Holosuite whitewashing

Just rewatched the DS9 S7 ep “Badda-bing Badda-bang.” There's this really awkward scene I guess they felt obliged to insert, in which Sisko says he objects to the Vic Fontaine holosuite program because of the way it whitewashes Vegas history, presenting a false version of the early 1960s in which black people are welcome in casinos. And I’m like, y’know, that’s an irrefutably correct point, but if they were going to make it, they'd have been better off just abandoning the whole story altogether. Because Kasidy’s rebuttal, that the holosuite program represents an idealized version of history the way it should have been, rather than the way it was, is really silly and lame, given that the entire story is about Mob violence and corruption. But rather than point that out, Sisko is like, OK, now that I've recited the disclaimer, count me in.

So obviously, it's not history the way it should have been, but rather contemporary TV paying lip service to, but then blatantly choosing to ignore, the obvious problems raised by inserting characters of color into the conventional time-travel (or in this case, fantasy time-travel) story. They're basically saying, "It's 1999, and we can no longer ignore the elephant in the room, but we haven't come up with a good way to explain it, and we aren't willing to give up this popular trope that provides us with so many easy-to-write episodes that we can shoot for little money on the back lot using whatever costumes and props we happen to have lying around, so we're going to hand-wave furiously and hope everyone thinks that's good enough."

It's exactly like that moment in the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code," when Ten takes Martha back to Elizabethan England. When she questions whether, as a black woman, she'll be "carted off as a slave," Ten, whose appearance is as white and male as can be, blithely replies, "Just walk about like you own the place. Works for me." Well alrighty then.

[EDITING TO ADD: It seems to me it should be possible to write time-travel stories that neither put characters of color in awkward or dangerous situations due to their race, nor demand the audience to just ignore this obvious issue. But how to do it? Racking my brains...this is a tough one...I dunno...I guess you could have them time travel to places where people look more like them? Crazy idea, I know. Do continents that are not Europe even have a past?]

Also, pet peeve of mine: period pieces about the 1950s and early 60s in which men do not remove their hats indoors. I don't care if it's a holosuite full of fake people who don't even notice the aliens with bumpy noses and misshapen foreheads. They would be programmed to notice men wearing hats indoors. Otherwise, what would be the POINT?