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I read this in the comment section of Uhura’s appreciation post at ONTD_startrek:
I have a story about Uhura which I absolutely adore. In middle school, we had an assignment in our History/English block class to find someone who was effected by the racism of the 50’s and 60’s and interview them. Most of the stories came from white points of view, since we lived in a very white town. While a lot of people chose their parents or grandparents, my mom told me to talk to Mrs. Reilly, a 60-something African-American woman who lived around the corner from us with her husband, Rick, and their four or five cats.
I was a shy kid, so my mom came with me and the two of us sat down in Mrs. Reilly’s living room while she walked around, busying herself with dusting her piano or straightening the pictures on the wall (thinking about it now, she was probably as nervous as I was).
I rattled through questions awkwardly, as I had only ever talked to Mrs. Reilly a few times before this. Finally, I came to the last question. “What made you believe that we would leave this racism behind one day?”
Finally, Mrs. Reilly sat down on her love seat, smiled warmly at me, and said quite confidently, “Uhura.”
I was twelve and a bit of a n00b, and I had absolutely no idea who Uhura was. My mother, however, knew quite well, and her face lit up. Suddenly, I was in the middle of a whirlwind of stories about Star Trek, too flustered by my mom’s sudden involvement to remember to write any of it down.
Finally, Mrs. Reilly slowed down and said something I’ll never forget; “When I was a little girl, I had to walk through a dominantly white neighborhood to get back to my house after school. Everyday, those kids would laugh at me and call me names. One day, I got home crying and didn’t wanna talk to anyone. I sat on the couch and switched on the TV. Smiling at me from her console was a beautiful woman named Uhura. She worked on the star ship called the Enterprise, and I’d be damned if she wasn’t the smartest one on the whole crew.”
I never put that into my report, since I doubted anyone in class would understand it (and the inclusion of the word ‘damned’ probbly would have dropped me a letter grade), but now that I’ve fallen in love with Star Trek, too, I see just what that would have meant to a little girl back then. Uhura changed so many lives, and to me that’s just incredible.
Mrs. Reilly’s husband died recently and she recently moved into a nursing home. For Christmas, I got her Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ on DVD. About a week later, she told me that she was not disappointed in the least with Zoe Saldana, and said that “had Ms. Saldana been in the one in Ms. Nichols’ place, she woulda changed just as many lives.”
Long story, but I think it’s sweet.In a fandom that I constantly see comparing these two women, with Ms. Saldana often getting the shorter end of the stick, this was refreshingly nice to read. :)
Reblog for awesomeness and a great story.
Also, because you know what? Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana are completely equal in awesome. Why? Because WHEN TWO PEOPLE ARE MADE OF LIMITLESS WIN AND FABULOUSNESS, THEY ARE EQUAL BECAUSE THE INFINITY OF THEIR AWESOME CANNOT BE MEASURED EITHER WAY.
via madame thursday.
