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Racial casting of Star Trek and other SF
A friend notes that of the 24 seasons of Star Trek, and something like 12 movies, there's basically no Chinese or Indian main characters. Maybe Khan, if you count a villain. Harry Kim is said to be Chinese, despite the stereotypically Korean last name. That's it.
Of course, Firefly showed no Chinese people, despite the vaunted 'influence', and Babylon-5 is pretty lily-white. Franklin gets a bit more character time than Uhura, I think, but is definitely a second-tier black character. We get the occasional Japanese or black visiting character. But mostly white. Including the aliens not buried in makeup, the Centauri or Minbari -- they're all pale too. Imagine a black Minbari. Imagine all black Minbari. But nope. Star Trek's actually ahead on this front, with a black Vulcan (along with the woman captain and Native American first officer and allegedly Chinese navigator... Voyager's pretty good here, actually. And Kes is played by Jennifer Lien.)
Stargate SG-1 did have a 'black' main character in the main 4, though once again Teal'c got fewer lines than others. Still, he's not just background or token.
Edit: for DS9's Julian Bashir, ' Ronald D. Moore commented "In my mind, Julian was of Sudanese (like Sid), Indian, or Pakistani extraction, but that the family's roots were probably in England, hence the accents."'
Of course, Firefly showed no Chinese people, despite the vaunted 'influence', and Babylon-5 is pretty lily-white. Franklin gets a bit more character time than Uhura, I think, but is definitely a second-tier black character. We get the occasional Japanese or black visiting character. But mostly white. Including the aliens not buried in makeup, the Centauri or Minbari -- they're all pale too. Imagine a black Minbari. Imagine all black Minbari. But nope. Star Trek's actually ahead on this front, with a black Vulcan (along with the woman captain and Native American first officer and allegedly Chinese navigator... Voyager's pretty good here, actually. And Kes is played by Jennifer Lien.)
Stargate SG-1 did have a 'black' main character in the main 4, though once again Teal'c got fewer lines than others. Still, he's not just background or token.
Edit: for DS9's Julian Bashir, ' Ronald D. Moore commented "In my mind, Julian was of Sudanese (like Sid), Indian, or Pakistani extraction, but that the family's roots were probably in England, hence the accents."'