Race in Deep Space Nine, Part 2

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 2- Analysis

      Sanctuary District inmate Michael Webb is chosen by Sisko and BC to represent the face of America and what one would call an average American. He is white, he has a (n unseen) wife and two children, and many of his actions are based around supporting that family, however, he is unemployed. Early on in the history of the United States employment set white people apart from African Americans. The average American was not a slave and not black (Roediger 1991). To be a black slave meant to perform labor, but not for a wage. Additionally, unlike "white trash", the average American was perceived to be a hard worker, pulling themselves up by their bootstraps as the saying goes (Wray 2006). This episode depicts a middle class white man dealing with problems that are most typically dealt with by African Americans, Latin@ Americans, and recent immigrants of any identity other than “properly white”. Because of this, Sisko decides to use him as the proof to the outside world that the sanctuary district has good people in it who do not deserve to be there. This would not be possible without society giving whites a benefit of the doubt and social capital that is denied to People of Color. 
 

      This episode alludes to the stereotype of the people in the sanctuary district as being lower than working class. They do not have jobs so it is assumed that they are more socially deviant than working class Americans. In the United States, working class and poor people are nearly always assumed to be nonwhite (it's just blamed on the individuals for reasons of sin or race rather than on the true systemic causes of poverty). In a sanctuary district that functions as part ghetto, part trailer park, the majority of the residents are assumed to be either "white trash" or nonwhite. Webb does not fit the stereotype that people outside of the sanctuary district assume that it is filled with. People outside of the sanctuary district view it as a necessary problem and place to keep the unemployed.

      With the Trekkie audience that Star Trek Deep Space Nine is intended for, it is impossible to assume that race does not play an important role in the construction of what the sanctuary district is. Stereotypes define it, just as they define many perceptions of class and race in the United States. Even the viewer is led to believe that the sanctuary district must be made up of mostly nonwhites, especially when Sisko and Bashir (both nonwhite) are immediately taken there once they arrive on earth. Both for Americans in the episodes themselves and the American audience in real life, race culture and the poverty associated with nonwhites is a part of the social structure in the United States (Lipsitz 2006). With the discriminatory practices in hiring, housing, and education that have characterized the United States since colonial times, the reality of the sanctuary district is that it should be full nonwhites, blocked out of work and forced into ghettos.

Webb is not the individual or the body assumed to exist within the walls of the Sanctuary District. Thus, even once the riots break out and Sisko, Bashir, and BC exert obvious control over the situation, they choose Webb to go on video as the face of the Sanctuary District. This is because he is the white male that American studies scholar George Lipsitz (2006) refers to when he says, “The state uses gender roles and family obligations to compel behavior that serves its interests.” The white male patriarch fulfills this cultural role and Webb is especially suited to fit this role in his desire for employment and his family’s freedom and protection. These two things are what drive Webb to reveal to the outside world what the sanctuary district truly is. He knows that none of the residents belong there, especially himself, as a white formerly middle class male, and this is what makes him a more desirable symbol with which to attempt to confront the system’s oppression.

     It is important to note that Sisko, Bashir, and BC all cannot represent the face of the sanctuary district. They all are the embodiment of the poor, nonwhite, lazy stereotype of the sanctuary district residents. Sisko is African American, Bashir both non-American and nonwhite, and BC is "white trash". Although BC is also white, as described previously, he embodies a different whiteness than Webb. Webb is the face of the sanctuary district and the key to shutting it down. Because he was once a middle class American, he can relate to those outside of the sanctuary district and they can relate to him. Even though he does not have a job, he wants one in order to provide for his family and give his life more purpose. He bravely defends his family and fights for the basic American right, freedom. Webb is a man that the vast majority of Americans can relate to and thus a driving force for the closing of the sanctuary districts. As Sisko says “They don't want to see you or me, they want to see Webb. He's the guy next door!”

Past Tense also depicts an example of "white trash" – an ignorant, bigoted criminal, who is looked down on by everyone, and goes out of his way to torment others, especially Blacks, eventually rioting against society for his own gain, as opposed to Webb’s class conscious purposes. B.C. is a “ghost”, the violent, unstable poor population that serves as this story’s equivalent to southern "white trash". While he clearly has cultural background in common with Vin and even Webb, he cannot access cultural capital due to his economic status. One is struck by the commonality between the two unpleasant white characters, BC and Vin, sharing so many of the same traits – sadism, pride, and at least a limited awareness that they’re not wanted by their superiors. Both react similarly- lashing out at those around them, the difference is that Vin is the socially necessary “frontiersman” described by Matt Wray in “Not Quite White”¹ who, while uncouth and uncivilized (at least in comparison to the detective, the social worker, and the journalist) is socially useful because he inflicts violence on those who are still less worthy. BC also practices violence, some of which seems to be racially motivated (5 of the 8 named characters he threatens are People of Color- three Blacks, one Arab-Britisher, and one Latino -and the only one he actually kills is Black), but this is not enough to redeem him in society’s eyes, because he is a “ghost”- like the 18^th century “lubbers” of Appalachia (Wray, 24) who reputedly lived in squalor, refusing to work for their own families’ benefit and being largely left to their own devices by the slaveholding class, who had more profitable subjects to control. All that seems to separate them is that BC operates in a location where his savagery is not in society’s perceived interest. BC is aware of this, openly mocking the political system as he takes the social workers and policemen hostage, reveling in his status as a social outcast, or "white trash". He is poor, but he is also virulently racist, calling Sisko “boy” and directing his violence against People of Color, like the “crackers” employed by the planter aristocracy to discipline their slaves. In a society where his whiteness and power are not enough to determine his fate, his only recourse is more violence and sociopathy.

