Anonymous asked:

If you don’t mind me asking, why do you hate it when people call Bashir British?

thesadchicken answered:

I don’t have any like, moral objections to it (Alexander Siddig is after all half-British, and Bashir does have a British accent, there’s no denying that). And like, everyone has a right to their own headcanon, I’m not here to police anyone’s experience, that would be stupid and rude.

But… *insert meme: Julian Bashir is something that can actually be so personal*

Here’s the thing. I’m an African Arab. So is Alexander Siddig. We don’t get much good representation. Honestly we almost don’t get any representation at all. To be dramatic, Bashir is the only thing we’ve got. Literally the only African-Arab character I’ve ever seen that isn’t some sort of terrorist, and definitely the only African-Arab character in sci-fi/fantasy. Not only that, but on an (even more) personal note, I have never in my life identified with a character as much as I identify with Bashir. He’s basically me.

Which is why I’m very protective of Julian Bashir’s African-Arab identity. My headcanon is that he’s Tunisian, like me. I know a lot of people will be like, “well yeah, he can be African-Arab and British”, but no. It’s really not the same thing. At all. I want a character who grew up in my country, who knows my culture the way I do. Most people who live in first world countries don’t understand this. 

(also it’s kinda beside the point but I feel like I need to say this: one time Alexander Siddig played a Tunisian historical figure in a docu-drama and I never recovered)

It’s also my headcanon that the language Star Trek characters speak on screen isn’t English but Earth Standard, which is an entirely new language made up of as many Earth languages as possible (because there is no way English ends up becoming Earth’s official language, nope) It’s kinda like how in Lord of the Rings they’re not actually speaking English but for the reader/viewer’s benefit that’s what we hear. Poetic license or whatever.

I guess what I meant by “I hate it when people call Bashir british” is that I wish the fandom would acknowledge the fact that he’s Arab. Like “that arab twink” instead of “that british twink.” But that doesn’t mean people have to do as I say. 

tl;dr because of the lack of African-Arab representation in media (and especially sci-fi/fantasy) I’m protective of my headcanon that Bashir is Tunisian. But it’s a very personal thing and I don’t expect anyone to change their own headcanons to fit mine 💕