Alright Star Trek fans, this one’s for you! So B/W interracial relationships have been a thing as long as Black and white folks have been in contact with each other, HOWEVER, Hollywood and the American media as a whole didn’t like that shit until November 22nd, 1968 when Star Trek’s Communications Officer Uhura and Captain Kirk kissed for the first time on national television.
The important thing to remember about this kiss is that it was only one year before this pioneering episode that interracial relationships and marriages were deemed legal in the United States in the first place. Besides all that, this was a primetime network television show basically saying, “Yeah, Love is love!” DECADES before that hashtag would come to be! Before that, only three percent of the population married or dated outside of their race. After this landmark decision and to this day over 17 percent of newlyweds, or 1 in 6 people, marry outside of their designated “race.”
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek would comment that because the show took place hundreds of years in the future, OF COURSE people would be messing around with whoever. What does this weird idea of racial difference even mean three hundred years in the future when there’s also aliens and light-speed travel?
A hot take that I’d be remiss to exclude is that Black folk and white folk had BEEN kissing on British TV. However, as far as American Television went, this was the kiss that sparked a movement of normalizing love to a broader audience, I’d like to also note that the first LGBT+ kiss wouldn’t come until 1991, where two white women would kiss on A&E’s L.A. Law…and then one of the women was written off after the controversy that ensued afterward!
The thing about the Uhura/Kirk kiss that strikes me as notable is it wasn’t even meant to be a historical or era-defining moment. The showrunners literally just thought it would be a dope moment between two hot consenting adults. The reactions were mixed. A lot of people thought, “Yeah that makes sense, Kirk kisses everybody, of course, he’d also kiss Uhura” while other folks were like, “CANCEL MY TELEVISION, STAR TREK JUST RUINED MY LIFE!”
What’s even crazier is that after all the controversy, they weren’t making the boldest statement. The episode had aliens who liked doing crazy mean things to their prey, so they basically forced the situation, but after the color barrier had been broken on the subject TONS of other television and movies would follow suit doing “provocative” and “progressive” interracial discussions on their programming. However, I will note that to this day it is super rare to see depictions of interracial relationships in American media. Even though they exist and someone you know is FOR SURE in one!
So yeah, I guess it’d be weird to thank Star Trek today, but I am grateful that I get to love whoever I want to, so I guess that’s good. I guess instead of thanking Star Trek I’ll thank Uhura actress Nichelle Nichols for having the gall and the gumption to perform this scene and pave the way for many other stories of people loving people! So Thank you, Nichelle, Thank you!
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