The Hidden Chapter of George Takei’s Life — As Explained by Gin Hammond
Not only is George Takei’s life not a secret. It’s inspiring and we can all learn lessons from his truth and bravery.
I love George Takei.
And if you are watching and you say, oh, isn’t it “Ta-kie”? I remember watching one of his videos and he says, Takei, it rhymes with gay so that’s how I remembered.
I’ve been a fan from way back, but I think one of the reasons I’m drawn to him, and no matter where you know him from Star Trek or his book or any other thing, he’s done a lot of Comic Cons. He shows up as himself, genuinely. And you know that he has been through a lot.
There’s another book I want to add to my stack, called “Covering.”
It’s about all of those little things that we do to go along to get along right. I think the author is Japanese American, and he talks about how his family had to do that. If you’re a new mom at work and you know that there’s that “mom tax” where people are expecting you to flake out because now you’re a mom.
An idea of covering might be not showing a picture of your family, not showing a picture of your baby in order to not have people make assumptions about you. I heard a wonderful interview with the author. I definitely wanna see it because covering relates to passing, so I’m instantly fascinated.
But George Takei has had to do a lot of that in his life. And that brings up a question. Is it right that he did that? He did that for survival. He has been able to find a place where he’s able to seemingly be himself. I think it’s that genuineness that resonates, When you’re around somebody who is able to be themselves I think it makes the people around them either feel free in themselves or because they’re not, it makes them angry at the person who is free.
I think especially for younger people, remembering and realizing what the stakes were for somebody like him to come out or even talk about how his family wasn’t internment camp. You didn’t talk about that back in the day.
First of all of that was covered up in so many ways A lot of the families who were directly affected by that didn’t wanna talk about that. It seems like it’s only been in the last couple of decades that people are grappling with, it. We had camps in which people d#ed. We had so much real estate that was straight up stolen. Right around here in this area there were a lot of strawberry farms that were owned by Japanese families. Families who had been here for generations, their land was straight up stolen.
So many stories around this and I’m so glad that with George Takei’s book “They called us Enemy” because of the place he’s gotten to socially, he’s able to share this story. He’s able to share his own emotional side of the story.
Ethical question. You can drop it in the comments. If he had not done all of that covering, would he have been able to do this good work now or is it intrinsically bad? To do all that covering, and then who are we to judge if we’re not living in somebody else’s shoes?
Who has to do that? Let’s see what the conversation goes.
I’m Gin Hammond and I’m Living IncogNegro. I’m glad you’re here and we’re on this journey together.
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