Whoopi Goldberg in Star Trek can tell us a lot about today’s America

If you’re a nerd of a certain age like me, you grew up watching new episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” week by week, gobbling up the adventures of a new Enterprise and her crew.

An infrequent, but no less important, guest character was brought to wonderfully subtle life by Whoopie Goldberg. She was an El-Aurian, a race of listeners with gifts for observation that bordered on mystical. They become galactic refugees after their home had been consumed by the Borg.

Named Guinan, the bartender and close confidant of Captain Jean Luc Picard spent her time dishing out strong drinks and stronger advice.

{mosads}I’d forgotten about Guinan. Her character was always lurking around in the background in a quiet supporting role, tugging at the plot threads, but never really taking center stage. But I’m quite a bit older and hopefully wiser than I was when I first watched the show more than twenty years ago, and I’ve grown to appreciate the nuance of the messages the writers snuck in. 

Or maybe the events of the last few years have changed the filters I use when viewing and interpreting art.

Regardless, in rewatching Next Gen, I’ve grown to appreciate the character of Guinan more fully. There’s a particularly good episode from the third season titled “Yesterday’s Enterprise” that I caught over the weekend that really resonated with me. In it, the previous incarnation of the Enterprise was pulled through a time warp into the future with Picard and the crew. But their absence at a pivotal moment in the past triggered immense changes in the future.

Instead of joining the Federation, the Klingons attacked, and war has raged for the last twenty years.

No one could sense the change in the timeline. To them, it was all they’d ever known. It seemed perfectly right and normal that it would be that way. No one, except Guinan. She knew something was terribly wrong. She knew that millions of people had suffered unjustly, needlessly, for years.

But no one else could perceive the situation as she could. So now Guinan, a patient listener, needed people to listen to her for the first time. She leaned on Picard and the trust the two of them had developed over the years to hear her perspective and use his considerable power to take action.

Guinan, a refuge, person of color, and woman, came to Picard, a straight white man, and told him “This is fucked up in a way you cannot understand, because you are incapable of seeing it from my perspective. But you have to trust me and help me fix it.”

And you know what? He did. He made a very difficult call, and a painful sacrifice in order to put things right. All based on his trust in a close friend who could see things in a way he couldn’t.

Could any metaphor be more appropriate to our current situation? Listen, straight white guys. Right now, our black friends, LGBTQ friends, immigrant friends, Muslim friends, and female friends are playing the part of Guinan in our lives. 

White supremacy is ascendant in our halls of power. They are scared. They are hurt, even traumatized. They know something terrible has happened, will continue to happen. They see it more clearly than we can, because their lived experiences and place in the structure of society gives them perception that we cannot share, even if we empathize.

They’re asking us to listen, to trust their perspective and perception. And then to use our considerable power to help them put things right.

We need to hear our Guinans. Then, it’s time to be Picards.

Tomlinson is an author and regular contributor to the Hill on state, local and national politics. Follow him on Twitter @stealthygeek.

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.