Moment of Silence: Nichelle Nichols

[ysabetwordsmith]

Actress Nichelle Nichols has passed away.  She was best known for playing Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series.

And the Great Con in the Sky goes wild.

EDIT 8/1/22 -- Read NASA's tribute.

Comments

[siberian_skys]

That's sad. I hadn't heard that.

[acelightning73]

She boldly went where no black woman had gone before.

Fly free, Nyota, among the stars where you always belonged.

[shadowbliss]

RIP

[chanter1944]

I read the news earlier today, and what I said then, loudly and vehemently, one is not advised to repeat on comms if they don't want to catch an earful from either a relevant authority or their own superior.

I suspect that, up at the Great Con in the Sky, several people are being given priority through the crowd, because they've got a castmatefriend to hug the heck out of, and word gets around. I'm thinking specifically of McCoy, Rand, and Scotty's actors here, though there's doubtless quite a list of others.

[curiosity]

She was a lovely person, so kind. Inspiring for so many people. RIP.

[ravan]

Goodbye Nichelle. It was a pleasure watching you all of these years, and seeing the trails you blazed into people's hearts.

My hero

[dialecticdreamer]

Watching her as Uhura, being calm and poised when everyone around her was /not/ like her had a profound impact on me as a small child. Learning more as I grew older, only fueled more respect for her as a person, an artist, and an inspiration.

Re: My hero

[ysabetwordsmith]

I remember reading about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's response when she wanted to quit Star Trek for lack of sufficient character development: "You can't quit! You prove that we survive!"

For a lot of people, Uhura was the first black character they saw who wasn't a slave or a servant. It made a difference.

Re: My hero

[dialecticdreamer]

She was competent, professional, and hard to fluster. She's part of why I have a competence kink, quite frankly. She completely sidestepped the usual stereotypes, including Angry Black Woman, and made it not only work but seem completely NORMAL in a very multicultural setting, decades before that kind of integration could be taken for granted even some of the time.

[helgatwb]

I saw her at ComicCon once. I couldn't afford to get her autograph, but I stood next to the line and took a picture with my phone. She saw me, and gave a Vulcan salute.