How Star Trek helped me find my own way

LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

One experience that I hope never fades from my memory is the day I found myself on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

OK, it wasn’t the “real” TV set — it was even better!

At the turn of the century, Las Vegas had an attraction called the Star Trek Experience that sadly didn’t make enough money to survive. It had actors dressed up like Klingons and other aliens.

There were Starfleet officers doing their jobs, and you felt like you were in an actual episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The premise of the ride was that Klingons went back in time to abduct Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s ancestor. My sister raised her hand and said loudly: “It’s me!” and then promptly pushed a button on one of the consoles. It beeped! The actor playing a space lieutenant looked at her with frustration and said, “Don’t do that!” Later that day my dad snapped this picture:

I honestly don’t remember a time when I didn’t love Star Trek. I do remember when I started to realize that this show, and my father who introduced me to it, built the foundation for my sense of social justice as an astrophysicist of color. The show helped me, and my father, find a place within our culture.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

When I was a tween I lived in a small rural town where I stuck out like a piñata in a park. TV was my escape! It was my first friend. This was before streaming and YouTube, so you had to race home to be in front of that TV to watch multiple Simpsons reruns or the latest episode of In Living Color, the sketch show that I thought I could…