‘Star Trek’ is woke. Deal with it.

By Melvin Bankhead III

There has been a lot of talk of late accusing the showrunners of the “Star Trek” programs Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds of being overly political, of being woke.

This means we must ask two questions:

• What does it mean to be “woke”?

• Are the modern “Star Trek” shows woke?

In 1923, social activist Marcus Garvey wrote, “Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!” He urged Black citizens of the world to become more socially and politically conscious. That was the first known use of the term.

In 1938, the phrase “stay woke” showed up after the song “Scottsboro Boys” by Blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly. Talking about the Deep South, and Arkansas in particular, he said, “I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there — best stay woke, keep their eyes open.”

Lead Belly used the phrase to warn Black Americans that they need to be conscious of how dangerous white America could be – especially in the wake of several race-based massacres in America, such as the Tulsa massacre in 1921.

In 1966, Star Trek – now known as Star Trek: The Original Series – debuted on television. Creator and showrunner Gene Roddenberry showed his awareness of racial and gender inequities in America by casting a Black woman as a department chief (other shows depicted Black women as servants or criminals); a Japanese man (a little over 20 years after World War II); and a Russian character (in the midst of America’s Cold War with the Soviet Union). He’d originally wanted to cast a woman as second-in-command of the USS Enterprise, but the studio said no.

Now, in the modern context, “woke” - which had been part of the African American cultural lexicon for decades - surfaced into the mainstream public consciousness in 2014. As Black citizens marched in protest of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, they told each other to “stay woke” against threats posed by the police and others, including white supremacist groups.

In other words, the meaning of “woke” – from 1923 through 2014 and into the 2020s – stayed the same.

More recently, mainstream media, journalists, and entertainment showrunners began to make more of an effort to be more diverse and inclusive. The group Diversity for Social Impact defines “Wokeism” as a term used to describe a social and political movement that seeks to address and correct social injustices, inequality, and discrimination. It emphasizes recognizing and challenging systemic issues, like racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression.”

Put another away, America started to become more woke, moving closer to Roddenberry’s dream of a more just, more equitable world.

And, ironically, it wasn’t until the last few years that extremist conservatives suddenly “woke up” to the threat posed by the so-called “woke agenda.”

2022: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claims that “wokeism” is “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

Note the way that’s phrased. Despite decades of unimpeachable evidence of such systemic issues, DeSantis thinks it’s a mere “belief” … or, as he likes to say, an ideology.

"We reject woke ideology,” DeSantis has said. “We will never, ever, surrender to the woke agenda.”

But, as I’ve shown, the extremist conservative usage is, in truth, a corruption and bastardization of the original meaning, which has been part of the American cultural lexicon for a century.

And, quite frankly, if people don’t want to be woke - if they don’t want to address and correct social injustices, inequality, and discrimination, as well as systemic issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and other forms of oppression - then we need to ask why, and how it benefits them to oppress people.

November 2022: Actor Wilson Cruz, who plays Dr. Hugh Culber on Star Trek: Discovery, has this to say:

“I want to say I’m so tired of this negative connotation for the word ‘woke.’ You want to stay asleep? You want to close your eyes, and you know [and] have a nice slumber that allows you to imagine a world where everyone is the same, and you know, everyone loves the same way and identifies the same way? That is boring shit! And it’s not real.

“So you are asleep, and I prefer to be wide awake. I prefer to see people for exactly who they are and appreciate them. And maybe I don’t understand, or maybe I don’t identify exactly with your experience, but I respect you as a human being for having it. And all I require from you is that you give me that same respect in return.

“And if that’s being ‘woke,’ then I’m woke.”

So, to go back to the original accusation: Yes, the modern “Star Trek” programs Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds are ferociously, fabulously woke in ways that are both educational and entertaining. In their day, The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise were socially and politically conscious (or, as much as they were allowed to be by network executives), using allegories for, and allusions to, social and political issues.

So, yes .. they, too, were woke, by the standards of their day (even if, by modern standards, they sometimes missed the mark). As Hollywood and the entertainment industry become more diverse, we’ll see more and more of that awareness.

And the showrunners are not apologizing for it, because they are on the right side of the diversity divide, and on the right side of our hoped-for future history.

Roddenberry created a world, a universe, where humanity had left behind discrimination based on race, culture, religion, or gender. In the decades since his death, other showrunners have logically extended his vision to incorporate new aspects of discrimination, such as disinformation, homophobia, ableism, and gender identity. Our world, when compared to his vision, was, and is, sorely lacking.

“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms. […] If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, to take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there.” -- Gene Roddenberry