The death of the Star Trek actor leaves behind a hugely important legacy both on the small screen and in space
Nichelle Nichols was my hero. Her death on Saturday at 89 was the passing of an icon who changed the world, and then kept fighting to make the future in our imaginations and in reality, a better brighter place for Black girls. When I was a kid around eight or nine, I would watch reruns of Star Trek and imagine myself as a space traveler. I even loved the fact that our first names were so similar. To me, she was the epitome of cool and I eagerly watched every moment she was on screen.
But because I was a kid, I didn’t really grasp how groundbreaking her work on the show was, as by the time I saw it, she was one of many images of Black womanhood. For me she was the one that resonated because I was fascinated by space, but of course I saw everyone from Diahann Carroll to Jackée Harry on screen. My world was one where images of Black womanhood were everywhere. It wasn’t that I thought racism didn’t exist, but the world in which Black women were only depicted as maids was never my reality. The media landscape that would have taught me that there was nothing for girls like me but servitude was changed by Nichelle Nichols.
