Lieutenant Commander #GeordiLaForge is a #fictionalcharacter who appeared in all seven seasons of the American science fiction television series #StarTrekTheNextGeneration and its four feature films. Portrayed by #LeVarBurton, he served as helmsman of the USS Enterprise-D in the first season, then occupied the role of the #chiefengineer for the rest of the series and in the films. #LaForge has been #blind since birth and uses technological devices that allow him to see - a VISOR in the series and the first film, replaced by ocular prosthetic implants in the last three films. Critics and fans have responded favorably to the character. Burton himself has complained on DVD featurettes about the lack of romantic interests for his character. At least one scholar, however, decries that out of seven principal black characters across the Star Trek series, only La Forge and Tuvok "really qualify as #nerds, and neither of them compares with the extraordinary geekiness of the teenaged Wesley Crusher." According to Dr. Ron Eglash, the construction of the La Forge character stands up to the standards of #Afrofuturism. In David Greven's book Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek (2009), he described the use of the VISOR as a means to obscure the face of the character, describing it as a "surprisingly clunky symbol of blindness". However, he felt that the bionic eyes used in the film series were an improvement but followed a pattern of African American eye modifications in fantasy and science fiction films such as Halle Berry as Storm in X-Men (2000). Greven suggested that these changes were to create the impression that the wearer was alien in nature and to highlight the difference between that character/actor and the others in the film. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackArtistsMatter (at U.S. Embassy Singapore) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBheE0GlL5L/?igshid=1lxji8jdqj313