A few months ago, I decided to compare and contrast how Jewish characters were treated by various sci-fi universes. What? Doesn't everyone get paid to wonder about such things? In any event, I examined Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, V and Independence Day, and even though the article wasn't optioned by Michael Bay to be developed into a summer blockbuster, it did fairly well.

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"Sorry, Gladstone, but I just optioned Cracked's '7 Easter Eggs in History Books About Tesla' as a miniseries."

But when I heard that both Billy Dee Williams and Nichelle Nichols would be appearing at the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo, I got the idea to revisit those same universes, now with an emphasis on black characters. Know what I discovered? That I am a lazy, repeating hack of a writer.

But I also learned that these universes presented black characters in a far more unified and appealing manner than Jewish ones (it must be because there are no Jews in Hollywood). In fact, it was nearly impossible to rank these presentations -- I'd be honored to have any of these characters as my house guest. I did try my best, however, ranking the universes' presentations of black characters from least to most favorable -- even if the ranking is more favorable to super duper favorable.