How Star Trek revolutionized american television In the late 1960's, America was at a turning point in history. Revolutionary civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. President Johnson had just passed the fair housing act (the last bill to be passed in the civil rights act of 1968), fully recognizing african americans as legal citizens attentions. From the start the show was like nothing else on television at the time. Gene Roddenberry the creator of Star Trek was all about the risks. After receiving a second pilot and getting the ok to continue filming, he insisted on having a racially mixed cast to give viewers the preception that racism and prejudice would be eradicated in the future. In one of his most …show more content…
The cast thought was that it was ridiculous, but a decision was made with Gene Roddenberry to film two alternate versions of the scene. In the first version Captain Kirk kissed Uhura in front of the camera to the directors dissatisfaction. In the second version Captian Kirk turned Uhura around obscuring her from the view of the director, but also purposely ruined the scene by crossing his eyes forcing the episode to go with the kissing scene. Thus, the first african-american to caucasian kiss was aired on american television. The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) had concerns the episode would anger TV stations in the Deep South (Gerogia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi Louisiana and in Texas), and had had similar concerns with musical sequence earlier that year featuring the first direct physical contanct between a afrian-american and a caucasian. The actual reception from the fans was extremely positive, with only one mildly negative letter from one white southerner who wrote "I am totally opposed to the mixing of races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it.". Nichols stated that Plato's Stepchildren was "the most memerable episode of [the] last
There was a great deal of obvious race-bending going on amongst the main leads. Maybe this
The 1960’s were a rough, yet progressive stage in American history. African Americans were finally labeled as equal to white men and women after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. However, that bill was
1964 marked a watershed moment for equality in the United States. On July 2 of that year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law. Although much was aimed at
For a large part of the twentieth century, interracial couples on TV shows were few and far between. Given that anti-miscegenation laws (the laws against inter-breeding of people considered to be of different racial types) remained on the books of U.S. states well into the 1960s, entertainment executives deemed mixed couples too controversial for television. And even now, in current times, the majority of current films presuppose the abnormality of interracial intimacy, leaving little room for alternate stories of harmony. Many of today's films instead poke fun at interracial relationships and depict solely the difficulties faced, the awkward encounters, and the negative effects of participating in one.
In the 1960’s, civil rights were becoming a very present and evident concern to the people of America once again. Issues were being brought up to leaders that could and had the authority to actually help out and do something about these said issues. John F. Kennedy was elected in 1961, and the state our country was in was not as great as it could have been. In fact, it was not good at all. In North America, African Americans were discriminated against in many areas including education, work
Television now is a lot different than many years ago. If you think to yourself, how has it changed over the years? Well, one thing to say is there is many more minority acting on TV than before. While watching TV, minorities are still playing stereotypical roles of their race even if they are one of the main characters. When people watch, Modern Family, The Mayor, Fresh Off The Boat, and other shows with minority, people see the stereotypes of each race play a part of the show.
Different cultures and race are also widely accepted in today's sitcoms. Sometimes, programs may show racial difficulties like we see in real life. In "Gilmore Girls" Rory has friends who come from different
During the 15th through 17th centuries, advancements in technology and the desire for new resources spurred the exploration of the New World for both Spain and England. Spain's interest in exploration soon surpassed the rest of the countries in the Old World and the nation began to claim the majority of territory in Central and South America. Spain sent conquistadores to assert their dominance in the New World through violent conquest which resulted in difficult relations with native populations. Although the English did not settle in North America until the early 17th century, well past the period of the Spanish conquest, their methods of colonization were more successful in the long term. The English were able to find economic success
During the process of producing a television series, the demand for the producers to introduce their characters with only their highlighted traits make it impossible for viewers to gain a deep understanding of the community that the characters represent. One of the stereotypic traits that is usually seen on movies and television shows is societal difference that each race is placed into. Michael Omi in his article In Living Color: Race and American Culture stated that “in contemporary television and film, there is a tendency to present and equate racial minority groups and individuals with specific social problems” (546). There are many films and television shows found today that ground racial minorities into a specific social problems that are related to the color of their skin. It can be inferred from the current popular culture that this stereotype still persists.
The Star Trek television series was truly a groundbreaking show not just for its plot lines and ideological messages, but also for its revolutionary cast. Two of the main actors were Jewish, one main actor was a gay Asian, and of course, one was a black woman. Uhura was one of the first main black characters on a television show – and of course, her kiss with Kirk was the first interracial kiss ever on television. For a show in the 1960s, Star Trek broke many barriers across religious, racial, but most significantly gender lines.
Television has been around since 1925 and likely will not go away anytime soon. Back when it was new, white people were the only ones working behind the scenes creating shows, starring in films and dramas, or working in Hollywood. Sadly, in today’s world much of these barriers in the television and film industry still stand. If multiculturalism
Cultural Competence is one of the eight core practices within the EYLF (above). Outlined in the EYLF Cultural Competence is described as: “Educators who are culturally competent respect multiple cultural ways of knowing, seeing and living, celebrate the benefits of diversity and have an ability to understand and honour differences. This is evident in everyday practice when educators demonstrate an ongoing commitment to developing their own cultural competence in a two way process with families and communities. Educators view culture and the context of family as central to children’s sense of being and belonging, and to success in lifelong learning. Educators also seek to promote children’s cultural competence.
In the Western Roman Empire politics was the first contributing factor the fall of it. One of the many reasons is because of their unfit emperors. They had many. The ones who were unfit, were greedy and used cruelty to control and keep control of their empire. Not all showed the ability to be the emperor, some of them inherited the throne, and some of the people who did had a mentally unstable personality. Some Emperors were assassinated by their Praetorian Guard for position or money. Once the Praetorian Guard assassinates the emperor, if they had a leader their leader would become the emperor. As a result of the unfit emperors civil wars broke out across Rome. Legions fought one another. The citizens of the
The 50s, 60s and 70s were a tumultuous time in American society. Roles were constantly being redefined. Events like the war created upheaval in the lives of many individuals and everyone was scrambling to find his or her place in society. The same was profoundly true for blacks in America. No societal movement had a more profound effect on the lives of Black Americans than did the Civil Rights Movement. The status of Black Americans would be redefined to a revolutionary degree. Civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X would bring the cause to the national stage. Although the movement was plagued with violence and death, it was eventually successful. The South was radically changed from a society of
When television shows were first aired, the majority of the main characters were white, if you saw someone of color they were most likely playing the role of a servant. According to pbs.org, in 1983 there was a shift in television when NBC aired an all-Black cast sitcom, The Cosby Show. The Cosby Show was the first show that did not promote negative racial slurs within the media. Sitcoms are affecting American culture negatively by promoting detrimental stereotypes.