opposite effect: the crew getting angry and upset by stronger emotions than they're used to.

Arwen Spicer


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