RIP Nichelle Nichols

 (Yes, I know I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I worked seventy hours last week and spent most of yesterday asleep.)

Growing up, one of the people I was closest to was my father. We fished together. We went shooting together. He coached my sports teams. (I'm afraid I may have been a bit of a disappointment there.) And we watched Star Trek: The Original Series together. It was super cool. There was one character that I shared a first name with (being Jim Kirk) and one that I shared a last name with (Dr. Leonard McCoy). Then there were Lieutenants Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. And let's not forget Scotty. 

We watched it a lot. I'll never forget the times that Star Trek was pre-empted by Detroit Red Wings games. My dad wasn't a fan until late in his life and, well, it got ugly. "THAT'S NOT EVEN A REAL SPORT!!" he'd yell. And we'd end up watching some old movie on a different channel. We didn't have cable yet and so there wasn't much choice.

Others have spoken of Nichelle Nichols and her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, of her conversation with Martin Luther King, being a black person in an integrated crew...

And yes, she was a woman. People often compare Lieutenant Uhura to a telephone operator, as that was a common occupation for women at the time. I've often wondered if, perhaps, Gene Roddenberry didn't have a slightly different take on the situation. Women, after all, had served as auxiliary members of the Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II, and Roddenberry was a pilot in the US Air Force. 

Regardless, anyone was points to Ms. Nichols accomplishments is right. She did all of that. It's all true. I'm going to take a slightly different tack here though, and you'll see why shortly.

By the time I was born (December, 1976) Star Trek had been out for roughly a decade. Seeing black people on television was nothing new for a young Jimbo. Good Times, The Jeffersons, What's Happening, Different Strokes, Benson, I could go on. Let's just say that seeing black people on TV was no big deal for me. From the point of view of a guy born in the mid Seventies, black people have always been on TV. 

Think that through for a minute. 

They have always been there. It's no big deal. At least if you're my age or younger.

How many people said that BEFORE Nichelle Nichols popped up on screen with a speaker stuck in her ear? (I'll leave aside the fact that it was the first ever bluetooth speaker.) I mean, I'm FAR from being an expert on the subject but, realistically speaking, I am aware of precisely zero black characters in an American TV show prior to one Nyota Uhura. If they did exist, they didn't last long enough to make it as part of the black and white re-runs I used to watch. All of the shows I listed above came out AFTER Star Trek.

 And I have to wonder...

I grew up on Hip Hop. My cousin Ron threw a Run DMC's Raisin' Hell album into my tape deck one day and...

Yeah. I used to haunt the local records store on Tuesdays because that's when the new stuff came out. And before you start laughing, realize that Sean Combs, Dr. Dre and Master P have all stated for the record in live interviews that seventy percent of hip hop record sales have been to white people. 

None of that happens without Nichelle Nichols. Hip hop started in the late Seventies in Brooklyn New York, and you have to give credit to one Afrika Bambaataa because he invented it, but I honestly don't think it gets as big or lasts as long without Ms. Nichols.

And yet...

My memory of her is not the towering effect she had on civil rights and pop culture. My over-riding memory of Nichelle Nichols is and always will be as the first super-attractive woman on a television show. 

Now, don't get me wrong, there were very many beautiful ladies with acting careers before Nichelle. But, like, I wasn't around to see them. Maybe some on re-runs or whatever, but the first time I remember looking at a television set and being struck by the beauty of a woman, she was on the bridge of the Enterprise wearing a red dress. Seriously. Wow. It was a really weird experience too. Not because she was black, but because I had been watching the show for years at that point. When you can't remember a time before you started watching Star Trek you were too young to appreciate a beautiful woman when you started watching Star Trek.

And seriously...

I grew up in an era when it was NOT cool to be a geek. I was made fun of daily. There were no pretty ladies cosplaying as Power Girl in 1985. It just didn't happen. When I was a kid, the worst of the worst when it came to making fun of geeks were the pretty girls and their petty bullshit.  Seriously, they considered it some kind of status marker to dog the nerdish types and that's what I've always been.

But not Nichelle Nichols. I remember seeing commercials for Star Trek conventions when I was a kid. Sometimes they mentioned that Ms. Nichols was going to be there. At least there was one pretty lady on our side. It usually felt like she was the only one (and that may be because I never saw the other Star Trek women advertised as a kid) but one was something. It was what I needed.

So maybe I'm being selfish remembering as Civil Rights icon for what she meant to me personally. Frankly, I'm okay with that though. This is my blog and I'll write what I want to. I seriously doubt that I was the only one though. And, on a personal level, her being on the nerd side means more to me than all of her vastly more impressive accomplishments ever could.

And so, yes, Nichelle Nichols will always be what her supporters say she is. Sometimes it makes me sad that her lesser contributions go unnoticed.

So fair winds and following seas Ms. Nichols. I will see you when I get there. And if you can spare a hug for a huge nerd who has always, or at least for as long as he can remember, been a fan, it would be much appreciated.