Race and Ethnicity in the Twelve Colonies

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This article discusses an aspect of the Re-imagined Series version of the Twelve Colonies. For information on the Original Series version, see The Twelve Colonies (TOS).

At the Battlestar Wiki, we recognize that race is a problematic concept without any concrete biological definition. Nevertheless, the topic of racial identity in the Twelve Colonies has proven of interest to many fans of the show. Therefore, this page serves to review the information available as best as possible.

In this article, we have chosen to indicate race by apparent region of origin, within the following broadly defined categories: European, (Sub-saharan) African, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian, and Native American / Amerindian. Where bi- or multi-racial individuals are noted, component ethnicities are listed in alphabetical order. Individuals of apparently Hispanic appearance are noted as biracial Amerindian/Europeans. Issues relating to the Adama family are briefly discussed in their own section at the end of the article.

Race and Nationality

In general, no clear associations have been made between particular ethnic groups and individual colonies. Thus far, Caprica's population does appear to be substantially of European appearance, and Gemenon's substantially African, but these patterns are not exception-less. Furthermore, there is some evidence within the series that race and colony of origin are not strongly correlated - when Baltar attempts to guess at Boomer's place of origin in "Flesh and Bone", he comments on her accent, not her physical appearance. For more on this, see the article Language in the Twelve Colonies.

It is generally accepted that the Colonials originally emigrated from a single planet (i.e. Kobol and/or Earth). This being the case, it is entirely possible that the various apparent races are reasonably homogeneously distributed across all of the Twelve Colonies (i.e. there are both European and African Sagittarons, Gemenese, etc. rather than all of the Europeans coming from one tribe/colony, all the Asians from another, etc).

What follows is a list of individuals whose colony of origin has been unambiguously identified, along with their apparent ethnicity.

Aerelon

Sharon Valerii - east Asian (purported, actually a Humanoid Cylon infiltrator)
Sekou Hamilton - mixed race, African/European (Based on his skin tone and accent, the actor, Biski Gugushe, would probably be identified as a light-skinned African-American.)

Canceron

Robin Wenutu - European

Caprica

William Adama - mixed race, Amerindian/European

The actor, Edward James Olmos, would probably be identified as "Latino", "mestizzo", or "Hispanic". Olmos is a social activist working to help the Hispanic-American community, Olmos has made favorable remarks about having the opportunity to play one of the first significant Latino characters in space.

Caroline Adama - European
- Lee and Zak Adama - their children, see note below.
Laura Roslin - European
Kara Thrace - European (Born on Picon according to Sky One; nomadic childhood; this info is not confirmed.)
Gaius Baltar - European (Born on Sagittaron according to Sky One, but this info is not confirmed. Given that Baltar was elected as the Quorum of Twelve representative for Caprica, this information could be incorrect).
Aaron Doral - European (purported, actually a Humanoid Cylon infiltrator)
James McManus - European
Tory Foster - south Asian

Gemenon

Sarah Porter - African
Venner - African
Galen Tyrol - European
Rya Kibby - European

Picon

Safiya Sanne - east Asian (but see his article for some debate on origins)
Playa Palacios - European

Sagittaron

Anastasia Dualla - African
Leon Grimes - mixed race, Amerindian/European
Tom Zarek - European

Tauron

Helena Cain - European

Virgon

Marshall Bagot - European

Race and Sexuality

Interracial couplings seem common to the point of ubiquity, and have never been commented upon. It is interesting that such clearly defined racial groups continue to exist in light of this. Notable interracial couples:

William and Caroline Adama
Sharon Valerii and Galen Tyrol
Sharon Valerii and Karl Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Agathon, is Amerindian/European[1])
Dualla and Billy Keikeya (Keikeya is European)
Dualla and Lee Adama

That being said, at least one individual, Kara Thrace, has only been shown in sexual relationships with individuals of her own race: Gaius Baltar, Samuel Anders, and the Adama brothers (although see note below regarding their ethnicity).

Another aspect of race and sexuality is the dominance of European males over the few non-Europeans seen. There are no instances of non-European males with European females. In fact, there are no instances of non-European males in relationships at all.

The Adama Brothers

The miniseries received some criticism for casting Edward James Olmos, a dark-skinned Latino, as the father of Jamie Bamber, a pale-skinned Englishman. These points were addressed somewhat in the first season, during which we were briefly introduced to both Caroline and Zak Adama. During a dinner party in "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down", Ellen Tigh offers her opinion that Lee takes after his mother in appearance, while Zak took after his father. Since human skin pigmentation is determined by several genes which can be inherited independently, this scenario is quite plausible.

As such, it is difficult to pigeonhole the Adama brothers as being of either European descent (as Lee appears, and his actor is) or mixed Amerindian/European (as Zak appears, and his actors have been). Where relevant, it's probably best to consider them both of approximately 1/4 Amerindian and 3/4 European descent, regardless of the genetic background of the actors who play them.

In an effort to increase the resemblance between the two characters, Olmos wears blue contact eye lenses to show some genetic commonality with Bamber. Jamie Bamber also dies his hair to more closely resemble his on-screen "father".

"Ethnic" Names

Some characters have distinctly Indo-European personal names or surnames which span multiple "Earth" languages and their generally associated ethnic origins: these include first names such as James, William, Laura, and Helena, and surnames like Jones, Novacek, Smith, Constanza and McManus.

Other characters have surnames that were made up by the writers, such as Zarek and Keikeiya.

There are also names of apparently non-western origins, which may or may not have been made up by the writers. Examples include Asha Janik, Royan Jahee and Robin Wenutu.

There are also ancient Greek, Roman and Hebrew names. Personal and surnames, names of locations in use, as well as names like Adama which are carry-overs from the original series: Prosna, Socinus, Cally, Playa Palacios, Valerii, Agathon, Thrace, etc.

Often these are combined: Sekou Hamilton, Cally Henderson, Billy Keikeiya, Gaius Baltar and William Adama.

To make matters even more complicated, these names do not correspond to either ethnic or "racial" populations among the surviving Colonial citizens, nor do they align with Colonial nationalism. Not all Sagittarons have an Indo-European personal name like "Tom" and a made-up surname like "Zarek" and not all dark-skinned characters have non-western first names like "Sekou". Daniel Novacek (played by an actor of Jamaican origin), for instance, has an Eastern European surname.