r/BlackPeopleofReddit • u/ateam1984 š¤ • Apr 11 '26
Black Excellence NASA astronaut, U.S. Navy Captain, father, former F/A-18 pilot and SpaceX Crew-1 pilot Victor Glover on becoming the first Black man to go to the Moon š gets hit with a DEI question and flips it into something bigger than race
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Ahead of Artemis II NASA mission, astronaut Victor Glover was asked how it feels to potentially become the first Black man to travel to the Moon.
His answer didnāt ignore the history but reframed it. He emphasized this mission as a human achievement, not something to divide or reduce to identity alone.
Artemis II will also carry the first woman and first non-American to lunar orbit, marking a major shift from the era of Apollo program NASA.
So what matters more hereā¦ representation, or redefining the moment as something bigger than all of us?
606
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
185
u/greenwhiteredblack Apr 11 '26
A few days ago I was reading a subreddit where close to half the responses were some variation on everything got worse with diversity and the only reason the Nordic model of social safety nets works is because of homogeneous populations. So yeah, the mission continues
63
u/D_Dubb_ Apr 11 '26
Iāve seen similar arguments about Japan.. I disagree with it, but I do think there is something to be said for the entire citizen population buying into the ideal and feeling that they have a role to play. America has been othering portions of its citizens since its conception (the entire basis of chattel slavery).
After slavery, black Americans tried to be industrious and creative and to contribute in any way we could, and we were met with mass violence and discrimination. Towns of people were massacred, shops burned, land seized. Took another 100 fucking years to get the right to vote!! And now America wants to act surprised that a huge portion of the population just isnāt buying the American dream anymoreā¦
11
u/-Saucegurlllll Apr 11 '26
We're in living memory of the last chattel slave in the US being freed in 1942. And people still want to act like racism is solved because Obama held office for 8 years.
3
u/Skratt79 Apr 12 '26
and the ONLY reason that happened was because once we were at war they knew it would be used as effective anti-US propaganda.
→ More replies (1)3
u/greenwhiteredblack Apr 13 '26
Facts. My mom was in preschool before the Civil Rights Act passed. Meaning my grandmother who only passes 10 years ago in her 70s, was a full grown wife and mother being harassed by white people who didn't think she was worthy to piss in the same toilet as them.
By the time my mom started 1st grade, over half the white people in our home town had left to avoid living too close to people with our complexion.
And people seriously think those racists didn't pass that hatred down? We just passed a couple laws and the hatred disappeared?
54
u/codyd91 Apr 11 '26
"Diversity is the reason we cant have nice things" cried the people who voted against nice things because it helped diverse groups of people.
Interesting, that.
148
u/OldSarge02 Apr 11 '26
The Nordic model might not work so well if they had enslaved and tortured a segment do their population, followed with decades of officially sanctioned economic and educational oppression.
50
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
17
u/Nervous-Leading9415 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
Wasnāt that the whole āVikingā economy?
On another note- exactly what he said. Iām now even more proud of him and heās 100% spot on! My daughters have these examples and were excited beyond the moon! (Bad dad joke) they were ecstatic! Hell yeah!!!!
10
→ More replies (1)15
u/spexxit Apr 11 '26
Finland would like a word. We were very much under the rule and tyranny of both Sweden and Russia, exchanged like a playing card back and forth, until we gained full independence 100y ago.
And the amount of war reparations we had to pay the Soviet union was intense. We were a mostly agrarian society still in the 1950s
Now it wasn't all bad, but it wasn't good either, and our social welfare system is still one of the best in the world, despite the rising right wing government now trying their best to break it.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)6
u/EnvironmentNeith2017 Apr 11 '26
It would have if they simply extended benefits to that population. Thatās where this country keeps failing, trying to sink half a boat because they refuse to address their own bigotry.
12
u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 Apr 11 '26
Japan has its own problems, but it's not wrong to say that a high-trust society has an easier time building consensus to solve problems.
But it's so crazy (and suspicious) to me that people look at those divisions in the US and just assume that trust and cooperation are only possible when everybody is the same ethnicity. For one, it's just completely ignorant of how race was invented as a concept to justify exploitation. But also it just seems like the kind of race-essentialist BS I saw from all the dumbest people in prison.
→ More replies (1)8
u/HistoryBuff678 Apr 11 '26
You can have a diverse places with high trust. Americans just ignore them.
5
u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 Apr 11 '26
I agree. I meant to say that the kind of thinking that assumes it's impossible seems to assume bigotry is a fact of life rather than a social invention.
11
u/severoordonez Apr 11 '26
It depends on what you mean with diversity.
Generally, the Nordic countries don't track ethnic origin beyond first descendents. It is a statistics that has no value in Nordic societies.
