mods-> if this should be in the star trek thread itself, lemme know, but i read that thread and it seems very much unrelated to the point here and there's a chance this will be debated for a bit b/c my friend and i who both love star trek and are critical thinkers couldn't figure out the answer to this.

looking at the DS9/TNG/Voyager timelines/frameworks, something occurred to my friend who then came to me with it.

obrien is purely irish. he's the first in his family that we know of to marry outside of his ethnicity.

keiko (sp?) is japanese (i presume, but keiko is a very japanese name i'd imagine). she's the first person we know of on her side of the family to marry outside of her ethnicity.

torres (her human half) is the first person to marry a non-hispanic outside of her family that we know of and the first generation of being mixed klingon (akin to alexander, worf's kid).

before worf, the roshenko's were russian all the way back.

harry, same thing. he's chinese i think and married a white girl. first of his family that we know of to do so.

picard-> french. same thing.

riker-> alaska, same thing.

crusher/wes-> wherever they're from. same thing.

tom parris-> unknown but he's distinctly white.

janeway-> irish. same as obrien.

sisko-> from new orleans, born/raised etc.

the list goes on and on.

YET, there's TONNSSS of mixed species. spock, torres, alexander (worf's son), etc. etc. etc.

HOW IS IT that by the 24th-25th centuries, we're seeing soooo many "first time" marriages between one terran ethnicity and another? wouldn't they have been super mixed by then? maybe resembling the skin color of arabs or hispanics by that point?

what could explain this in the cannon (i.e. aside from the fact that they simply had actors of various backgrounds and used that. they COULD HAVE given more intermingled backstories without having to resort to costume/makeup changes for the main folks. even picard with his english accent is presented as french french french going back generations as winemakers)???

are there counter examples that we missed? if so, who is an example of a terran from a mixed ethnicity background?

Repeat to yourself, "It's just a show. I should really just relax."

They have to take some creative license to make it relatable to present day audiences. Or, you could make the case that it's intentionally subversive. Star Trek, like a lot of science fiction, uses stories about alien species to tell stories about racism. By having the main cast have clear racial identities, it appeals to the very racists their message is aimed at.

first, it's fun to think about stuff like this for shows i like. not sure what part of my post led you to believe i was stressed out. it's interesting to consider. ofc one answer is "they just didn't give a f*ck about making it that accurate." but that's no fun. also, star trek does a pretty good job in general of explaining these things. they make it a point to go back and explain things like why the klingons looked different in trouble w/ tribbles than worf does and stuff like that.

it'd be much more interesting to find an explanation that still adheres to the overall cannon of the shows.

You don't think we're super mixed now? Do one of those spit tests and you'll find out your family isn't from where they have always told you.

as if the torreses are just gonna openly admit their great shame of having some klingon blood in their family.

Not far enough into the future, need another 700 years.

Almost everyone I know who identifies themselves as being Irish, Italian, Mexican, whatever, is actually mixed. I'm sure the same will apply in the future as long as these countries still exist.

in 350ish years, i think there would have been some significant melding given how small the planet got. you could teleport anywhere, instantly. country boarders and boundaries didn't exist anymore (wasn't there just "earth" government and no longer a president of the US etc.?). given those changes, you'd expect to see some significant mixing beyond what is keeping us relatively separated now.

AND, c'mon, there should definitely be more ethnic mixing than interspecies mixing, which is not the case in these 3 shows. there's more interspecies/mixed alien children and families than there are mixed ethnicity families.

Because it serves the story better to have more racially obvious people.

You repeat this a lot. However, I think the whole premise of you starting this thread is seriously undermined by the assumption that just because it wasn't talked about that it didn't happen. Why except in certain rare circumstances would a plot line be advanced by specifically addressing this issue? Why anyone say "oh yeah, and his uncle Ricky married a Peruvian chick"?

Alright, this reminds me of the joke in Star Track, you've got the WASP, Scot, Oriental, Black, Frenchman etc., but why are there never any Arabs/ Muslims?



So how's this theory, between now and the start of the origina,l a big cataclysmic event takes place that blasts the Arabs off the globe. In doing so takes down the power grid, and transportation sector is demolished. Survivors are forced to return to local for a few generations until we climb back out of the hole.

You win this thread by virtue of your screen name and picture.

Khan? Maybe he was Indian.

Yup, Khan was a genetically engineered Super Indian.