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5 Examples of Federation Officers in Need of a Cultural Sensitivity Seminar
The Federation prides itself on the cultivation and propagation of a tolerant, all-inclusive and progressive society of equals. Because a great number of Starfleet Officers are either human (or humanoid-aliens), they are sometimes beholden to a nasty part of human-nature (or humanoid-alien nature) that insists on creating dichotomies between acceptable (us and people like us) and disgusting (them). Sometimes this makes for the thrust of a whole episode - the objectification of Data gets a bit of mileage - and sometimes a character makes an off-handed comment from the sidelines, briefly exposing a few prejudices yet linger. Kirk’s Klingon thing was effectively dealt with in ST:VI, to a point, so I’ll assume he figured it out.
5. Miles O’Brien on numerous occasions.
“The bloody Cardies can’t be trusted!”
While the good chief refrains from using the straight up derogatory slur ‘Spoonhead,’ there’s always something distinctly hateful in the way he says ‘Cardies.’ His struggle with the lingering racism of conflict is a part of his character, so there’s not much surprise when his old grudges re-surface, but considering the steps he took in ‘Cardassians’ and ‘Destiny’ toward not making snap judgments about the whole race, it’s always a bit disheartening to see the ‘common man’ slip back into old habits. He might not need the seminar, he knows what’s going on - “It’s not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.”
4. Archer, as a matter of policy.
“Very disrespectful, but, boy, did it feel good!”
I’d rather not re-live Archer-diplomacy.
3. McCoy to Spock, in Bread and Circuses (and most of the time)
“I’m trying to thank you! You pointed-eared hobgoblin!”
Oh, they love to joke around. They love to argue. But while McCoy’s inability to understand Spock (and vice-versa) is an integral and fascinating part of the original series (and a somewhat necessary audience-surrogation device), there’s really no need to resort to ugly slurs, Doctor.
2. Worf to Troi & Dr Crusher, in The Outcast
“That is a woman’s game…a man’s game has no wild cards.”
In an episode pulling the reverse allegory about gender roles, Worf is chosen to be the crew member who finds the J’Naii off-putting, and throws out this gem while playing poker with two women who were just talking about the equality of the Federation. And given other chest-puffing about Klingon women being ‘equals,’ Worf looks especially foolish. Worf was already booked for the seminar for the across the board racism culturally inherited from his Klingon-ness, but the sexism has him stay another day.
1. Paris to Chakotay, in Caretaker
“Isn’t there some Indian trick where you can turn yourself into a bird and fly us out of here?”
Now, perhaps Tom thought Chakotay was a shape-shifting alien… but he uses the word ‘Indian’ and knows full well that Chakotay’s just a regular guy. Chakotay responds with a joke, as Native Americans have learned to do over 700 years (and counting, Voyager) of dealing with the great white jackass. Does nicely reinforce that Tom’s a real dickhole at this point.
Data set explanation -
1,1 - Spock has calculated in his head how to slingshot around the sun so as to rip open space/time and end up exactly where they want to, twice. Despite this, Kirk’s still the captain, and has McCoy dripping Poison in his ear about how the Vulcan’s finally lost it.
2,2 - Picard trusts Riker as a man trusts his dog. This may not be a wise decision, for as good as an officer Riker can be (particularly when bearded), he is responsible for blowing up more versions of the Enterprise than every other character in Trek canon combined. Send him to the planet’s surface, don’t leave him the keys to the ship.
3,3 - Sisko initially trusts Kira as far as he can throw her, but then, she initially proves herself to be an impediment to mission after mission. There’s respect in their relationship, but Sisko rarely trusts Kira to do his dirty work (and he loves to do his dirty work).
4,4 - Janeway frequently treats Chakotay with contempt when he comes up with a better solution to their problems. It usually takes a loss of life or a pounding in battle for Janeway to finally, begrudgingly, accept the consult of her XO. The gulf would be greater, but in Janeway’s defense, Chakotay does suck.
5,5- A repetitive pattern in ENT is an episode where Archer and his feeble crew get themselves in way over their heads and T’Pol suddenly ‘wakes up’ and saves the whole crew with robotic ‘Vulcan Ex Machina’ precision. You would think Archer would realize this and stop squawking at her, but you’d be greatly overestimating Archer’s flexibility and interest in rational thought (see previous chart). In this case, it’s not that T’Pol is a great or even a good officer, but rather that she’s so far ahead of the crew that she acts as a plot fixing device.