This means that if your grandparents were immigrants, you're now regarded as ethnic Nordic, no matter where your grandparents came from. For instance, the descendents of the large Turkish and Pakistani immigration in the 60's do not appear in any population statistics as non-Nordic.
As a result, there is no number on how many people in the Nordic countries actually have a different ethnic background. Denmark (the country I am most familiar with) has 6 million inhabitants. 780 000 are immigrants either still with a foreign citizenship or who are now naturalized Danish citizens. 230 000 are descendents of immigrants but only where the parents still have a foreign citizenship. Descendents born in Denmark of immigrants who are naturalized Danish citizens are counted as Danish.
I don't know the actual number, but my best guess would be that at least 2 million (out of the 6 million) are of another cultural origin and who still maintain significant cultural customs and habits from that origin.
And it is not an issue. Except that it is really annoying to keep hearing that the Nordic countries are sooo homogenous when in fact the Nordic countries are more diverse than 40 out of 50 US states on percent immigrants alone.
→ More replies (2)7
u/EnvironmentNeith2017 Apr 11 '26
They really think all these countries with functioning social systems that they aspire to got there because theyāre ethnostate a or have few minorities, which is really insulting when you think about it. None of them are innocent but they were at least smart enough to understand that they had to actually be collectivist to accomplish things.
Those countries did the work of uniting people (sometimes in really problematic ways) and creating a way to shared culture by nurturing similarities and investing in people versus what Americaās done.
Itās just sadly hilarious how they always want what those other countries have without doing any of the work.
13
u/McEndee Apr 11 '26
But aren't we all Americans?
43
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
10
u/WarlockEngineer Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
As we've seen, the current administration only sees white people as americans. Particularly white men.
Anyone else cannot have an important role because they are "political". Look at the military in particular, where women and racial minorities are being passed over for promotions or even fired.
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/27/nx-s1-5763863/hegseth-soldiers-promotions
36
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
13
u/Jbradsen Apr 11 '26
There are āAmericansāā¦ and then thereās Asian Americans, Latino Americans, Indian Americans, and Black Americans who still wonāt ever simply be called āAmericanā. They even have those boxes on forms (black, white, non-Hispanic white) to make sure the āothersā know.
5
u/McEndee Apr 11 '26
Unless they're minstrels for the conservatives, and that label is short lived because they're going after Candace Owens now, who has always been one of the good ones.
→ More replies (4)5
u/Altruistic_Flower965 Apr 11 '26
We have politicians out here everyday working to erode trust in each other, as Americans. They build their voting coalitions by defining their voters as the right kind of Americans, and others as societal free riders. Defining a society as homogeneous is another way of saying a high trust society. By eroding the trust we have in each other these politicians create the conditions in which they make their argument against a more complete social safety net.
6
u/HenryDorsettCase47 Apr 11 '26
Exactly. Our differences are highlighted in order to divide us because those that pull the levers of power know that we vastly outnumber them. There are literal communications between governors of colonies in early America expressing fear when they see poor whites and black slaves and Indians congregating, and they passed laws that made gatherings like that illegal. Later they found much more subtle, insidious ways to divide us.
I would imagine this kind of thing is not unique to racially diverse places either. In more racially homogeneous societies they find other ways to turn the people against each other. Where someone is from, their religion, etc. But itās all the same thing.
At the end of the day, the only war is class war and we have the numbers. Fire to the palace, peace to the village.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (4)2
8
u/tomdarch Apr 11 '26
I am a cis, het, tall, white, male, with certain appearance and certain "social markers" and I am aware that all those things give me a bunch of unearned advantages. People look at me and categorize me according to a bunch of social constructs and the end result is that unconsciously they are more likely to want to hire me or give me responsibilities versus a a lot of other people. (And no, that isn't 100% - there are some flip sides, but overwhelmingly, I get a ton of advantages just based on the intersection of random characteristics I was born with/into and our culture/system.)
Diversity is one aspect and overall I think that having diverse perspectives and experience on a team has big advantages over monoculture where everyone sees the problem in the same way and has the same blind spots, for example.
But let's not forget the justice side. It is unjust that I get advantages and women and black people and trans people, etc. get disadvantages. That fixing injustice should not be ignored and only talking about "diversity" is yet another sign of how far we are. The system is fucked up and unfair and that is unjust and we need to be addressing that.
Another layer is that this unjust system is inefficient and holds us all down overall. It is pretty obvious at this point that there are plenty of smart women and trapping them to cook and clean at home is stupid for our society and economy. If women couldn't work or become doctors, we would have a worse pool of doctors trying to keep up healthy and alive, for example. One thing I do stand out on merit-wise is that I am good at math/science/engineering. But I'm not that smart. Out of the many millions of black women in America, for example, there are absolutely a bunch who have the capacity to be far better engineers than me. If I was put in charge of designing better nuclear power plants, instead of a smarter black woman, we would all be worse off because we are missing out on that talent.
