I just finished watching DS9 Season 7 Episode 14 ‘Chimera’

The episode is one where Odo, the only Changeling in the Federation happens to meet another lost Changeling which sets off a series of conversations of what it means to be different in a society that is not like yourself. I immediately understood all the conversations, ideas, perceptions and perspectives as I watched this episode … because I’ve always felt this way. And even after many years, I still feel this way.

I’m Indigenous Canadian and I grew up and was born and raised in a very different world from the rest of Canada. I had my own language, my own culture, my own traditions, my own way of doing things and my own sense of strange humour and identity. I moved away from home about 20 years ago as an adult to live out my life doing something else in order to make a living and ever since then, I’ve always felt like an outsider everywhere … I’ve never fit in and I always felt different. Many people were kind, helped me and did things for me but I always knew I could never properly fit into what is considered by most Canadians as a normalized white Caucasian man. It’s also weird to call myself a Native because most people I meet, especially internationally outside of Canada … seldom believe that I am Indigenous Canadian. Native Canadians are thought of as some sort of strange fairy tale that don’t exist any more. I’ve been called Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Peruvian, Asian or the best one was being thought of as an overweight Thai person. And after spending 20 years in the non-Native world, I talk like a white man, walk like a white man, think like a white man … but I am not a white man.

This whole DS9 episode really struck me because it talked about all those feelings of being completely different from everyone else. That difference upsets me … and it upsets me even more knowing that since I am different, everyone sees me as different and more often than not see me as unusual and probably a threat. Which is why the following dialogue from Laas really struck me:

"But even when you make yourself in their image, they know you are not truly one of them. They know that what you appear to be does not reflect what you really are. It’s only a mask. What lies underneath is alien to them, and so they fear it. And that fear can turn to hate in the blink of an eye. "

There are a lot of good people in the world … and I’ve met many of them online in this digital community and here at c/tenforward. But it always disturbs me that when worse come to worse and people are under strain and stress … any amount of fear because people are different can turn to hate. Not just for a brown long haired Native guy but for any of us that have any perceived difference from the supposed ‘norm’ of society.

This episode of DS9 was just a striking reminder to me of that reality. But it also gives me hope that it is shows and writing like this that remind us of that reality and prevents us from falling into those fearful, ignorant states of mind.