Though he has served as Star Trek’s representative of Asia on board the U.S.S. Enterprise throughout the galaxy, on Tuesday George Takei related his life experiences as an Asian American to about 120 students and community members in Ryan Family Auditorium.
The Asian Pacific American Coalition brought Takei to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage month, which occurs every May. His 30-minute speech was followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer session.
Takei, who is best known as Mr. Sulu from Star Trek, used the Enterprise crew as an example of the importance of acceptance.
“(Star Trek series creator) Gene Roddenberry continually reminded us that the Starship Enterprise was a metaphor for the Starship Earth, and the strength of this starship was in its diversity – diversity of race, diversity of culture, diversity of ideological background – coming together and working in concert,” he said. “It was an almost utopian dream, and it was science fiction.”
At the time of the Star Trek crew’s first flights in the 1960s, however, America’s cities were embroiled in race riots and the Cold War was still intense. The progress society has made so far toward greater acceptance can then be represented in the International Space Station, a modern-day parallel to the Enterprise that sees Americans and Russians cooperating on a project that has contributors from many nations and cultures, he said.
Takei related the huge changes the United States has seen in his own time through the story of his childhood. After Pearl Harbor, Takei and his family were removed from their home and sent to internment camps, like all Japanese-Americans in the West. The internment of the Japanese was the culmination of a legacy of discrimination against Asians and Asian-Americans in the United States, he said, which included preventing them from owning land and excluding them from most professions.
Still, some Japanese men in the camps chose to enter the U.S. Army and fought in the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team while their families were still interned. The unit went on to become the most highly decorated unit of its size in the war, and though it would take years for Asian-Americans to receive the equality the Constitution promised them, their fight proved their belief in the American promise of freedom, Takei said.
“Our democracy is a dynamic work in progress,” he said. “The most glorious chapters of our history have been written by those change agents who actively engaged in the process of expanding justice and equality to all.”
Coalition Co-President David Ma said the group normally brings a high-profile speaker every May, and Takei was appropriate as a “pioneer for Asian-Americans” due to both his experiences and his mass exposure on Star Trek.
“The television series became a phenomenal success, and Mr. Takei as a regular cast member for part of the television series’ run makes him one of the first recognizable Asian-American faces on television,” the Medill junior said.
McCormick junior Joe Phan said he came to see the event because he enjoys “Star Trek” and “Heroes,” and he found Takei to be very knowledgeable on the issues he covered.
“You see one side of him as an actor, but you get to see a lot of different aspects, especially when he was answering questions,” he said. “I thought he was very well-rounded and wise.”
Takei closed his speech with a message to the audience to not shy away from confronting the challenges of today.
“I know with all of us, as change agents actively engaged in the democratic process, we can make our democracy even truer than it is today, ” he said. “We can transform America to a nation where the words of the pledge, ‘with liberty and justice for all,’ ring with truth and authenticity.”
