Racism In Star Trek

In the Star Trek episode “Devil in the Dark”, issues such as racism, xenophobia, and the topic of communication with others are addressed throughout the episode. There is also media and television to help educate and enlighten people about issues around the world in the present day; as well as the contradicting belief from others that media doesn’t accomplish the goals of educating the people with correct facts or they may have biased viewpoints. Both racism and xenophobia were indeed shown in the episode and Star Trek effectively addressed the topic well and that visibly and morally showed that the way to settle one's differences and to come to a compromise was to simply communication.
The issue of racism was shown in the episode but in a
way that was subtle yet when you look at the bigger picture, the issue is still present. Although it wasn’t explicitly thought of as present in the episode it was still an underlying factor throughout. In the episode it was seen as a “humans against a creature,” and the way most people view racism is humans against humans, not humans against a creature. Such as if a person harms and goes against a living organism people wouldn’t call that racism, which is why it can be easily overlooked in the episode. Racism is the discrimination or hate of different races which is what is shown in the episode where the humans assume that they are more superior than the Horta. Racism was subtly shown by both the Horta and the humans as they both tried to kill each other throughout the episode just because they didn’t look like the same species or have a similar “language” to communicate by. The humans thought that their race was superior as they wanted to hunt down the Horta since it was getting in the way of mining on a planet for its natural resources. Both the humans and Horta were also prejudiced towards each other as their opinion of it was biased since they didn’t have any personal experience with it such as communication or setting things aside to see what each party really wanted. The humans were also very antagonistic since they spent a majority of the episode attempting to hunt down the Horta instead of attempting to communicate with it to make peace since in the end both parties were beneficial to each other. The problem is ultimately solved when Spock and Kirk communicated with the Horta to sort out their differences, thus leading to both groups living peacefully among each other without problems. The people were able to mine their resources with the Horta assisting them, and the Horta was ere able to live and reproduce peacefully.
As for the episode addressing the issue of xenophobia, it can also be related to racism since the concept of it is nearly the same.
The episode expressed the issue of xenophobia well by distinctly showing the hatred of mankind to an unknown creature on a planet, considering that the planet didn’t even belong to the humans. Xenophobia is the hatred of a different race or species, which both the miners and the Horta showed to each other during the episode. This was subtly portrayed in the episode as there were obvious negative feelings towards both parties and how they were both trying to get what they wanted although in violent way. The humans feared the Horta since it was a species that was able to kill humans and go through rocks via the acid that it expels. That struck fear into humans and made them want to go after the Horta, trying to kill it so that it wouldn’t kill anymore of their people as well as attempting to kill it out of the fear of a different species with the powers to kill. The same can go for the Horta as it was living on the planet alone, protecting its offspring when humans came onto the planet and unknowingly killed its young while looking for resources. The Horta feared the humans due to their deed, as well as looking nothing like the Horta which raised wariness and fear; having an unknown race kill its offspring could have struck aggressiveness into the Horta and triggered its instinct to kill the humans in an effort to protect its young and itself.
Having two different species go against each other just because of the fear of not knowing what the other species was thus created a sense of xenophobia, as both parties had no clue who or what the other species was but disliked each other due to the death of their allies and offspring which led to the attempt to kill the other race. Although the episode did show xenophobia, the way it was shown was again subtle yet if viewed properly you can tell that the theme exists and is shown throughout the episode against the Horta and the people.
As spoken about in the previous paragraphs, communication is a key factor in order to establish peace between parties.
The episode very effectively addressed that the need to communicate between two parties was effective to prevent both the “waging of war” and the violent reactions between the two, since the ongoing tactics to induce harm between each other weren’t effective at all. What both the people and the Horta did at first was to react violently, such as the people hunting down the Horta and the Horta killing the miners. Both were actions that weren’t thought of thoroughly and had bad consequences, such as enraging the Horta even further and killing off the miners and enraging the humans as well. Both were unfavorable outcomes given what the Horta and miners had to go through. The episode also showed how ineffective that tactic was and how it only caused more harm than good to both the Horta and the people. It very clearly showed how after Spock, Kirk, and the Horta managed to communicate and understand each other better, they soon realized how they both didn’t mean harm but only wanted to peacefully conduct their own business. Spock and Kirk realized that the miners have been killing off the Horta’s offspring without realizing so and that the Horta only killed the humans to prevent them from harming her offspring even further. Without communicating, Spock and Kirk would have never been able to address that issue and apologize for their actions as well as make up for
it, such as healing the Horta and promising to not harm her offspring again and to let them live peacefully. The moral of communication showed how when correctly enacted and two different species are able to set aside each others differences to accomplish a set goal, both will be able to get what they desire as well as work cooperatively in peace.
Television and media in general can help to educate and enlighten people but at the same time they can be shown to do it wrongly, such as provide false evidence or be biased with their opinions to have the audience be swayed to their views. It is very true that media and other outlets do provide other people with news, such as telling others or spreading the news of it so that other people know what is happening around the world. Of course anything and everything can be misleading and provide false information, and it’s up to the people themselves to acknowledge that and formulate their own thoughts and opinions for what is going on in the world and if they believe sources from other media. Star Trek is a prime example of such media that can help to educate and enlighten people about these issues such as “The Devil in the Dark” episode where it subtly shows racism, xenophobia, sexism, and putting aside one’s differences to get along and make peace with one another. The episode itself wasn’t built around it, but showed an underlying theme of it to show viewers. That in itself can help to educate and enlighten people since the episode was aired in 1967, when those issues were still occurring and even to this day. By having that underlying theme it allows viewers to look closely at the episode and formulate their own ideas as to what it could mean as well as if it has any relevance to the present time. Media does indeed educate the people by showing the viewers what happened in real world events by broadcasting them and creating a summary of what happened. Of course there could be false information that could throw off viewers and make them believe in wrongly sourced information which is a downfall on media. There is no “set goal” that entertainment must accomplish to educate people on issues, since there is a varying amount of things media can cover and tell the viewers.
Thus concludes how Star Trek effectively acknowledges and addresses the issues of xenophobia, racism, the need to communicate with others in order to establish peace, and how media can help to enlighten and educate people on issues around the world.