Space Age 4 Eva
If you’re anything like me, you had one weird-ass auntie that you hated staying with while your mom was at work because she watched shows from what seemed like the Stone Age.
From the time I was five until around seven years old, I found myself around the corner in my auntie Dot’s apartment, waiting for my mom to get home from her job in human services. It stressed her out and paid her in peanuts. It still does. So, if anybody strikes oil, remember the struggling author whose irreverent version of history made you smile.
Anyway, my auntie Dot loved Star Trek. The old episodes, to be exact. And, since the only other TV was in the living room full of plastic-covered furniture and fine china, I had to watch TV with her in her bedroom…. on her waterbed. If you think Jeopardy is bad for a six-year-old, think about how bad it is for a six-year-old with fucking vertigo.
One day, we watched an episode of Star Trek called “Plato’s Stepchildren.” In it, Captain Kirk engages in a little lip-locking action with Lieutenant Uhura, a black woman, played by Nichelle Nichols. My auntie got choked up and nearly cried.
As it turns out, this episode from 1968 was the second interracial kiss on national television. Sammy Davis Junior put the soup coolers on a white lady in a show I’ve never heard of a year before. Still, for women of color who were used to being maids and mammies, the moment was important.
My question today is:
What would Lt. Uhura listen to today (in space, the final frontier)?
“Thingz” by 8Ball & MJG.
First, the album title Space Age 4 Eva is amazing, as is the album. Next, the song’s basic message is that things weren’t the same for Ball & G, that life changes and money and notoriety had made some options untenable. Allowing black women to be affectionate and show romantic affection (even if hypnosis was involved) was the dawn of a new era.
Lastly, Pre-Smokey Robinson lookalike Tiny from Xscape sings the chorus. With her being illiterate and asking us all to take a goooooood look at her face, this detail is hilarious to me.
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