By Vee Sharp
The original series of Star Trek represented an attempt on the part of Gene Roddenberry and the other creators involved to envision an integrated and multiracial future. Despite that vision, it was rare that the characters of color, particularly Lieutenant Uhura or the helmsman Sulu, received a significant amount of time to themselves on screen. One of the few times that Lieutenant Uhura did receive that spotlight, however, was in the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which included one of the first interracial kisses (for our purposes between a black person and a white person) on television.
The part of the episode where Uhura comes in is when the powerful telekinetic Platonians seek to puppet her, Nurse Chapel, Captain Kirk, and Mr. Spock for their sadistic entertainment. The group loses control of their bodies and are forced to engage in humiliating activities. One of these includes the men and women pairing up to kiss one another: Captain Kirk and Lieutenan Uhura, and Mr. Spock and Nurse Chapel. Each character is made to wear a costume that resembles attire from ancient Greece. Uhura in particular wears a baby pink, hyperfeminine dress. The neckline is lower than her standard Starfleet uniform, and her hair is styled in a more ornamental way.
From Star Trek, Season 3 Episode 10, “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Letswatchstartrek.com, http://www.letswatchstartrek.com/2013/10/07/tos-platos-stepchildren/.
Uhura’s situation and attire in this scene brings to mind the Jezebel, or the hypersexual, alluring black woman. Though Uhura’s appearance and the sexual overtones of the scene between Uhura and Kirk can bring the stereotype to mind, the lack of power imbalance between the two subverts it. She is put into an intimate situation with a white man against her will, and her clothing puts her on display unwillingly. Though the two lost control of their bodies, there is a conversation between Kirk and Uhura that makes their individual feelings clear. Uhura, though scared, trusts Kirk and vice versa. Uhura does not exude the irresistible sexuality that the Jezebel image does, and she does not seduce or compel Kirk to pair up with her. The relationship between the pair does not change because of the encounter, and remains professional.
CBS Home Entertainment, From Star Trek, Season 3 Episode 10, “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Treknews.net, https://treknews.net/2016/10/03/british-film-institute-celebrates-50-years-of-star-trek/.
Further, the power dynamics between Kirk and Uhura are equal. Neither has power over the other, despite their differences in rank, and neither have control over what their bodies are doing. Through their mutual understanding of this, and through keeping the status quo between them, Uhura does not fall into the Jezebel image, and instead subverts it. She challenges the gaze of the audience, both the sadistic aliens in fiction, and the television audience in the meta, many of whom marveled at the interracial kiss. It is through Uhura’s implied agency that she, though in this situation, still has possession of her sexuality.
Black Men & Women 