Excerpts from "Race to Space: Asian Americans, stereotypes in Star Trek's Final Frontier"                 
Written by Harry Mok | Illustration by Gary Gao   
Sunday, November 2, 2008

"Space … the final frontier. These are the voyages for Asian Americans, who've boldly gone where they never have before—on five Star Trek TV shows and 10 movies. Star Trek is a pop culture phenomenon spanning more than 40 years and is considered groundbreaking for diverse casts that have always included Asian characters...

The cast of The Original Series (TOS), which is what fans call the first iteration of Star Trek, also had a black female character (Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols) and, at the height of the Cold War, a Russian character (Chekov, played by Walter Koenig). In later shows, there are Latino and Native American characters.

"The message of Star Trek was all about tolerance, and the diverse cast reflected that message," says Trekkie Susan Sun of San Francisco. "To have (Asian Americans) be part of such a mainstream show made me feel like the future is all about people who look like me … I feel more connected to it."

The utopia envisioned by the producers of Star Trek is one in which humans, having survived an apocalyptic war, have overcome racism and prejudice to live peacefully with each other and, with the advent of interstellar space flight, species from other worlds. But not all is well in the United Federation of Planets if you look beyond the polyester Starfleet uniforms and prosthetic makeup.

"There are serious issues of racism, in an academic sense, and you can see how it plays out in how Asian men, black men and Asian women are represented," says Daniel Bernardi, author of Star Trek and History: Race-ing Toward a White Future. "Yes, you put some people of color on the show. Now that's good, but how did you use them and to what end?"

Bernardi, an associate professor and director of the Film and Media Studies program at Arizona State University, says he's a fan of Star Trek, but the show perpetuates white superiority and renders the non-white characters as sidekicks or servants.

"What Star Trek is really about is a future that is quote, white, and white is really articulated as a metaphor for being human," Bernardi says. "We can all get along if humans—read white—are in charge, and we all try to be like them...

Outside of Star Trek, not much has changed for Asian Americans on television since Takei first donned a yellow-polyester Starfleet uniform. Juicy roles for Asian American actors are few and far between. "Given the nature the rest of TV (Star Trek) is groundbreaking. It's iconoclastic and going against the grain in having people of color in the cast," Yu says. "It works toward the stated mission, that vision, so I would give them credit for it."