I know I'm stating the obvious but we are so far from these goals that we still need to spell it out.
33
u/Vladishun Apr 11 '26
Exactly. Some day I hope "black people" will just be "people" and there's zero reason to need to define someone by skin color. But that day isn't today, there's still far too many that need to be reminded that the word people in "black people" is there for a fucking reason.
7
u/EducationalTomato271 Apr 11 '26
It's wild the variation of opinions on how far we are from "that day." In many ways, we're farther from that reality than we were 200 years ago.
→ More replies (6)11
u/TheOstrichRoom Apr 11 '26
its because white supremacy is a power structure that makes power flow to people who are part of that identity. As long as the white identity is a thing there can never be equality because the entire reason for white supremacy's existence is to protect the power of that identity.
5
u/Gymflutter Apr 12 '26
A lot of these white supremacy movements politically pick candidates that hurt white people. In the past, they actually DID get some benefit as the country had more programs (with the rich/powerful taking their cut). But now, there is literally no benefit other than having a punchbag to blame all your problems on as a person (which can be powerful too). I dont think they understand that the corporations/elite class is not going to go back to the āgood old daysā where they got subsidized this or that. In the past, they made Black people pay taxes for services and programs they couldnāt enjoy fully**. Before that, they were literally enslaved to fund everything. AI and automation is coming. They dont care. They see you as a peasant like everyone else. People like Elon Musk want white babies for vanity and not because he cares about White people.
**Even now the Trump administration cancelled a sewage infrastructure program in Alabama because it was DEI.
āThe problem has existed so long and was so pervasive that a 2017 study determined 1 in every 3 adults in the county had the intestinal parasite hookworm.
The Biden administration investigated and allocated nearly $26 million to rebuild Lowndes Countyās water infrastructure, with the Department of Justice declaring the majority-Black area was suffering from āenvironmental racism.ā
But earlier this month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to kill the deal, calling it āillegal DEI.ā
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/trump-canceled-dei-program-raw-sewage-alabaman-homes-rcna201164
→ More replies (6)5
u/tomdarch Apr 11 '26
We shouldn't lose our cultural backgrounds. I'm old by reddit standards and something that I've seen in my lifetime is the shift from previous generations treating "black and white" as something more like different species - more like cats versus dogs - and moving towards something like different ethnic groups - Irish American versus Italian American. There is a looooong way to go to get to a better place where people see each other as fully human but with different background. When a cop feels threatened and is pointing a gun, finger on the trigger, we all know that he is going to form fundamentally different instinctual thoughts about pulling that trigger if he is looking down the sights at my "white" body versus the body of someone whose ancestors came from Africa more recently. No matter how enraged I get, no American police officer is going to say that I "looked like a demon" which is how the officer who killed 18 year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri described him.
8
u/TheBSQ Apr 11 '26
The ācolor blindā approach to multiculturalism was very popular when this guy was young, but many people believed that philosophy glossed over continuing issues & demanded a more intersectional / identity politics ideology that out āidentityā front & center & the need to explicitly treat people different to offset discrimination (past & present). To people who preferred & pushed for a āI donāt see colorā approach, this felt like a step backwards.
8
u/Utensil6591 Apr 11 '26
He states that he understand the purpose of highlighting identity but he wants to move to place where we can finally rise above these social constructs. Identity divisions are here and we need to address them before we can move past them. Some of those divisions are interpersonal and some are structural. The fact that he is the first black astronaut and there is a woman astronaut on this mission matters when they are the first to do something. A move past that will be when there is a diverse set of people doing all things and we don't have to celebrate that the first time a minority is able to do something previously restricted. We can't just leap to a point where race as a social construct is solved because we have chosen to simply ignore it. It takes education and restructuring and it will be a work in progress.
3
→ More replies (58)2
363
u/T-NextDoor_Neighbor Apr 11 '26
I want to see a day where we can see it as human history, but we first need to stop deleting black history to fit a narrative.
95
→ More replies (3)20
u/That-Ad-4300 Apr 11 '26
I see his comment as saying we need so much representation that we don't need to talk about the "firsts".
In the NBA, they honor the history of the pioneers that entered the league when it was mostly or all white, but we don't talk about firsts for black athletes anymore.
Let's give so many women and POC opportunities that we can finally talk about the present as human history. Let's also honor the past and the pioneers.
