Captain's Log, Stardate 214296.0120
Let that be your last battlefield
The Enterprise encounters a new species from the planet Cheron. There are two races on
the planet. One race is black on the right side and the other is black on the left side. Lokai, is
black on the left side and considered the inferior race. By his people he is considered a freedom
fighter and revolutionary. Lokai is considered to be a criminal and a murder by Bele, who is black
on the right side. Over a thousand years ago, Lokai’s people were freed, but conflict between the
two races continued because Bele’s people claimed to be superior. Bele wants to bring Lokai back
to Cheron so that he can be tried after being on the run for fifty-thousand years. When they
arrive at Cheron, Spock reveals that there are no living Cheronians left on the planet, because
they have all destroyed each other. Lokai and Bele are so enthralled in their hatred for each other,
that they oblivious to the fact that their society is destroyed.
This episode clearly deals with the problem of racism. Do you think that our society will
ever move beyond racism?
I found this episode to be interesting, and perhaps the writers were trying to say that if we can't move past our hate and just get along with each other, then we would destroy each other. Also, perhaps they were also trying to show how silly human racism is, just based upon the skin pigments, like the Cheronians anger towards each other based on what side their colors were on.
ReplyDeleteThis episode kind of shows how the argument that other races are inferior based on skin color is petty, and could end with huge consequences. I hope society can move past racism because it could cause major problems if we can't get over such a relatively simple issue.
ReplyDeleteI believe that no matter how progressive our species becomes there will always be people that see others as inferior or lesser beings. So I feel like we as a species can reduce racism and drown it out, but can never truly end it.
ReplyDeleteThe rhetoric employed by Bele to justify the imperialistic racism he seemed to espouse was quite similar to the idea of the "white man's burden" discussed by Rudyard Kipling and others. The racism had become so ingrained in their society that the inferiority was simply apparent. Thus, they justified their actions by painting themselves as altruists, using their superior culture and genetics to ameliorate the "lesser" individuals.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the ones whose culture and individuality were under attack did not agree, both in the real world with European imperialism and in Star Trek, evidenced by Lokai's rejection of Bele's arrogance.
I was interested by the writers' notion of what would happen to the world if interracial hatred is not extinguished. Though still racist at the roots, the world is slowly getting better. Civil rights activists, such as MLKJ, have been and are establishing more equality in society. Even so, it will take a long time to completely wipe out racism and sexism, and much of the time, when you think you've put out the fire, the embers will flare up again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Graeme that I think the writers were implying that humanity will destroy itself and I think that is already happening like the death in furgoesen and other places.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is very possible for the majority of the population to move past racism, however there will still be certain individuals for a very long time who believe that their race is superior to other races. This episode did a very nice job of helping the watcher visualize how there was racism at that current time on their planet. I also think that there was some sort of message in that episode about how the alien race practically destroyed themselves over race, about how we will someday have the same fate as them if we do not stop with the racism.
ReplyDeleteI think this episode shows the argument of racism in that time in the US. I wish we can solve this problem in the future, because in my opinion, racism can break the peace of the society.
ReplyDeleteI think that eventually, our society will move beyond racism if children are brought up with the belief that all humans are equal. If not, I don't believe that a world where all are considered equal will ever exist.
ReplyDeleteI think the discrimination is Difficult to eliminated.Because the society has lots of different people.There have different discrimination appearing this society.
ReplyDeleteAlthough that is a strong theme communicated in the episode, I thought that it was commenting on the conflict between communism and democracy at the time of its creation. I thought the producer was trying to relate the struggle of differences in a civilization to the clash of ideologies, and that if these two sides are not able to resolve their differences, then it will end in their destruction. On the topic of race, I think that society will never entirely abandon prejudice and racism towards those who have different characteristics than the civilization as a whole. Differences create something the collective can use to make those different a sort of second-class in their species. This leads to exile and conflict.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting if ridiculously blunt episode. I think they focused too much on the anger and not enough on why the anger was present to make it believable/relatable. Very people blindly hate, at least in their own eyes. They always have some sort of twisted(or not) justification for their opinions with some (even skewed) logic
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