Justin Grays

View Original

Justin on Panels - Season 2, Episode 01

Season 2, Episode 01:
Avoiding The Tokenism in Comics & SciFi Cultures

Over the last four years, I have been promising to finish cleaning up the audio from the various panels that I have been on and improve the show notes. Now that GraysMatter Podcast is up and running, I have taken the time to also revisit these panels. Please join me in experiencing Justin on Panels.

MarsCon 2018

Creating actual diversity requires a great effort to avoiding unintentionally tokenizing your characters. Tokenism, even when unintentional, is what leads to adding "diversity” for the sake of diversity. How do we engender true diversity in sci fi and comics?

With: Justin Grays, Rob Callahan, S.N. Arly, Tyler Tork, mod.

Content Warning:

  • Mention of the slur for Romani people

  • Transracial/Transcultural adoption

Justin on Panels is available on the following platforms:


Unfortunately (as I recall), I was a little late to the panel and didn’t get the recorder started until we were halfway through the introductions.

My written works.

On Tokenism

On Enterprise, Ensigns Hoshi Sato & Travis Mayweather were the two junior officers on board the Enterprise, as well as being the only two persons of color main characters.

Lieutenant Commander Chakotay and his unnamed tribe were descendants of the Rubber Tree People - the “offshoot” were rather the “Sky Spirits” who met the early humans. The episode was “Tattoo” (VOY 2x09).
To help write the character Chakotay, Jamake Highwater was enlisted as a consultant; however, it was later revealed that he was actually of Eastern European Jewish descent. He was heavily criticized by actual Indigenous Americans for his writings.

The episode of TNG with the Indian Planet was “Journey’s End” (TNG 7x20).

Indigenous Futurism

In “Court Martial” (TOS 1x14), the character was indeed Lt. Cdr. Benjamin Finney. I had him confused with Cadet Finnegan in “Shore Leave” (TOS 1x17). Jame Finney was Finney’s daughter. Oops.

Commodore José I. Mendez was the name that was escaping me. He was in “The Menagerie, Parts I & II” (TOS 1x15-16). The actor, Malachi Throne, was of Austro-Hungarian and Russian Jewish descent however.

The sci-fi movie that I’m referring to is The Cloverfield Paradox; one of the engineers, Ling Tam, doesn’t speak English but understands it.

Ethnic Ventriloquism

Rick Riordan is known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus.

How to write diverse characters

When I thought that “The Paradise Syndrome” (TOS 3x03) was the wrong episode, it was because “This Side of Paradise” (TOS 1x25) has such a similar name. This time, I was wrong about being wrong - it was “The Paradise Syndrome” where Kirk lost his memory on Amerind (yes, they actually named it that) and married Miramanee.
This episode is probably tied with “Code of Honor” (TNG 1x04) for the title of Most Racist Episode.

Code-Switching

When you say “you’re so articulate”:

How to find beta readers

Writing with Color

Writing The Other (Website) (Twitter)

Recommended books and movies:

Lieutenant Worf met his brother, Commander Kurn, during the episode “Sins of the Father” (TNG 3x17); the scene where Kurn is chiding Worf is during the episode Redemption II (TNG 5x01), when the Klingon Civil War is happening.

The DS9 episode that Rob is referring to is “Children of Time” (DS9 5x22).


Cover Art by Michelle Chmura | Theme Music by Caleb Kelson


If you can, please help me continue to create and produce Justin on Panels. As little as $1/month will help me get into a position where I can spend more time working directly on the podcast and eventually expand it’s reach. To this end, I am on both Patreon and Ko-fi, membership platform services designed to help facilitate the relationships between patrons and creators.
I know that it's not always possible to sponsor someone on a monthly basis. If you would help me with a one time donation, please feel free to use PayPal, CashApp, or Vemno. Producing content takes time and effort, and any support would be most appreciated. Your donations help me cover expenses and eventually will let me be able to create quality content full-time.

See this content in the original post

See this form in the original post

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

Avoiding The Tokenism in Comics & SciFi Cultures Justin Grays, Rob Callahan, S.N. Arly, Tyler Tork (mod)