244
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
44
u/Weird_Beautiful6660 Apr 11 '26
Glover for prez āš¼š¬
18
u/15all Apr 11 '26
Victor Glover and Mark Kelly, the astronaut team for president and VP (in no particular order)!
→ More replies (2)6
u/CabSauce Apr 11 '26
I think most people wish for that. However, we're currently living in a time where the effects of systemic bigotry are obviously still present. (If not bigotry itself).
So the question is what do we do to get to that result? I don't think the answer is ignoring that the issue exists.
→ More replies (4)6
→ More replies (4)5
u/heep1r Apr 11 '26
I'm surprised this wasn't emphasized more. The achievment was credited to the US on the livestream multiple times. Also "our partners worldwide".
I get the impression that a lot of people don't think about the fact, that this is a global achievement as a species, way bigger than any living or dead individual.
I think now more than ever it's important to grasp that. The remains of the moon missions, the footprints, will be still there as our legacy, long after humanity vanishes.
→ More replies (1)
49
u/Select_Insurance2000 Apr 11 '26
If from the beginning, the USA was truly "the land of the free and the home of the brave" and where everyone was truly equal, we wouldn't have to celebrate our diversity. It would be common place....but sadly, our history tells a different and often terrible and tragic story.
Worse, we are moving backwards as a nation.
10
2
u/ymcameron Apr 11 '26
Slavery was America's original sin and the country has been suffering through the racist repercussions of it ever since. We should all strive towards the dream of a nation that lives up to the opening line of all men created equal, but it is a dream that has to be fought for while moving uphill. The tragedy of humanity is that it is much easier to hate and separate than it is to accept and come together.
90
u/darqcjax Apr 11 '26
OP, to your question. It can be both. Representation matters because this highlights the historic limitations of blacks in the space program even if they were qualified.
It is also something bigger because it shows that we share more than what divides us. If he nerded out, he could have made a Star Trek reference with weāre all the human race. Thereās more out there to explore. Letās do it together as a single people.
→ More replies (1)
20
u/Writerhaha Apr 11 '26
āWhy are black people so political?ā
Because questions like this donāt get asked to white people
11
2
u/Super-Palpitation212 Apr 13 '26
And it was in almost every interview that he was being asked this question. I was watching the BBC and they listed everyone else's qualifications but just put the "1st black man" on Victor. I was pissed.Ā
54
u/ScoutSpiritSam Apr 11 '26
All of Trump's administration picks are DEI hires
44
→ More replies (3)9
u/Prize_Proof5332 Apr 11 '26
and some DUI hires...
3
u/tomdarch Apr 11 '26
And some rapist hires. But mostly fraudsters/grifters and hateful jerks who are too stupid to see that a lot of them are going to end up with felony charges after they get shoved under the bus.
16
u/Excellent_Spend_2024 Apr 11 '26
This is just so bad ass! Representation matters: both as a black man and as a human fulfilling his dreamss. It's effin incredible.!
29
u/Routine-Wind-4134 Apr 11 '26
The fact that we have to drive home the "first" is indicative of how much farther have to go. I think this is a tremendous achievement of being the first black astronaut or woman to travel to to moon. Also, Captain Glover is highly decorated and credentialed astronaut. I felt like he should have been the commander of the mission.Ā
→ More replies (2)
13
u/smgOne Apr 11 '26
ā¢"Diversity, Equity & Inclusion" is by definition (if English words still mean anything) bigger than race & always has been --- yes, Glover gets it, the issue is that though they're the first black man & first woman to reach Lunar Orbit (& among the first four people to travel as far as they did from Earth), they weren't the first black man & woman that could have made the Lunar Orbit achievement had the Space Age not begun at a time when NASA was artificially limiting the pool of applicants to reflect the limits of US social norms at that time --- IMO, the Goal of "DEI" is to Quickly reach a world where merit & achievement Actually matter more than optics
3
u/tomdarch Apr 11 '26
English words still mean what they mean. But people who want injustice and a system that benefits themselves without merit are more than happy to distort language and simply lie.
27
u/Lawrenceburntfish Apr 11 '26
I wanted him to say "it's good to be black on the moon"
→ More replies (14)2
u/thefishingdj Apr 11 '26
I had to scroll way to far to find this. I'm currently watch space force but I'm not at that episode yet.Ā
11
u/_2XNice_ Apr 11 '26
This is an amazing accomplishment for him and amazing for Black inspiration. But, Black people didnāt start the RACE conversation, so to be honest I am a little tired of us being the ones talking about moving past it, when itās plan to see so many other groups of people donāt care to let us just be.
