With all of the years I've got behind me, this "new" world we live in seems, well, a little strange. As a child of the 1960s. I grew up intrigued about what the future would be like and couldn't wait for it to arrive. I assumed that as we moved into the future, changes in the way we live would make things better for all Americans. And in some ways, I guess they have.
The Jetsons was a must-watch cartoon show for me on Saturday mornings, basically an animated version of the black and white sitcoms we watched in the early 60s. Premiering in 1962, the futuristic Jetson family lived in 2062, not all that far away now, really. The Jetsons' modern conveniences like their flying cars and their housekeeper robot named Rosie made us look like cavemen. Then there was Star Trek, kind of like a TV Western, only set in outer space.
Both shows, intentionally or not, were giving us views of what our future might look like. Okay, so we still don't have flying cars, but our smartphones are pretty close to that video wristwatch the Jetsons' son, Elroy, wore. While wearing it, his mom, Jane, could call him at the playground, facetiming to let him know it was time to come home for dinner.
And unlike Star Wars, the Star Trek series was not about some "galaxy far, far away" but, instead, was set in our own Milky Way galaxy, only 300 years into the future. Star Trek had a pretty good idea of what amazing technologies awaited us, too. Take artificial intelligence, for instance. It could easily have been one of the technological villains from another world Captain Kirk and his brave crew of the USS Enterprise might face. (You've been warned.)
As much as advances in technology though, Star Trek dared anticipate how our society might change in the future. To this Black kid growing up in a segregated Mississippi, I marveled as much that in the future, a person's skin color would not matter as I did at the technology. In fact, the show went out of its way to make that point. The crew of the Enterprise represented nationalities from around the world and featured a Black woman, Nichelle Nichols, as the ship's communications officer, Nyota Uhura. Nichols was the first Black woman to play a recurring role on an American TV series, not in a stereotypical role, like as a white family's maid. But Star Trek wasn't finished. There was also "the kiss."
Star Trek was the first American television series to feature an interracial kiss, between Lt. Uhura and Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner. Paramount, the series' producer, was very concerned about public blowback that might occur from the scene, especially from its viewers in the South. But the studio took the chance anyway. Keep in mind, the episode aired barely one year after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, was settled. That ruling made interracial marriages legal in the United States, and Star Trek pushed the envelope in a hurry.
Turns out, Paramount was surprised at the lack of public criticism. After it aired, Star Trek received more positive fan mail than it had ever received from a single episode. But, more than that, it would help change attitudes on what was allowed to be shown on American television.
Moving at warp speed from 1967, when the episode first aired, to 2024, that first kiss between a Black woman and a white man would seem quaint, compared to what we see on TV today. You can't even turn on the television without seeing a commercial or TV series featuring interracial couples, mixed-raced children, even gay and lesbian couples, all shown without any public protest to speak of. Seems Star Trek not only got a lot of things right about what our future society might look like but may have, in fact, paved the way for acceptance of those changes.
But here's the strange part I spoke about earlier. A lot of the changes we've grown accustomed to, even approving of, seem poised to take a step backward. The banning of certain books, a backlash against the LGBTQ+ community, turning back the clock on a woman's reproductive rights -- what's going on here? Is our future attempting to take us back to the past?
I always imagined a future that combined the whimsical technology of The Jetsons, paired with the social advances of Star Trek. And okay, there's no denying that I've always held a Pollyanna-ish view of what the future would be like. But looking at the political climate we're living through today, it really does feel like a large segment of the American population wants to go back to the 1950s. They remember "the good times" but dismiss the social baggage that came with them. Segregation, state-approved discrimination, a woman using dangerous means to self-administer an abortion — those were great times?
I was never much of a Bob Dylan fan, but one song of his holds a special place in the playbook of my life's memories: 1964's "The Times They Are a-Changin'." Dylan originally wrote it as a protest song, bemoaning the turmoil going on in our country, and the world, at the time. Monumental shifts were taking place in American society. There was a scary nuclear arms race going on with the Soviet Union, the Civil Rights movement was in its prime, the Vietnam War loomed and, in the midst of all that, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
It puzzles me that so many Americans think that life in this country was better 50 years ago. I guess that would depend on who you ask. Absolutely, I have fond memories of my childhood. Most Americans do and that's all well and good. But life was not better for all of us. That's why Star Trek intrigued me, imagining a future where we lived in a world where every human being was made to feel equal to the next.
Yes, the future has arrived. And, from where I sit, things sure do look a whole lot better today than they did when I was a child growing up in 1960s America. But are there threats on the horizon?
Though Bob Dylan wrote his ballad for the times he lived in, sixty years ago, the song's lyrics apply to our own period in history. Since the 1960s, thankfully, the United States has come a long way in tolerance, social acceptance and our personal freedoms. But I'm afraid that the progress we've made may not last.
Is history repeating itself? Ours is such a divided society, sometimes it feels more like the 1950s than the 2020s. And, I dare say, those divisions seem to be getting worse. Dylan's lyrics still ring true in 2024: the times, they are a-changin'. Let's just hope we come out with a better America on the other side.
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Elijah Jones is a proud Hattiesburg native who enjoys writing. Email him at edjhubtown@aol.com.
