The following are hiccups of reflection as RantWoman interacts with all the many news items memorializing the life of Nichelle Nichols who played Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek. RantWoman was in late elementary school when the series originally aired. Television at first was welcomed very skeptically into the Rant household. Scratch that. RantMom considered television mindrot and strictly limited children's access to evening programming.
Curiously, RantWoman does not remember ever having to argue the merits of Star Trek.
RantWoman is deeply touched to learn that Star Trek was also the only show Martin Luther King allowed his children to stay up to watch.
RantWoman deeply respects Lt. Uhura's example of competence and persistence in handling technological and other barriers to communication.
Miniskirts would never have been a good look on RantWoman but maybe the more interesting role model point is about ballet. RantWoman briefly took ballet classes. RantWoman was never going to be a ballerina either, but the story of Nichelle Nichols dance audition and her father insisting that she even be allowed to audition is only one of the moments that moves RantWoman: no one even questioned an elementary age RantWoman joining a ballet class and someone who clearly was much better suited to that realm had so many biases to overcome.
With thanks for everyone whose lives Nichelle Nichols touched and "live long and prosper."
Drunk History on Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols on filming the first interracial kiss
Nichelle Nichols Breaking Barriers Sizzle Reel
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