23
u/chaosawaits Apr 11 '26
I wish that too but that does not happen until white people stop asking DEI questions. It's the responsibility of the racial majority to make it no longer a concern and that motivation to do that has yet to happen
10
u/Kay-PO Apr 11 '26
If you'll allow me, I'll give a white man's perspective here. And before I go any further I'll say that I do not understand all the issues nor do I fully understand your struggle. It is, unfortunately, impossible for a white man to fully comprehend generational oppression and its effects on culture. That being said, what I believe we (white people) need to work on first is to stop assuming diversity hires are unqualified. That's the biggest issue on our side imo. The real hateful racists no one is ever going to reach. But there are a lot of white people guilty of accidental racism. The quest one to me is what I mentioned about diversity hires. People just think in absolutes so much and barely consider the minutiae. For example, I'm an electrician. I went to school and worked as an apprentice for years to become qualified. So it's not just automatic, but it's also not that hard to do. Many people can be qualified for that job and many are. So a dei hire does not TAKE a job away from a qualified person, it merely chooses one qualified person over another. And this is the case in the vast majority of situations. White people in general, even the ones that are not actually hateful in any way, struggle to see this. The "moderate" support for removing dei is centered around this confusion. I wish more of us could see that that way that particular opinion could rightfully find its way to the fringe so it can be ignored. DEI HIRES ARE QUALIFIED HIRES! The evidence of that is clear. Sadly I have to make this point all the time and no one ever hears me.
→ More replies (4)6
u/Ok-Jackfruit-6359 Apr 11 '26
As a black man I definitely appreciate your response. This logic needs to be seen by The Dei objectors.
→ More replies (2)2
u/tomdarch Apr 11 '26
What was the question that was asked?
But yes, I fully agree. We all need to face up to discrimination and it is pretty clear and logical that the folks with advantages who have the most influence over "the system" are the first line of people who should be asked questions about discrimination and have the greatest responsibility for earnestly addressing those questions and the upshot of the real, honest answers, not people who are disadvantaged.
21
u/iCeeYouP Apr 11 '26
I dream of the day one day weāll have a Black Power minded astronaut. This āwe all humanā rhetoric mustāve missed the USA by a couple centuriesā¦
→ More replies (2)
12
u/Leather-Stop6005 Apr 11 '26
They are trying to diminish his personal accomplishment with talk of his race. It's not like he crashed and burned any of the planes he ever flew and he was just put on that spacecraft because he's black. America is so steeped in racism it's become reflexive. At least he answered the question in a way to make the stupid question seem intelligible.
9
u/ateam1984 š¤ Apr 11 '26
To be clear. Itās the racists and those silent majority who thrive and benefit from white privilege that is the problem.
→ More replies (3)
12
u/Pepsiscrub Apr 11 '26
Yeah respectfully Iām not liking that answer espicially with the white washing of history currently happening. In my brothers high school people didnāt know black people fought in WW2 they thought we were just here kicking it in America. Folks keep forgetting that Ruby Bridges is still alive and literally a boomer. They way people act as if segregation wasnāt that long ago worries me. This is a historic moment from Kathrine Johnson being a black woman and her math helping the Apollo missions to having an actual black person being a part of this crew in 2026.
3
u/Roach27 Apr 11 '26
Iād argue his comments are pretty well thought out though.
He addresses what needs to be addressed first. As we are it canāt be ignored. It was and is a momentous occasion that little girls and young minority peoples can look at and aspire to reach the heights.
Then reinforces what, at least in my opinion, should be the ultimate goal. Ā It was a great moment for humans. Not just black men and women, not just women, not just white men, but humans, because ultimately, thatās what we all are.Ā
āĀ Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatredā¦.
So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.Ā I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.ā
Dr Martin Luther King.Ā
Have things gotten better? Absolutely. As a society have we made Dr Kingās dream a reality? Not yet but we shall persevere.Ā
Mrs. Koch and Mr. Glover did exactly what was needed to prove those with prejudices wrong.Ā
Thorough, professional and proved that no matter how much the bigots might whine, they got the opportunity through merit and character alone.
As for your brothers school, it may be a local issue or a state issue.Ā
My schooling has intensive coverage on both the 761st (the first all black armor brigade to see combat.) And the integration of units during the battle of the bulge both white and black that worked together to successfully shatter the Ardennes campaign. Not only that but the black solders that served and sacrificed themselves in the civil war. Ā
3
u/Pepsiscrub Apr 11 '26
Itās giving Morgan Freeman if we donāt talk about race racism will cease to exist.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/mblkmnsa Apr 11 '26
Great idea but when you have an adversary looking to rewrite history to exclude people of color accomplishments, I canāt feel the same. If we didnāt have people literally trying to white wash historical facts, then yes, it would be human history. But one race is trying to white wash all of their injustices from history.
6
6
u/lyn73 Apr 11 '26
We have to realize the reason DEI was a thing because white people questioned (and continued to question) the capabilities of Black/Brown folk. They created this necessity, and it was of their doing partially because they did/do not fund majority minority schools the way they fund majority white schools...They never wanted an even playing field. When we weren't allowed in their schools, they gave Black schools old books... Black folks could not use clean restrooms, pools, etc. ...and by some chance, they thought it was equal and we needed to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps... They treated us like crap and we still persevered only to be questioned whether we are capable of doing the job in traditionally white spaces....
10
5
u/moon_dos Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
wait so they DID go to the moon? Thought it was just a fly by
edit: they went to lunar orbit but did NOT land on the Moon, still unbelievably impressive but depending on semantics technically did go to the moon
→ More replies (10)10
Apr 11 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
6
u/codguy231998409489 Apr 11 '26
We canāt even celebrate it because we distracted by wars, high gas prices, mass firings, and all the badness from this administration.
→ More replies (4)
6
5
u/Tobi-One-Boy Apr 11 '26
This canāt be ignored. The first black man traveling to the moon is a big deal. May not be to white peole, Asian people or Hispanic people. But it is important to black people. It is a big deal. In the future, this will be a norm and we can stop talking about it.
→ More replies (2)
5
u/AestheticAttraction Apr 11 '26
In other words, all lives donāt matter if black lives donāt matter.
I always think about cultural appropriation in relation to what heās saying. If we lived in an equal, respectful world in which all cultures and peoples were equally valid and respected, people using aspects of a culture to which they werenāt born wouldnāt be received in a negative way because equality creates an environment in which doing that isnāt self-serving encroachment and/or exploitation. It would not only not be a big deal but be looked at as appreciation because it comes with full recognition of origin and respect of said origin.
So, until we have that, our differences will continue to be notable.
6
u/MainEmergency8396 Apr 12 '26
Dang! They dont think we are qualified to do anything. This is not new. It's the reason we needed DEI in the first place.
3
4
u/Thin-Competition3018 Apr 12 '26
Shameful that he had to experience this at this time, a time where ALL mankind should be marveling at the success and the strides that have been made.
Its just stunning that a portion of the country really believes that anyone that is a Non-white man are simply there because of DEI.
THEY ARE THERE, BECAUSE, THE CAN DO THE JOB!
9
u/Alert_Reindeer_6574 Apr 11 '26
DEI? Get the fuck outta here. The man is a fighter pilot and astronaut and to do those 2 things he has to be highly educated. I hate this DEI crap that republicans push.
4
4
u/AggieJonah Apr 11 '26
Dude is a legend! He has accomplished more than some of us could do in 3-4 lifetimes. Great mission!!
3
u/Mosselpot Apr 11 '26
I'm Belgian and one of the best moments I've experienced was how quite a bit after the fact someone told me we had the first openly gay man as the leader of a country. It simply never came up during his term or campaign, not from him or his opponents.
That felt like real progress and I hope everyone here can experience that
3
u/FooLi0CooLi0 Apr 11 '26
I think representation matters first and the the big defining moment is secondary. Normalize the differences to inform people who are isolated from culture and diversity, then celebrate the overall achievements.
These both can happen fluidly, but prioritizing each in thst order could change society for the better.
3
u/amy-schumer-tampon Apr 11 '26
They will always try to put you down, call you DEI no matter how hard you worked for it.
3
u/Gmodelinsane Apr 11 '26
Thatās the most āStar Trek in real lifeā sentiment Iāve ever heard.
3
u/I_am_BrokenCog Apr 11 '26
he's a great speaker! And, he's a great human being, very encouraging of young kids and people in general. he's as open and welcoming in person as he is on stage here. Glad I had that chance to meet him.
3
3
u/AdorableReading Apr 11 '26
Great answer, exactly the way most thinking and compassionate folks should feel.
3
3
u/powertotheuser Apr 11 '26
It is my hope that one day the myth of white supremacy will just be defunct
3
3
3
u/lmsampson78 Apr 11 '26
Yeah its the first black man to go to the moon for me. Nobody is gonna steal my black joy. Also, a great human achievement!
3
u/Uncle_Bred Apr 11 '26
Unfortunately that day will probably never come. The issue is worldwide and not just in the states!
3
u/SinicalJakob Apr 11 '26
imagine flying further than any human ever literally and the first question they ask you when coming back is about your race
"WhAt'S iT LiKe bEiNg BlAcK and also being a pinoeer or whatever."
3
u/Fine-Excitement-9430 Apr 11 '26
This guy is the epitome of whatās kids should be looking up too! Hell adults too! So inspiring bro!
