How would you respond to, or defend yourself from, this accusation?

I would have to admit that the Klingon made a viable statement and that I needed to correct what I said to be, ” We do believe all planets have a sovereign claim to the inalienable rights of the inhabitants.”
Sometimes it is easy to overlook an innocent verbal oversight like Chekov’s use of the word “human.”

It’s a dumb comment. The root is “alien,” which essentially means “other.” Inalienable rights are rights that cannot be “othered”—set apart, taken away. Something alien is something foreign, unfamiliar. There is nothing racist about it.

Also, “inalienable” isn’t a name, meaning a noun. It’s an adjective. An attribute.

What language doesn’t have words for “us” and “not-us”?

@Jeruba What the Klingon ambassador was responding to was the phrase “human rights”. I agree that it is racist. “Sentient rights” would be more appropriate.

ghuy’Cha’!!

…Because apologies are for weaklings.

Of course he’s right. The etymology of the words in inherently human-centric and anti-alien.

That dialog strikes me as at least partly self-parody, but given all the other borderline-stupid-and-wrong things in Star Trek VI, I’m not sure it deserves credit for having been intentional self-parody.

If the writers were taking things seriously and capable of more considered development, it seems to me that they’d realize that the expressions used by officers of a long-standing federation of many planets, would have evolved to be more accurately inclusive and diplomatic.

@Zaku
I am quite certain, that it was intentional, as the whole point of the movie was old men on both sides, who spent most of their lives fighting and hating each other, are blinded by their own decades-old prejudices, and have to overcome them, or be consumed by them.

That’s not the layer of self-parody I mean, though. I mean that it seems to be parodying not just old men, but Star Trek itself, to suggest that even an old officer would still be using the term “human rights”. It seems to me like a joke about Star Trek’s conceit that people are speaking 20th Century English and stuck in 20th Century ideas. It seems to me mostly a lower bar than was usually maintained in most TOS episodes, with occasional exceptions such as the officer who gets suspicious of Spock when they’re fighting Romulans and he sees Romulans have pointy ears too.

That strikes me as lazy writing… about as lazy as the silly/ridiculous aspects of there being one Klingon mining base that’s super-crucial to the whole Klingon Empire, that they let explode and that then has a blast wave that somehow impacts a wandering Federation ship, even though that’s astronomical bullshit that suggests the writers have near-zero understanding of the scale of the setting, never mind they also show the blast wave coming in as a ring-shaped effect aimed right at the ship. And other silly points that indicate to me lazy ignorant apathetic writing.

@Zaku At least Sulu put up the shields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDKmSxJkOWA

Words matter, particularly during a diplomatic dinner, and Chekov has clearly blundered. He should be excused as he has taken unwell and an apology made on his behalf.

I would say “Screw you Klingon hippy!” Get a real job! Preferably not in your nepotisic Father’s shadow.

@flutherother
To be fair, Kirk fucked up more right after that:

KERLA: In any case, we know where this is leading. The annihilation of our culture.
McCOY: That’s not true!
KERLA: No?
McCOY: No!
CHANG: ‘To be, or not to be!’, that is the question which preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk. ...We need breathing room.
KIRK: Earth, Hitler, nineteen thirty-eight.
CHANG: I beg your pardon?
GORKON: Well, ...I see we have a long way to go.

Ooops, and just before came Gorkon’s famous remark “You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.” He didn’t seem to be joking either. I haven’t seen Star Trek 6 but the dinner presumably ends in a massive punch up followed by interstellar war.

Nah, it just ends with everyone being drunk and having embarrassed themselves.
Then the Klingon Chancellor gets assassinated on his own ship, and Kirk and McCoy get sent to a Klingon Gulag.

Too much Romulan ale. I’m not surprised it’s illegal. The scriptwriters must have had fun with that scene.