Category: The Good Fight

My response to “I’m just not a political person” is usually either “Bullshit” or “So, you’re just useless then.”

To borrow a paragraph from Sami Fishbein Sage’s essay, Unpacking “I’m Not A Political Person”:

It’s A Privilege To “Not Be Political”

When you say you’re not political, you’re telling on yourself. What you’re saying is that you’ve only been on the receiving end of all these invisible perks the government provides, rather than being on the side that suffers from the lack of them or that is even actively harmed by them. For example, it’s only because of active participation in politics that same-sex marriages are legal. That happened less than five years ago, and it would no doubt be the dream of a conservative Supreme Court to overturn it. Try telling your gay friend, whose marriage status could be in real jeopardy based on election outcomes, that you’re not political and see how they react.

By the bye, you can order this print on Etsy.

My long-time friend Marichka Melnyk (I met her in 1989!) made me aware of this exchange between a Ukrainian woman and a Russian soldier, and her offering to him was so powerful and right-on that I had to share it here.

The video is above, and a translated transcript appears below:

Woman: Who are you?

Soldier: We have exercises here. Please go this way.

Woman: What kind of exercises? Are you Russian?

Soldier: Yes.

Woman: So what the fuck are you doing here?

Soldier: Right now, our discussion will lead to nothing.

Woman: You’re occupants, you’re fascists! What the fuck are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds [sunflower seeds — the sunflower is Ukraine’s national flower] so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.

Soldier: Right now, our discussion will lead nowhere [clearly, they’ve been given talking points]. Let’s not escalate this situation. Please.

Woman: What situation? Guys, guys. Put sunflower seeds in your pockets, please. You will lie down here with the seeds. You come to my land. Do you understand? You are occupiers. You are enemies.

Soldier: Yes.

Woman: And from this moment, you are cursed. I’m telling you.

Soldier: Now listen to me —

Woman: I’ve heard you.

Soldier: Let’s not escalate the situation. Please go this way.

Woman: How can it be further escalated? You fucking came here uninvited. Pieces of shit.

After the original Star Trek TV series’ first season in 1966, Nichelle Nichols — a.k.a. Lt. Uhura, Communications Officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise — considered leaving the show. She considered the stage to be her true home, and she’d received an offer to act on Broadway. She’d even told the series creator Gene Roddenberry that she planned to leave.

She would’ve left, had it not been for a fan who’d showed up at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills to meet her. At the fundraiser, Nichols was informed that there was a fan who really wanted to meet her. Here’s the story, in her words:

“I’m looking for a young man who’s a ‘Star Trek’ fan. So I turn and instead of a fan there’s this face the world knows, with this beautiful smile on it.”

That fan is pictured below:

“This man says, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am that fan. I am your best, greatest fan, and my family are your greatest fans. As a matter of fact, this is the only show that my wife Corretta and I will allow our little children to watch, to stay up late to watch because it’s past their bedtime.’”

She told King that she wished she could be marching alongside him, but he said she was already doing that, in her own way:

“He said, ‘No, no, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for.’”

She told him that she was leaving Star Trek, and he pleaded with her to stay on the show:

“He said, ‘Don’t you understand what this man [Roddenberry] has achieved? For the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing and dance, yes, but who can go into space, who can be lawyers and teachers, who can be professors — who are in this day, yet you don’t see it on television until now.’”

She changed her mind and stayed on the show for the rest of the series, and went on to help recruit women and minorities for NASA.

She also inspired another Star Trek actor: Whoopi Goldberg, who played Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Goldberg has often told the story about how the Uhura character inspired her when she first saw her on TV — she ran shouting throughout the house, shouting:

“Come here, mom, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!”

Thanks to MLK, we have Lt. Commander Nyota Uhura (she got a first name in the novels, which finally made it to the screen in the 2009 Star Trek film, where Zoe Saldana played Uhura), and the continuation of Star Trek’s breaking new ground in representation, which is happening even today.

I’ll close with this interview with Nichelle Nichols, where she tells the story of how Dr. King convinced her to stay on the show: