The Importance of Representation

t's interesting that one of the strongest markers of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will be the career of Nichelle Nichols. As the story goes, she was debating quitting "Star Trek" but Dr. King was able to convince her to stay. There is no question that her career has inspired plenty of women to be their best possible person, and that a lot of black women would not be who they are without her example.

I'm not sure if that speaks higher of his oratory ability or her personality, but it does help to point out that representation matters.

We All Need Heroes

Sure, we can all get behind Captain America or Spider-man, These heroes speak to everyone, just as every hero does, but sometimes a person needs a hero more closely linked to them. I love it when I see a red-headed geek in a show or comic; Wally "The Flash" West is one of my favorite heroes not just because of his fast patter and speed, but because the character is canonically a redheaded geek. And don't get me started on Jimmy Olsen!

But…the point here is that while I love the blonde Steve Rogers and the brown-haired Peter Parker, seeing characters that match my ideal self, the ginger geeks of West and Olsen, adds to my self-esteem. Sure, hair color is a minor detail, but it's something I can relate to, it's something that links to me those heroes. It's something that I, as a human who naturally looks for links to others, need to see in my heroes. Even as my hair color has shifted from hair so coppery that it attracted ravens to a more auburn color, I still look for the redheaded heroes.

Sure, it's nice to see blonde and brunette heroes, but give me some gingers!

But We Don't All Have Them

This is why representation matters. We need heroes that have something in common with us, no matter how superficially. We need to relate somehow to our heroes beyond their motivations; sure, everyone wants the underdogs to win, the bad guy to get his comeuppance, and the hero to run away with the love of his life, but we need more than that.

We need someone who shares something in common with us.

As such, we need more LGBT representation. We need more minorities in the comics. We need more women. I'm not saying that we need to have huge teams to ensure every possible combination, but we do need fewer teams that are all straight white men. We need to remember that when we're writing, and to include characters that have a wide range of attributes.

Obviously, there is the advantage that by having a greater range of characters we also increase our audience, but that should not be the reason we do it. We just need to have more inclusive casts in our writing. We need to look at the cast of a certain science fiction show, and look at its cast, and why the presence of a black woman and a Japanese male made such a powerful impact.