Kasidy: I know that Vic’s isn’t a totally accurate representation of the way things were -and it isn’t meant to be. It shows us the way things could have been. The way they should have been.
Ben: We cannot ignore the truth about the past.
Kasidy: Going to Vic’s isn’t going to make us forget who we are or where we came from. What it does is reminds us that we are no longer bound by any limitations except the ones we impose on ourselves.Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Badda-Bing, Badda Bang (24.02.1999)
scenes like this one are the reason why i love ds9 beyond reason
it’s just a very short scene between 2 characters respectfully disagreeing with each other without any too superficial woke speech but it just strikes you
i find it very fascinating that even far away into the future some people who know what a real utopia is (24th century earth) still bear the scars of past oppression that they haven’t known with such pain and it also raises an interesting question if you study both kasidy and ben’s different point of view about the way we choose to represent the past this is a debate that coincides with our own current reality
also this scene makes you understand why the sisko has always respected kira’s anger and the whole bajoran resistance movement he just understands
^ Ah but see, you’re missing a key aspect of why their points of view are so different. I think most people, like Kasidy and Jake, don’t bear the scars of past oppression in the same way that Sisko does. The reason the falseness of Vic’s version of 1962 Las Vegas strikes Sisko so harshly, but doesn’t bother Kasidy or Jake is because the year prior Sisko lived as Benny Russel in 1950s America. He directly experienced the racism and police brutality of that era. And even if he told Kasidy and Jake about his experiences, it will never be as real for them, in their 24th century utopia, as his lived experience was.
But that’s also why I think Kasidy’s point of view was so important - and why the episode ultimately ended up with Sisko going to Vic’s to play with the others. Because she needed to remind him that their reality wasn’t like that anymore and that he shouldn’t let that legacy of oppression continue to oppress him now.
The big difference of course, between our current reality and the 24th century Federation reality, is that unlike Star Trek that oppression hasn’t gone away. It isn’t some distant memory that doesn’t impact real people’s lives today. Those limitations aren’t self imposed, they’re societal.
But once again, DS9 demonstrates that reality to us constantly throughout the series, whenever it shows Bajorans and Cardassians interacting. Although there are many times when Sisko has to tell Kira to work with a Cardassian for the sake of their mission / the job they have to do, he never tells her that she has to “get over” her experiences or pretend like the oppression and Occupation never happened. He is always sensitive to the fact that the Bajorans are still hurting and suffering in the wake of what the Cardassians did to them. Unlike the Cardassians themselves of course, many of whom act like the Bajorans should be grateful, or get over it, or dismiss their rage and anger - definitely some interesting parallels with the current reality of the US (which is why DS9 has only gotten better with age).
Ah damn, that’s fucking relevant to the current worldwide situation. It’s a really nice thread, I’d never seen the rest of the responses.
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