Star Trek has become a integral piece of American popular culture, especially in regards to science fiction. Because it’s such a long running television show with multiple spin-offs, movies, and remakes, it has a well-established place in the cannon of science fiction. It’s fascinating to examine the portrayal of race in world of Star Trek. Despite a mostly white cast, the show is well-known for engaging with social issues, including issues of racism. The show is notable for airing television’s first ever interracial kiss during its third season in 1968.

For the purposes of this post, I decided to take a look at George Takei and the character of Sulu. The Starship Enterprise is supposed to be a metaphor for “spaceship Earth”, and Sulu is intended to be a pan-asian character, essentially representing all of Asia. The name Sulu is intentionally detached from common Asian surnames because of their connotations with specific nationalities. Star Trek fell prey to many of the flaws of multiculturalism, including representing a mostly white future with token POC characters, and yet, it was still one of the most progressive shows on television at the time.  During the 1960s, Sulu was one of the few Asian characters on television, and certainly the character least prone to relying on racist stereotypes. In interviews Takei describes how lucky he was to have landed the role of an Asian character that wasn’t perpetuating stereotypes, “ I knew this character was a breakthrough role, certainly for me as an individual actor but also for the image of an Asian character: no accent, a member of the elite leadership team. I was supposed to be the best helmsman in the Starfleet, No. 1 graduate in the Starfleet Academy. At that time there was the horrible stereotype about Asians being bad drivers. I was the best driver in the galaxy! So many young Asian Americans came up to me then—and still do today, although they’re not that young anymore—to tell me that seeing me on their television screen made them feel so proud.” (Source)

Growing up in LA, Takei and his family were interned in a Japanese American concentration camp during WWII. Takei has gone on to become an outspoken advocate for both the Asian American community and the LGBTQ community. In 2012 he created and starred in a musical about Japanese American internment called Allegiance.
In the video below, Takei talks about his experience with internment:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I went to school behind those barbed wire fences. And we started every morning with the pledged of allegience to the flag. I mean, i could see the barbed wire fences and the sentry towers and machine guns right outside the schoolhouse window as we recited the words, ‘with liberty and justice for all’ ”  – George Takei on Japanese internment

 Takei was one of the few prominent Asian Americans to lobby for reparations for interned Americans whose property and goods were taken away when they were put in the camps.