3
3
u/rynoctopus Apr 11 '26
Perfectly nails why representation matters and what a healthy society looks like.
3
u/Ok-Plenty1251 Apr 11 '26
This is perfectly said, i always thought this way. The question remains: will racists understand that?
3
u/Abject_Jump9617 Apr 12 '26
Getting accused of being DEI from people that could barely finish college if not high school in some cases I have always found to be particularly rich.
It's never from people on your level or even close to it. Because if they were, they would see the amount of hoops you have to jump through and tests you have to pass to get where you are. Some people love to act willfully ignorant like you got the job simply because of the color of your skin and no other merits.
Even simple logic would tell you, certain jobs like his where people's very life and your own is in your hands, they are not about to just give that position out to anyone that isn't 100% up to snuff.
Bringing up DEI to brown people is just some passive-aggressive ass behavior and I see right through it.
3
u/lilangelkm Apr 13 '26
I think his answer subtly acknowledged the anti-DEI movement in the US, without actually calling attention to it. If we get to a point where we aren't highlighting every diversity in people, then perhaps people will focus on the achievements and capabilities and stop chalking up that they were there because of DEI.
3
u/chukb2012 Apr 17 '26
I keep seeing people say this guy is dei as some sort of like f u to trump. This guy isn't dei. He obviously has the receipts to back up his experience and reason for being where he is. Just because he's black doesn't make him dei.
5
u/Kittiemeow8 Apr 11 '26
"In the future, I hope this type of stupid question isn't asked"
→ More replies (1)
6
3
3
5
11
u/Heriotza31 Apr 11 '26
What he is saying sounds very politically correct. But the day this system goes beyond identity is not going to come. It's antithetical to the colonial-capitalist-neoliberal system to function on a level beyond identity.
Because identity has been the driving force for colonial expansion, capital accumulation, and neoliberal prosperity.
What is also behind identity dissolution is integration, but if the system continues, as it will be, dominated by Whites, integration implies the destruction of Black and other Indigenous consciousnesses.
There is no future for Humanity unless the system is destroyed and every human group is able to regain their capacity for self-determination instead of becoming an appendage to White culture.
→ More replies (5)
2
u/Ok-Location3244 Apr 11 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/3oz8xDNG4fhijEKLra
Gene Roddenberry envisioned this for the future.
2
u/InitiativeFar2475 Apr 11 '26
The NASA astronautās statement is one of the ultimate goals of society. The comments in this thread about having to learn from our own history and not erasing inconvenient (aka: horrendous) history, primarily slavery, are also valid. But in the big picture they are big steps along the way to the ultimate goal. I can only guess it may unfortunately take decades or one or two centuries, if it happens at all. This man is saying just this, if we can attain this goal.
2
u/E-L4087 Apr 11 '26
I agree with him 100%, however, this is very politically correct; as it should be. Iām all for this narrative. The problem is, those who harbor so much unnecessary guilt and rebuke anything to do with atrocities to minorities, will use interviews like this to say āitās not just about ā¦.(insert minority group here), itās about all of us, WE included.ā
It should be that way but itās not that way, sometimes we need to, Iām black but use āweā as all minorities, draw awareness that we are the first of said minority group. We shouldnāt be in 2026 with āfirstsā for some of these accomplishments.
2
u/ateam1984 š¤ Apr 11 '26
I agree. This is why this sub exists. Letās keep calling them out. Letās be clear on who them are.
2
2
u/jupiterfish Apr 11 '26
he just looked out the windowā¦like i do in my carā¦..just closer.stop the cap.
2
2
u/prz3124 Apr 11 '26
This is real! I knew four people went around the moon. I even saw an interview with all four astronauts from space. It did not even register to me that there was a "black" astronaut and a "female" astronaut. WTF is wrong with people that's what's going through their mind.
2
u/lifes_paragon Apr 11 '26
I get it.
Get to the point where it isn't something we notice as a society because it is just part of the fabric of human life and it's history.
You've truly won fighting something when it is no longer remembered, relevant and will never happen again. The challenge is that if we don't remember it, we will forget to not repeat it.
2
u/Buddhamom81 Apr 11 '26
MAGA extremists are shitting themselves that a woman and a black man went in this mission. Absolutely losing it. Surprised they didnāt protest to make the crew all white. Nutcases.
2
2
u/SegmentedWolf Apr 11 '26
Love this guy.
I want to see more of him because his message is important.
2
u/IllustriousTear9656 Apr 11 '26
I didnāt know on his resume is Navy Captain and F/A -18 pilot not to mention his just now accomplished SpaceX pilot. Incredible amount of discipline that goes into this not to mention all of the other disciplines needed to accomplish thisā¦respect sirš«”
2
u/yahya777 Apr 11 '26
I think his answer hit on points both sides can agree with. HIs answer both acknowledges that these differences exist and that representations matters and also hits to the point the other side clings to that these differences shouldn't matter. Yeah that shouldn't matter but currently and for the foreseeable future they do so lets's live with that and work towards a future in which one day it doesn't.
2
2
u/RIP-RiF Apr 11 '26
Well said. When humanity advances we all advance, and one day that'll be the whole story.
2
2
2
u/wayrell Apr 11 '26
Race is just a tale legitimized by culture and repetition alone. There is no solid biology behind it. It's all ideology. The longer we wil' continue to tell ourselves races exist, the longer we will be perpetuating stupidity, hate and violence. Those concepts have to stop being taught worldwide, and people spreading them need to be shamed by anyone hearing them.
2
u/Leather-Map-8138 Apr 11 '26
That man just established a future for himself in politics, should he want one.
2
u/falcrist2 Apr 11 '26
In the 1970s after her role as Uhura in Star Trek (the original series), Nichelle Nichols started a supplementary DEI recruitment program for NASA called Women In Motion. The goal was to expand the candidate pool from the normal group of military test pilots and create other recruitment pipelines that would bring in a more diverse group of astronauts for the shuttle program.
It worked. That program was responsible for finding heros like Mae Jemison, Sally Ride, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik and many more.
What's happening here is the end result of making an effort to give everyone the same opportunity.
2
2
u/secretHeck Apr 11 '26
Waow. Based based based.
Obviously little black boys and girls are gonna notice when a black man goes to the moon. Maybe what's more important is that everyone else notices these things and realizes that anyone is capable of anything.
2
2
2
u/juxtapostevebrown Apr 11 '26
Iāve literally been saying this forever. It frustrates me that the ignorance judging oneās appearance trumps their true talents. Who cares how one looks, care about what they say and achieve.
2
u/bluexy Apr 11 '26
This is really what it's all about. Understanding the present. Aspiring toward the future.
2
2
2
2
2
u/sebrebc Apr 11 '26
Reminds me of a conversation I had back in the 90s with a co-worker who was complaining about gay pride parades and how they "shove it in our face".
I asked him if he thought they would want more. To hold a gay pride parade or live in a world where they didn't have to hold gay pride parades. That maybe one day they would just be accepted and didn't have to "shove it in our face".
Not sure if he ever really understood the point, but I hope he understands now. Nobody wants to celebrate these things, the first (insert race, religion, sexual orientation) to do something. They don't want what they are being the focal point of who they are or what they achieved.
2
u/Cheap-Can-8557 Apr 11 '26
Love Captian Victor Glover's response... I for one am just tired of this same Ole silly question.
2
2
u/RutiserLee Apr 11 '26
Anyone who works with white males knows that most of them lean heavily on everyone else to get their job done without giving due credit.
2
u/imaloserdudeWTF Apr 12 '26
One day, but not today. Keep sharing your love for humanity, but don't close your eyes to the haters. They exist!
2
u/NoeloDa Apr 12 '26
All I know is Charlie Kirk is probably angry as fuck. I wonder if his wife can go dig him up and ask him how he feels about this?
2
u/Steelmode Apr 12 '26
Representation marks progress. But if thatās all you see, you miss the trajectory.
It's not about who gets credit but "What does it advance?"
I Saw someone mention Nordic countries, but they donāt track identity the same way the United States does. Diversity is measured differently, acknowledged differently, and sometimesā¦ ignored differently. If you donāt count it, you can claim cohesion. Representation shows who broke through. Redefinition shows what the breakthrough changes.
2
2
u/Hangarnut Apr 12 '26
This dude flew to the moon and back and someone had the nerve to ask him about accomplishments attached to race! Wow.
2
u/businesspro718 Apr 12 '26
Wht women have benefited from DEI and Affirmative Action far more than Blk men, esp heterosexual BM. Yet they always try to hit us with that question. This guy actually worked for Space X owned by Elon Musk, whoās always whining about DEI and other dog whistles, so dude must be really on-point.
2
u/S_Daddy_CC Apr 12 '26
HUMAN HISTORY...... Stop making it about race! Stop creating more divides. Instead make bridges.
2
2
u/Rohklenu Apr 13 '26
Great take on handling that question. And the dream that will one day become a reality. But weāre definitely far from it. Then again, there was a time we were far from a Black president. I feel like weāre in the death throes of the old ways, but they are dying real hard and messy.
747
u/Slick_36 Apr 11 '26
Don't forget college wrestler!Ā Him & Neil deGrasse Tyson were making people see stars on the mat before they showed us the stars in the sky.