Despite their antisocial tendencies and disposition towards bigotry and violence, the ghosts ultimately experience something of a feeling of solidarity with the “gimmes” and “dims” during the riot, similarly to how poor whites supported some early slave revolts before they had been taught to invest in whiteness².

There are important distinctions here- the oppressed classes are permanent, regardless of race. Roediger describes part of Whiteness’ psychological wages as being the sense that one can and will better one’s condition through work³, which was openly kept beyond the capacity of nonwhites. The fact that the system did not in fact always keep poor workers, especially indentured servants, from upward mobility shaped much of social policy in the 18^th and 19^th centuries- namely, how could the ruling class create, maintain, and oppress a permanent underclass? The answer, of course, was investing more in slavery and the social infrastructure needed to morally justify it. This actually seems to be the starting point for the episodes- how do white workers react when they realize that the system no longer considers them desirable? Some demand human rights like Webb, others slide into savagery and crime like BC, because the wages of whiteness are no longer available to them, and others continue plodding along in a system in which they blame everyone who is worse off for their own difficulties, and all reasonable hope of upward mobility is lost . Webb and BC are no longer freemen, which means they have more in common with those of other racial assignments, yet class solidarity is impossible to BC (and Vin) because of their racial assignment and the way they have been socialized to invest in it.

It’s also worth remembering the defense of slavery as being in the interests of those too inept to handle their own lives⁴, much as the sanctuary districts are described. The necessary reverse of meritocracy, clung to by poor freemen like Vin, is that those who do not succeed are inherently inferior, otherwise they’d be calling more shots. BC is also an important part of questioning this message- he is clearly a violent, racist person who would cause trouble at every opportunity, but how much of this has been aggravated by his socially enforced poverty?

Also of great importance to the plot is the perception of the Sanctuary District’s residents by the authorities, who are characterized in a variety of relevant ways. The two policemen (one old, conservative and white, one young, apolitical and Latino) who first arrest Sisko and Bashir are the framing device for society’s perceptions. The white one, named Vin, is a representative of the white working class that exists in a complex position between his oppressors and those he oppresses. Roediger’s “Wages of Whiteness” is invaluable in understanding his position.

     Vin is in a position of power over the powerless, but the frequent references to his precarious economic position undercut this. His pay is being cut, and his hours extended. This important information is secondary to his role as arbiter of social worth, but it clearly helps explain his hostility towards the inmates of the Sanctuary. He defines himself as better than the homeless, insane, and/or unemployed people society has placed beneath him, repeatedly calling them “losers” and saying they have only themselves to blame for their predicament.

Vin is used here as an example of the white freeman, separated from his victims not by wealth (at least not by much) or even power- for he is as vulnerable as the others to economic manipulation – the difference is that society has not yet told him that it considers him worthless – he is still officially free to market his labor, as 19^th century poor whites were free, but entirely dependent on the whims of the ruling class for his livelihood. Rather than economic power, he is given socio-legal power over social undesirables on account of his status as a freeman, and told that this is his right. (Roediger, 48). Using Roediger’s history of the self-identification of the white freeman, we can infer that the success of this social construction can be measured in how completely its subjects identify their relatively privileged social status as resulting from their own merits and their identity as whites while ignoring their economic oppression and dependence. Vin progresses through the episodes, eventually acknowledging that the residents of the district are there through someone else’s actions than their own, and ultimately allows Sisko and Bashir to leave anonymously, preserving the timeline. Throughout, he identifies with those who present images similar to his, with the bulk of his anger reserved for BC and to a lesser degree Sisko.
 

This could have been race blind. Or even have tried to be race blind. But it was brave enough to hit these issues head on.  We’re left to ponder whether these racial symbols and stratifications were an intentional part of the depicted narrative, if they’re inescapable facets of a society with four hundred years of racial oppression as its salient feature, or perhaps both. At the very least, Behr, Echevarria, Wolfe, and co. have depicted a disturbingly familiar United States, and done important work in bridging the gap between idealism in goals and awareness of serious problems. Past Tense concludes with a typically uplifting Star Trek ending showing the beginning of the district’s ending after Webb’s murder by the police in the riot’s breaking. The policemen agree to let Sisko disappear in gratitude for his brokering a mostly peaceful resolution, and the heroes return to 2371. We see one more point of race and class relations as Vin orders the soldiers to stand down and they obey him, recognizing their social proximity and therefore trusting his authority. This shows how entrenched the society still is in racialized class division. We’re left to consider the results of stratification, in a way that has primarily exhibited economic oppressions but also reminded us of the role race plays in keeping classes divided and society oppressive.

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.

1 Wray, 51

2 Roediger, p. 24.

3 Roediger, 32

4 Roediger, 75.