Whiteness
and Class in Star Trek Deep Space 9’s Past Tense.
Media Report By
Emilee Suchomski and Elise Krueger
Star
Trek: Deep Space 9, Past Tense Parts 1 and 2. (1995, Part 1 written
by Robert Wolfe, directed by Reza Badiyi. Part 2 Ira Behr and Rene
Echevarria, directed by Jonathon Frakes.
Part 1: Introduction and Theory
Star Trek has often been considered a
trail – blazer in depiction of race relations in TV drama. Its
third series, Deep Space 9, starred a Black captain (Benjamin Sisko)
who was more aware than previous leads of racial oppression in
earth’s past, which manifested in interesting ways throughout the
series. An episode which showcases different kinds of white
identity, however, is to be found in DS9’s third season: the two
part episode “Past Tense”. Briefly, Captain Sisko, Dr. Bashir
and Lt. Dax are transported through time to San Francisco, 2024, in a
United States which has essentially recriminalized unemployment and
mental illness. Offenders are condemned to “sanctuary districts”
where conditions are questionable and legal egress is impossible.
Sisko and Bashir find themselves taking part in the Bell riots-named
for Gabriel Bell, the prisoner who mediated a peaceful end to them-
in the sanctuary while Dax struggles to find them and enable their
return. These riots are crucial to the history of earth, apparently
inspiring the US government to finally reintroduce New Deal-type
programs to help confront poverty, and without their resolution the
Federation will never exist. Sisko witnesses Bell’s murder,
leaving history without a viable conclusion. Sisko decides to
attempt to resolve the riots in Bell’s stead, but to do so he must
confront a society in which class and racial identity is of paramount
concern: he enters the building the rioters have seized, protects the
social workers they have taken hostage, and strategizes to get the
inmates’ demands heard. Along the way Dax infiltrates high
society, hearing how completely alienated the idea of the Sanctuaries
as havens for the unworthy is from the reality, while Sisko and
Bashir are fighting for their lives and the future, stuck in a time
and place where race and class is everything. The episode makes
little direct reference to race, and the representatives of the state
are of all races, but as we will demonstrate, the plot incorporates
many concepts we’ve studied this semester, especially regarding the
different classifications of whiteness. In an episode ostensibly
regarding class relations, Star Trek shows us that any discussion of
Class in America necessarily succeeds or fails in equal measure to
its awareness of Race and related matters.
In
Past Tense,
San Francisco, California in 2024 appears to be a great place to
live, at least on the surface. However, throughout the city and the
rest of the country as well are what are called “sanctuary
districts.” These spaces are bounded city blocks that only have one
guarded entrance and exit. The people placed within the sanctuary
districts are forced there by policemen who prowl the streets of San
Francisco looking for the unemployed. Only those who are without jobs
are put into the sanctuary districts and cannot leave until they find
work. However, there is no work within the sanctuary district and
people are stuck there, even if they want to enter the outside world
to find work. The residents of the sanctuary district are left in an
overcrowded space with little shelter, unreliable access to food, and
an all-together unsafe environment. The creation of the sanctuary
districts is meant to be a commentary on social and economic class.
They can be viewed as both a ghetto and a trailer park that people
who do not have jobs are actively forced into.
Historically, ghettos were created when people of the same socioeconomic class, race, or both gathered together in the cities. The sanctuary district symbolizes a ghetto in the United States. Even though the episode seeks to show that the sanctuary district includes people of many races and that job status rather than race is the sole reason for incarceration in the sanctuary, one cannot take this at face value given the history of ghettos in the United States (Lipsitz 2006). The presence of dilapidated buildings, overcrowding, and the sanctuary district mirrors life on the streets common in urban ghettos. To have a ghetto means that racism existed in order to put it in place. As this episode depicts a United States dependent upon the culture and history of the actual United States, the sanctuary district is a ghetto. However, with the focus on class and the ignorance of race, the ghetto is less bounded by racial lines and more so by class lines. But race also plays a role in this. Race and class cannot be separated for the viewer. American viewers identify the look of the sanctuary district with a ghetto. Even if many white people live there too, it is still clearly a place for undesirables. Thus, the sanctuary district can also be seen as a trailer park.
In
a country where the confluence of class and race define the lives of
the citizens, ghettos are typically a place for nonwhites whereas
trailer parks are a place for "white trash". Both of these
demographics are considered to be less than truly white (Wray 2006).
The Sanctuary District brings both of these less than white groups
together in a convergence of race and class. The trailer park is the
epitome of all of the stereotypes that surround "white trash".
Starting in colonial times "white trash" were seen as a
threat and deviant to society because they were perceived as lazy and
dirty. Protestant values taught that laziness was a sin (Weber 1930).
Uncleanliness was viewed as nearly equally sinful and these beliefs
still carry over to the characterization of trailer trash today (Wray
2006). This image is a way that allows people outside of the
sanctuary districts to see the sanctuary district as a place were low
economic class people are sent. Race is perceived to not play a role
if the person is still considered white. It is not non-whiteness that
condemns someone to a sanctuary district, but rather, a lack of
employment and hard work.
The
two key factors that allow the Sanctuary District to be interpreted
as a trailer park are the presence of white people and the fact that
they do not have jobs. A strong work ethic is tied to the
self-interpreted history of the United States. The characterization
of “"white trash"” as backwards because they are
perceived as lazy shows the beginning of class formation in the
United States and the construction of the American value of hard work
and dedication. The assumed ties between work ethic and true
whiteness played a leading role in the creation of middle class
identity in the United States (Wray 2006). During the episode, it is
the middle class and above who look down upon the residents of the
Sanctuary District as lazy and deserving of their place because they
do not have jobs. The Sanctuary Districts are places to put people
who are deemed unworthy of being a part of mainstream society.
"White
trash" not only fail to work hard (according to the popular
conception), but they also live in the outskirts of society, both
literally and metaphorically. The Sanctuary Districts are on the
outskirts of society even as they physically are located in the
middle of the cities. This combination makes it fairly easy for their
condemnation as culturally different. Human culture is built upon
social relations and those who live in confined spaces away from
chose in higher socioeconomic classes than themselves can easily be
considered “others” and different due to their mystery and
apparent rejection of mainstream culture. In a way, residents of the
sanctuary districts are perceived as making the choice to be put
there. They chose to not get jobs thus they are put in a place where
they are kept out of the way of other productive Americans. It is
shown that those outside the sanctuary district find it to be good
for those inside because they have a place to go. This misconception
is one that strongly aligns with that of African Americans today.
Blame is placed on them as individuals rather than a fault of the
system. They are seen as poor because they chose to be poor, not
because whites have continued to keep them down for so long. The
sanctuary district is fraught with racist narrative that allows the
middle class of 2024 to blame the residents themselves for their
place in the sanctuary districts. In order for this episode to have
been made in the first place it relies upon common opinions of race
and the awareness of blaming of African Americans and other nonwhites
for their poverty. To analyze it solely from a class perspective does
not give the full picture.
Continued Next Week!
Bibliography
Bibliography
Lipsitz, George. The
Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from
Identity Politics. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 2006.
Roediger,
David. The Wages of Whiteness:
Race and the Making of the American Working Class. New
York: Verso Books, 1991.
Weber,
Max. The Protestant Ethic and
the Spirit of Capitalism. New
York: Routledge, 1930.
Wray,
Matt. Not Quite White: "white
trash" and the Boundaries of Whiteness. Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2006.
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