While the William Shatner era of Star Trek isn’t exactly the first thing that springs to mind as a predecessor of the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying movement, Buzzfeed’s got an excerpt from the advice pages of a 1968 teen magazine called Fave displays Leonard Nimoy’s sensitivity to the plight of one particular young woman. What would Spock do? she asks. And damn if he doesn’t answer her perfectly.
Dear Mr. Spock,
I am not very good at writing letters so I will make this short. I know you are half Vulcan and half human and you have suffered because of this. My mother is Negro and my father is white and I am told this makes me a half-breed. In some ways I am persecuted even more than the Negro. The Negroes don’t like me because I don’t look like them. The white kids don’t like me because I don’t exactly look like one of them either. I guess I’ll never have any friends.
F.C.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Some excerpts from his answer: