Line #125 Main/NoEqualOpportunityTimeTravel


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18	->''"Here's how great it is to be white -- I can get into a time machine and go to any time and it would be fuckin' awesome when I get there! That is exclusively a white privilege! Black people can't fuck with time machines. A black guy in a time machine is like, 'Hey, anything before 1980, no thank you, I don't wanna go.'"''
19	-->-- '''Creator/LouisCK'''
20
21	Modern North American and European society is legally and officially an egalitarian environment for all ethnicities; most fiction writers suggest that the sci-fi future will be even more so. But if time travel ever becomes an institution in the future, some parts of the past may not be safe for all people to travel to. In particular, the use of Africans as slaves on plantations in the Americas and Arabia in the period c.1600-1870 and the establishment of European protectorates (puppet-governments) over the entire continent of Africa from the 1870s 'til the 1980s led to Africans being thought of as intrinsically inferior to non-African peoples — [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra the last regime to espouse the inferiority of African peoples was only toppled in 1994]]. It's safe to say that this period of history casts a long shadow over present-day Africa and the African diaspora in the Americas in particular.
22
23	Imagine being a black man in the U.S. and traveling to a place and time when all blacks were second-class citizens (e.g. 1950) or slaves (e.g. 1860) and had to carry papers to prove otherwise, or where they were likely to be lynched for using the wrong public toilet or being in the wrong neighborhood. Similar issues exist for other peoples too — a non-Chinese of ''any'' sort found in China during the Boxer Rebellion would be beaten to death in short order. Likewise, traveling to [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Germany]] (or any Nazi-occupied area, for that matter) and loudly proclaiming socialist sympathies or your Jewish ancestry is an ''excellent'' way to commit suicide.[[note]][[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Probably by dying of typhus you caught from being malnourished and overworked when producing German Army trousers for Hugo Boss]].[[/note]] If they go to these dangerous time periods anyway, expect repercussions. Women in many eras and places will have similar issues, although to a lesser degree — the culture shock of a less modern and/or liberal society may be a plot point.
24
25	How realistic (at least, to the extent that a story about time travel can be rooted in realism) this trope is varied. There is no use pretending that racism did not exist, but the levels and expressions thereof have varied wildly throughout history — it is not cleanly divided between the dangerous Past and the accepting Present. It's also paranoid (in most cases) to assume that a "modern" person's very ''[[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence existence]]'' will trigger violence or repression. Most civilized societies will tolerate just about anyone as long as they don't "cause any trouble" — although, granted, "trouble" will be defined very broadly if a society really is that reactionary.
26
27	Of course, a discriminated-against character who is superpowered, a highly-trained soldier or vigilante, or just plain deranged can easily punch and/or slaughter their way through a past era following any number of MuggingTheMonster moments. In this way, such a character can earn respect — or at least fear, though that might trigger even worse persecution if the past era manages to muster a sufficient force against them.
28
29	Note that one should be careful not to generalize, as bigotry was never universal even in eras when it was common and socially acceptable. Hillsdale College was a 'liberal-arts college' (i.e. university) in the "Great Lakes" area U.S. state of Michigan that admitted women, Jews, atheists, and Africans as students ''before the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar'' — a big deal given that the USA did not fully ban slavery until after the Civil War.[[note]]The Emancipation Proclamation had been issued in 1862 but only applied to states in rebellion and obviously could not be enforced in those states until they were under Union control.[[/note]] Bigotry becomes socially unacceptable at various times as well, only to reappear later because of shifting power dynamics. In Britain in the late 19th century, for example, racism was considered unacceptable because it was associated with the United States (whom they were still sore about losing to: indeed one of the major reasons Britain outlawed the slave trade was to annoy the Americans) and some of their continental European rivals. Also, remember that people we would now consider "standard white" weren't always: go back to 1920 in an Anglophone country and simply having a non-English name could cause you a lot of trouble. Go back to 1600, at the heyday of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, and even there you're more likely to be ragged on about your religion or economic status than your race: [[NewerThanTheyThink modern racism as we think of it was in its infancy at this time]], while ironically, [[UnbuiltTrope stances that we could call anti-racist were already around]]. Before 1600, time travel would actually be pretty equal-opportunity, at least for straight, cisgendered men, and before the expansion of Christianity, you wouldn't even need to be that (although exact conditions would be still complicated and varied from place to place).
30
31	Frequently subverted for laughs with a DiscriminateAndSwitch — e.g., nobody cares that you're a black woman, but ''[[ChangedMyJumper wearing trousers]]?!?''
32
33	Compare and contrast BlackVikings, DeliberateValuesDissonance, PoliticallyCorrectHistory. Also EternalSexualFreedom. Not really related to TimeTravellingLesbians, which is about the setting ''as a world in which time travel can exist'' making being queer more acceptable — this can definitely still apply in those stories.
34
35	----
36	!!Examples:
37	[[foldercontrol]]
38
39	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
40	* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'': Inverted with companion Oliver Harper, who is worried about time travel due to being [[{{Gayngst}} a gay man from the 1960s]], when homosexuality was illegal. Steven Taylor, from hundreds of years in the future, hadn't even thought about this and finds the idea of people discriminating against someone for their sexual orientation faintly surreal.
41	* ''Radio/ThirdDoctorRadioDramas'': ''The Ghosts of N-Space'' has the Doctor dress his companion Sarah Jane in boys' clothing during a visit to medieval times, causing her to be repeatedly [[MistakenForGay mistaken for "his catamite"]].
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Comic Books]]
45	* In the 1990's DC series ''ComicBook/{{Chronos}}'', about a time traveler named Walker Gabriel (who, we eventually learn, is half Chinese and half ''ancient Mayan''), Walker's first time trip takes him to the Old West, where he's startled when some random cowboy punches him in the face just on general principle because he looks like a Native American.
46	* One of the ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica Justice League]]'' one-shots had a story where Comicbook/{{Steel}} and Franchise/WonderWoman are sent back in time to the year 1574. In order to hide their true identities, Wonder Woman poses as a pirate, while Steel is forced to pose as an African slave.
47	* One arc of ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' saw some of the team sent into the [[TheFifties 1950s]] to the time of the original Justice Society. The black Mr. Terrific had some unpleasant experiences in the pre-Civil Rights era, like being forced to change train cars, but took it rather stoically. And then, just to rub it in, he fights a [[TheKlan Ku Klux Klan]] chapter who manages to get a noose around his throat.
48	* When the ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' have an adventure in [[TheEdwardianEra 1905]] UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, Xavin -- a Skrull (shapeshifting alien) whose default human form is a teenage black lesbian -- sticks to an adult white male form for most of the adventure. Also, Nico encounters some racism and Karolina is nearly raped when she goes sight-seeing since a lone young woman must be "asking for it" (the would-be rapist got an energy blast for his troubles). Interestingly, Victor doesn't face any troubles despite being a Hispanic falling in love with a white girl.
49	* In ''ComicBook/YokoTsuno'''s last story involving time travel, Monya points out that it's easier to walk unnoticed in medieval China without Yoko's European friends. A little odd, because usually the whole gang traveled, but now they have so many extra members that there is a sufficient team without them.
50	* Inversion in the ''Winter Soldier: Winter Kills'' one-shot. ComicBook/BuckyBarnes (who is from the 1940s) uses the term "pansy" as an offhanded insult, and Kate Bishop of the ComicBook/YoungAvengers calls him out for being homophobic. He clarifies that he meant it as an insult for wimpy men, not gays.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Fan Works]]
54	* In the ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' time travel AU fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10284289/1/Across-the-Years Across the Years]]", part of the reason Jade travels into the past to meet Tori in the 1860s is that she's read enough of Tori's future diaries to guess that Tori was a repressed lesbian in an age where she couldn't even know that such an attraction was possible. While in the past, Jade is able to present herself as an educated young woman who was taught to read by her family and is travelling after the death of her father, but on a personal level she struggles to find the balance between being a supportive friend for Tori and outright taking advantage of her or scaring her away due to the knowledge Jade gained of Tori from the future.
55	* Discussed briefly in the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3859548/1/Bridging-the-Gap Bridging the Gap]]", which sees Kim and Ron being stuck in the past for six years between 1903 and 1909. While Ron never experiences anything to suggest that the people he and Kim interact with would have any issues with his Jewish heritage, he basically avoids bringing it up so that he won't have to face any awkward questions or reactions, to the extent that he and Kim get married in a church rather than a Jewish ceremony.
56	* Inverted in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/24376201/chapters/58791808 Kamino's Ward]]'', where after Izuku, here a Captain America {{Expy}} from when Quirks first emerged and those with powers were feared and hated, is frozen for centuries, he wakes up in a Japan that not only embraces people with Quirks but even has several praised as superheroes. Captain Kamino is even praised as a symbol of Quirk rights rather than viewed as a terrorist like in his time.
57	* In ''Fanfic/MementoVivere'', a ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' fanfiction, Rikku faces full on Al Bhed discrimination in the past.
58	* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MyMirrorSwordAndShield'' Suzaku accidentally time-travels from the year 2036 to a decade into the past when the racist Britannian Empire was active and is constantly discriminated, distrusted and degraded until he earns the trust of the young Emperor Lelouch elevating his status. Even then, no one gives him any respect and he's viewed with suspicion.
59	* Loosely features in the ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga''/''Film/Titanic1997'' fic “[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8342386/1/Never-Letting-Go Never Letting Go]]”, when Jack and Rose swap times and places with Bella and Edward, leaving Bella and Edward in Rose’s stateroom on the night of the sinking. Since Edward knows the time period, he helps Bella put on one of Rose’s dresses so that she can pose as a first-class passenger and guarantee a place on a lifeboat (as a vampire, Edward can stay behind with the sinking ship and be rescued later).
60	* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3201344/14/Where-is-Hannah-Montana Where is Hannah Montana?]]"- featuring [[Series/HannahMontana Miley Stewart and Lilly Truscott]] travelling with the [[Series/DoctorWho Tenth Doctor]]- features a minor version of this when the TARDIS materialises in America during the Civil War, as the Doctor has to impulsively claim that Miley's a war orphan to justify her southern accent while they're in Union territory.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
64	* Averted in ''Film/BlackKnight2001''. Creator/MartinLawrence's character Jamal ends up in Medieval England and isn't treated any different from a white man, although he gets annoyed at frequently being called "Moor". In fact, the big problem people have with him is his attitude. Of course, he starts being treated much better after he accidentally names himself as the messenger of the Duke of Normandy. Any of his oddities are attributed to him being a "Norman". Then again, [[spoiler:it was AllJustADream -- or was it?]]. This is one of those RealityIsUnrealistic cases. While black Africans were discriminated against in most European countries at that time, and more as time moved on, the idea that it'd have more to do with his place of origin and not specifically his skin color is pretty valid.
65	* Variation in ''Film/EscapeFromThePlanetOfTheApes''. Zira and Cornelius are talking apes from the future, where their kind rule the planet. When they travel back in time, they're in 1970s USA, where humans rule and apes are wild animals, resulting in them being taken to a zoo and assumed to be normal animals until they reveal their secret.
66	* ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine2'' when the guys are going to go back to the 1770s to "Make America Happen" Jacob tells Nick (who is black) "you're not going to be too super welcome there, but we should totally go!"
67	* In ''Film/LateForDinner'', two guys unknowingly end up becoming subjects to a cryogenics experiment. They then get accidentally thawed out 29 years later. Not sure what happened, they go to a hospital to patch up a bullet wound in one of them. One of the guys comments to a black doctor of how great it is that black people are being allowed to be doctors. The doctor is a little taken aback at this, although seeing a card from a cryogenics lab is a little more disturbing to him.
68	* ''Film/MenInBlack3'': Agent J is warned before he goes back in time that the 1960s, to paraphrase, "weren't the best time for... you guys". Minutes after arriving in 1960s New York City, the time-pressed J steals a (rather nice) car to head off the villain's plot, after being thrown the keys when mistaken for a valet. Predictably, two white cops stop him along the way to his destination, leading to humorous results. Possibly a reference to his quip in the [[Film/MenInBlack2 second film]] about replacing a black inflatable driver for a white one due to being constantly pulled over.
69	-->'''J:''' Just because you see a black man driving a nice car does ''not'' mean it's stolen! [[BrokenAesop Well, this one is]]...
70	* ''Film/{{Timeline}}'': In the movie adaption of Creator/MichaelCrichton's novel, one of the time travelers gets killed by 14th century Englishmen (who are at war with France), due to his French accent. This is a bit odd, considering that British royalty actually spoke a French dialect at the time in Real Life, and French accents change over time, so a modern-day Frenchman wouldn't necessarily sound anything like a 14th Century Frenchman. This didn't occur in the original novel, which specifically [[ShownTheirWork showed that Middle French isn't anything much like Modern French]], so nobody is able to understand them until they learn it.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Literature]]
74	* Averted (and lampshaded) in the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series. Two black characters from twenty-first century America are both doctors, and this is readily accepted by the seventeenth-century Europeans, who assume they're Moors (who were far and away the most trusted physicians of the time, with the possible exception of Jews). The only issue is that they're father and daughter and it takes the down-timers some time to be convinced of the daughter's qualifications as she's a woman.
75	* In an ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' story involving time travel, the group runs into this problem -- they wind up at Princeton University, circa 1934, in an {{alternate timeline}} with a lot of differences from the real one -- where someone calls Cassie [[TWordEuphemism something she would REALLY rather not be called]]. She puts him in his place to the tune of a 900-pound polar bear.
76	-->'''Cassie:''' You don't like black people, Mr. Davis? No problem. I can turn white. Watch me.
77	* Played completely straight in Creator/JonBirmingham's ''Literature/AxisOfTime'' trilogy, where a Multinational Taskforce from the 21st century is transported by a NegativeSpaceWedgie to 1942. A good number of crewmembers from the "uptimer" ships are either black or Asian. In fact, the "temps" are incredulous to find out that the "uptimers" put a black woman in command of a warship. One of the main characters is a black Marine, who jibes as a "temp" named Dan Black about racism. Dan shuts him down by pointing out that in his father's household, anyone who used the N-word would be sorry. The liberal views of the 21st-century clash hard with the "normal" views of 1940s America. To this end, Admiral Kolhammer gets FDR to declare an area in California as a Special Administrative Zone, where the laws and customs of the 21st century are the norm (and people can be sued for violating those laws, even if the act happens outside the Zone). UsefulNotes/JEdgarHoover is determined to shut down the Zone, claiming that it's amoral. In response, Kolhammer tries to expose Hoover as a closet gay.
78	* Frequently raised as an issue for the female members of the team in Jodi Taylor's ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfSaintMarys'' books, who in some eras need a male figure to be able to interact with the locals.
79	* ''Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures'': In ''The Plotters'', the Doctor attempts to avoid trouble by dressing his female companion Vicki as a boy (as he had previously done in the TV story "The Crusade"), only to find this has the opposite of the intended effect when she attracts the attention of a lecherous old gay king who sets about trying to woo her.
80	* ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'':
81	** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHumanNature Human Nature]]'', the Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield is supposed to be keeping a low profile during an extended sojourn in the 1910s. She ditches her skirts about twenty minutes into the adventure in favour of her regular trousers. This gets her into a ''lot'' of trouble.
82	** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresAllConsumingFire All-Consuming Fire]]'', she goes full SweetPollyOliver in the 1880s, having decided that if she's keeping a low profile, this is probably more effective than being a woman who gets into fights with men who proposition her.
83	* Some of the ''Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures'' novels have this become a bit of an issue for Anji Kapoor. In the 18th and 19th centuries, she's treated as exotic and mystical but not outright abused. Wearing a sari helps; too bad she hates wearing saris. Fitz Kreiner, who's white and British, gets almost as much trouble for stuff like his lower-class London accent.
84	* Played with in ''The Freedom Maze'' by Delia Sherman. Sophie -- who is white in 1960 -- goes back in time to 1860 and is instantly assumed to be a slave thanks to her tan and frizzy hair.
85	* In ''Literature/JohnnyAndTheBomb'', Yo-less travels back a mere forty years or so, to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII era, and has to deal with people calling him "Sambo". Kirsty tells him it's just how things are in the past and he should accept it, [[HypocriticalHumor only to immediately be outraged when treated with arguably milder sexism]].
86	* Creator/OctaviaButler covers the perils of time traveling while black in the 1979 novel ''Literature/{{Kindred}}'' - the black protagonist goes to 19th-century Maryland to meet her ancestors, one of whom is a white slave owner. Drama ensues.
87	* Averted in S.M. Stirling's ''[[Literature/IslandInTheSeaOfTime Nantucket]]'' series: Capt. Alston, an African-American Coast Guard officer, is assumed, by the Bronze Age people she encounters, to be a respected Nubian warrior chief. Of course, many presume she is a man until convinced otherwise.
88	* Played straight with women in Scott Meyer's ''[[Literature/Magic20 Off to Be the Wizard]]''. It's fairly easy for men who discover the file and travel back in time to pretend to be wizards/sorcerers/fakirs/shamans/etc. in the past. However, any woman who tries to do the same usually runs straight into the BurnTheWitch attitude of most of history. Thus, most women end up traveling to the 4th century BC to the city of {{Atlantis}}, a LadyLand built in the Mediterranean as a safe haven for sorceresses. Averted with wizards named Tyler (black) and Eddie (Asian). They choose to live in 12th century England. When asked, Tyler replies that he claims to be a Moor. The locals then assume that he has either converted to Christianity or is powerful enough not to care. Eddie pretends to be a sorcerer from the Far East named Wing Po, despite his heavy {{Joisey}} accent. Either way, being a powerful wizard means that the locals won't dare touch them or complain about their [[BuffySpeak non-whiteness]]. Most male time travelers tend to go to a place and time that fits with their ethnicity and cultural heritage. The second novel also reveals that not every native Mediterranean is okay with women being in charge.
89	* In ''Literature/MagicTreeHouse'' book "Hour of the Olympics", Jack and his sister Annie travel back to ancient Greece. Annie keeps complaining about what girls and women can't do, and ends up in trouble for trying to compete in the ancient Olympics.
90	* In Creator/OrsonScottCard's ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'', only one of the three time-travelers sent to change the result of Columbus' first encounter with native Americans is the appropriate race for the culture that they will be dealing with (and none of them are white). In the end, [[spoiler:one character, a black woman, has to overcome a lot of prejudice to win over the natives, but she eventually succeeds]] while another, [[spoiler:a middle-eastern man sent to sabotage one of Columbus's ships, actually uses his race to the mission's advantage, revealing himself and allowing his HeroicSacrifice to unite the crew against the "Muslim enemy".]] The [[spoiler:Muslim]] is explicitly stated as being white. It is only when he [[spoiler:speaks Arabic and declares himself a Turk]] that his race becomes an issue... even the Mayan going back to visit the Mayans is a foot taller than the Mayans of that time, making him stand out. The "foot taller" part helps, as his goal is to [[spoiler:convince the natives that he's a messenger of the gods]].
91	* ''Literature/ThePsychologyOfTimeTravel'': Lucille Waters, a Black woman and one of the creators of time travel, briefly discusses this trope with regard to moving backwards in time. She says it is a non-issue, since it is impossible to travel back to before the first time machine existed. That being said, social justice is not a constant progression and there are times in ensuing centuries where various groups are more oppressed than others.
92	* Pretty much the entire point of Creator/HarryHarrison's ''A Rebel in Time''. A white supremacist goes back in time to help the South win the Civil War, and a black federal agent decides it will be a snap to follow the killer back to antebellum deep south. When the slave owners of the era see his high-quality clothes and hear his 20th century New York college educated accent, things proceed pretty much as you'd expect under the circumstances.
93	* In ''Literature/TimeScout'', women cannot be scouts. ''Period.'' When Margo insists, [[spoiler:she ends up tortured and gang-raped by downtime Catholics and is almost ''burned at the stake.'']] They can be guides. Guiding and scouting are wildly different professions; guiding is a fairly safe if high-competence profession strictly limited to well-explored times and places where a woman can learn to blend in. Scouting is an extreme-risk profession where one is operating without a net and guides all but guaranteed to die horribly. The race issue is never brought up.
94	* Inverted in Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheTimeTraders'' series, where both the titular organization's agents and their Soviet counterparts are sent on undercover missions in different areas and eras of history (and their cover identities composed) specifically on the basis of their racial makeup. Not only is conspicuous behavior avoided for fear of the usual ButterflyOfDoom, but because word of it in history books would alert the enemy to your position in time.
95	* It is mentioned in the first ''Literature/TimeWars'' novel that while the Temporal Corps recruits women, they are often limited to support roles in missions as not many time periods have frontline female fighters.
96	* In ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog'' by Connie Willis, the time-travel research division at Oxford contains a black student and a South Indian professor. The plot of the book involves everyone else in the department being forced to do far too much time travel for their own health to satisfy a rich donor's demands in researching the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. Those two celebrate their good luck, as they can't do much time-traveling into pre-1940s England for safety reasons.
97	* ''[[Literature/MooseJawTunnelsSeries Tunnels of Treachery]]'' plays with this -- the two previous books both involved white kids going back in time using the Moose Jaw tunnels and when their Chinese-Canadian friends do so, they get a very different reception.
98	* The book ''A Wish After Midnight'' sends a girl back to the Civil War.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
102	* Inverted in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'', Richard Tyler has been brought forward from UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, where he was almost killed for being attracted to a white woman. It takes him a few episodes to get used to the relative lack of racism.
103	* Subverted in a ''Series/ChappellesShow'' sketch, where "Playa Haters" go back in time and shoot a Southern plantation owner.
104	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
105	** The early Hartnell series sometimes avoided this by having the female characters dress as men. This happens in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E6TheCrusade "The Crusade"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E1TheSmugglers "The Smugglers"]]. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre "The Massacre"]], meanwhile, has no female companion until the very end (which is set in the present day).
106	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]" revolves in part around Sarah Jane, a 1970s-[[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture '80s]] feminist, getting stuck in the Dark Ages and the trouble this causes for her. She is treated horribly, both the men and the aliens in this time period are ridiculously misogynistic, and even clever and likable contemporary women scoff at the idea of not being basically slaves.
107	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw "Tooth and Claw"]]: Rose gets called out by Queen Victoria herself and several other characters who repeatedly describe her as being naked, due to the short overalls and tights she wears through the episode.
108	** Martha Jones (who is black) tends to get away with this for the most part, though her trips are rarely to the distant past and when they are, the issue will be addressed.
109	*** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode The Shakespeare Code]]" has Martha worried about being sold as a slave, but the Doctor assures her this wasn't actually an issue. In reality, there actually were some black people in England, none of whom were slaves, and the dialogue was actually meant to teach kids that England wasn't entirely white in the 17th century.
110	*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature "Human Nature"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood "The Family of Blood"]] (set in 1913) has Martha's race subtly addressed as nobody believes a woman, let alone a ''poor minority'' woman, is capable of being a doctor.
111	** Donna, while treated fairly well, still complains when the Doctor's cover story for her in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp The Unicorn and the Wasp]]" is that she's the "plucky young woman who helps me out" on account of there being no policewomen in 1920s Britain.
112	** [[TomboyishName Bill]], being a lesbian and of African descent, has a few things to worry about when they visit the past.
113	*** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E3ThinIce Thin Ice]]", upon finding she's in 1814, she is worried about how she'll be treated on account of being black. The Doctor sadly acknowledges that slavery is still a reality in this time period, but Bill is surprised by the fact that the non-white population of London in the Regency is higher than she was expecting, and most of the characters don't bat an eye at her. The one character who ''does'' is Lord Sutcliffe, who is a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain, and promptly gets decked by the Doctor for it. A slight Research Fail by the authors as, while slavery did exist at this time, Lord Mansfield's judgment established that slavery was incompatible with English Common Law and effectively had not existed in England since the Romans left.
114	*** When [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E9EmpressOfMars encountering Victorian soldiers on Mars]], their commander laughs at the idea of Bill being a policewoman since women couldn't be cops at that time (but, interestingly, doesn't seem to notice her skin colour).
115	*** Averted when [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E10TheEatersOfLight visiting Scotland during Ancient Roman times]], as Bill's admittance to being a lesbian is taken in stride by the Roman soldiers (the Ancient Roman concept of sexuality could be complicated, and people often had relationships with both sexes — instead, it was taboo to be the receiver rather than the giver in a homosexual relationship; one of the soldiers is gay, and the rest just think he's missing out on half the fun he could be having), and no one bats an eye at her skin colour (the gay soldier is also black), which is entirely reasonable — the Empire ruled much of North Africa by this point, and one of the later Emperors, Septimius Severus, was mixed-race, if not black (no one's entirely sure).
116	** It's treated very seriously in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E3Rosa Rosa]]", an episode whose entire subject is racism (the Doctor and friends end up in 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, where a time-travelling white supremacist from the far future is trying to prevent the Montgomery Bus Boycott from happening). At the very start of the episode, the Doctor's black companion Ryan gets hit, and nearly worse, just for trying to give a white woman a glove that she dropped, and racism continues to be a major hazard and obstruction throughout.
117	** Also treated seriously in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E8TheWitchfinders The Witchfinders]]", which sees a [[Creator/JodieWhittaker now-female Doctor]] travel to England in the early 1600s, and everyone ignores her opinions and condescends down to her. Her psychic paper ID even fails to convince King James that she is of a position of authority. Worse, her usual habit of waving a sonic screwdriver around and spouting {{technobabble}} around a posse of extremely paranoid [[TheWitchHunter witch hunters]] nearly sees her getting dunked; the Doctor explicitly states at one point that she wouldn't be having these problems "if [she] was still a bloke".
118	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E1E2Spyfall "Spyfall"]]: The Doctor leaves [[spoiler:the Master (now played by British Indian Creator/SachaDhawan)]] stranded with angry Nazis [[spoiler:and no TARDIS]]. He mentions having to live the most infuriating 77 years on TheSlowPath, the implication being that he's had to deal with intense racism [[spoiler:for the first regeneration of his life]].
119	** In ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' episode "[[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E9E10TheTemptationOfSarahJaneSmith The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith]]", this gets played with when Rani goes back to the 1950s looking for Sarah Jane — Rani assumes she's getting looks because of racism, but later realizes people are staring at her because of [[ChangedMyJumper her outfit]], and the only reason she's getting away with it is because she isn't white.
120	--->'''Rani:''' Yes, I get it, ethnic person in the '50s!
121	** In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "[[Recap/TorchwoodS1E12CaptainJackHarkness Captain Jack Harkness]]", Jack Harkness and Toshiko Sato are stuck in 1940s Cardiff, and Tosh expresses some very real concerns about being Japanese and in WWII. Fortunately, the attack on Pearl Harbor (and the British Asian colonies) is still several months in the future.
122	* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'':
123	** "Night of the Hawk", when the team travels to 1958. Jax and Kendra get uncomfortable reactions to their interracial dating/fake marriage, and when Jax gets pulled over by a cop... Then there's Sara's budding romance with a cute female nurse. Stein initially expresses his belief in how great and simple a time it was, only to be brutally shut down by Jax and Sara, who point out that this is only true if you're a straight white male. Stein is forced to agree.
124	** In Season 2, the Legends end up in the middle of the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar, and Jax and Amaya end up witnessing the plight of the slaves. Their non-submissive attitudes immediately land them in hot water with the white plantation owner.
125	** In sesaon 7, the team is stuck in 1920 US and Sara lampshades the fact that Nate is their biggest asset because he is a well educated white male and thus can go places and do stuff that the others cannot. The team has to be very careful how they act because they risk a racist backlash not only to themselves but also to the local minorities.
126	* Amanda's black roommate in ''Series/LostInAusten'' points out that she can't go through the door because she's black.
127	* ''Series/TheMagicians2016'': In "Cello Squirrel Daffodil" Penny (Indian) and Plum (biracial black) wind up in 1920's Brakebills. Although the former is a professor and the latter a student in the present, in 1920 the school is segregated, and so they are looked down on as intruders and have to pass as foreign mystics in order to accomplish their goal.
128	* The trailer for the Fox comedy ''Series/MakingHistory'' has a bungling time traveler realizing he's messed up Paul Revere's ride. He then brings his college professor pal back with him to fix things. However, both have overlooked the tiny fact that a black man in 1776, no matter how educated he is, will automatically be thought of as a runaway slave.
129	* This trope was the center of an early ''Series/QuantumLeap'' episode, where Sam ends up in the body of a black man, in the past. Sam nearly gets himself into hot water immediately by trying to sit down in a café and order a meal.
130	* The premise of one ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch was to bring a rather camp 17th century [[ArtisticLicenseHistory Belgian]] nobleman and his equally camp black (free) manservant together with [[UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan KKK]] member[[note]]ex-member, actually: he had just been [[EvenEvilHasStandards thrown out for being too violent]][[/note]] Creator/JohnBelushi in the DeepSouth.
131	* A third season episode of ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'', the titular sub ends up in the '60s during the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis. [[NumberTwo Commander Jonathan Ford]] (a black man) takes a team to the surface. They "borrow" a car and take it to their destination on the shore. On the way, they pass by a car full of young men. They arrive at the beach only to see the other car pull up behind them and the guys getting out with baseball bats. Ford suddenly notices a "No blacks allowed" sign and remembers his history. Plus, he was in the same car as a white woman, which only pissed off the '60s guys more. Luckily, all of the team members are military-trained, so a bunch of punks with baseball bats is not a threat.
132	* In ''Series/SecretsOfSulphurSprings'', African-American teenager Harper, traveling from 2020, isn't allowed into the Tremont Hotel in 1962. Showing amazing naivete, her white best friend Griffin actually doesn't understand why, at first, until Harper reminds him of when they are. The Black porter, does, however, sincerely tell Griffin, "Good for you, kid," when he calls Harper his best friend.
133	* Averted but discussed in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "1969". The hippie calls Teal'c "brother" and insists that he ride up front with him. The hippie is making a point of showing that he's not racist, unlike a lot of his contemporaries. The whole thing is PlayedForLaughs, as Teal'c [[FishOutOfWater is not from Earth]] and has no idea why he's being singled out.
134	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
135	** Averted in the episode "Time's Arrow", where the android Data is sent back in time to late-1800s San Francisco. His Starfleet uniform gets more attention than his albino-pale skin and yellow eyes, and he's able to pass without trouble by telling everyone [[Film/{{Coneheads}} he is from France]]. (It helps that, having a perfect memory, he can speak perfect French.)
136	** Also averted without explanation in the case of Geordi (a black man), who only has to hide his anachronistic [=VISOR=], and Guinan, a black-looking HumanAlien who lives in that time and lives a high-class life.
137	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
138	** "Past Tense, Part I": Sisko, Bashir, and Dax unexpectedly find themselves unconscious on the street in the early 21st-century US. Sisko and Bashir—a Black man and Arab man—find themselves checked for papers and imprisoned in a Sanctuary District. Dax, a white woman (well, an alien who looks like a white woman), is [[DamselInDistress rescued by a rich guy]] who doesn't think twice about her lack of ID. The actors have said this contrast was deliberate.
139	** Cited as a reason Sisko doesn't want to participate in a [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E15BaddaBingBaddaBang holodeck program]] set in 1962 Las Vegas -- even if the program doesn't recreate racial discrimination, as that just makes it an unjustified romanticization of a troubled period.[[note]]There is some (possibly in-universe) research failure here; the program is set a few years after segregation was ended on the strip, thanks in part to the Rat Pack refusing to work segregated casinos (the main character in the program is a Sinatra expy).[[/note]]
140	* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'':
141	** In season 2, the main cast makes a slingshot time warp to 2024 to try to undo the changes to the timeline made by Q. While most of the characters are perfectly fine fitting into the early 21st century. Rios, being an undocumented Hispanic in LA, immediately lands in hot water and is arrested by ICE (even though California is a sanctuary state). He's on his way to be deported to Mexico, when the other team members manage to rescue him.
142	** An embittered Guinan alludes to this time period being more hospitable to people who look like Picard than like her.
143	* ''Series/{{Timeless}}'': Brought up almost constantly. As Rufus says: "There's literally no place in American History that'll be awesome for me !" He's proven right.
144	** On occasion, it actually works the other way. In one episode, where the group is taken by a group of Shawnee in the 18th century and are about to be executed, the chieftain is willing to let Rufus go since she assumes he is a slave and thus not responsible for anything he was "ordered" by Lucy or Wyatt to do.
145	* Done with ''space'' travel rather than time travel on ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople1973'', when the characters visit a planet of HumanAliens. As there are no dark-skinned people on that world (or at least that part of it), a black character from Earth isn't able to accompany her companions in public.
146	* This problem is the main reason why the UK comedy series ''Series/{{Timewasters}}'' exists, which has a group of bumbling, working-class, Afro-British lads (and one [[TheLadette ladette]]) accidentally time-travel from modern London to the 1920s and 1950s, where they manage to muddle through thanks to being a pretty talented Jazz band (and one of the guys quickly becoming the boytoy of a rich, middle-aged, white lady), which had been struggling in the present since the music style is out of fashion.
147	* In season 2 of ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'', the Hargreeveses (adoptive siblings of varying backgrounds) ends up in 1963, they experience different levels of prejudice. The white, straight, healthy Luther easily fits in. The pansexual Klaus falls in with hippie free-loving liberals who accept him, but deals with a violent, homophobic bigot. Vanya's Russian name makes people think she is a Soviet spy, and her attraction to a woman is considered a disease. The black Allison is almost lynched by racists right after she arrives and is constantly in danger. Diego is arrested and put into an insane asylum (oh, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and news reports think he's Cuban]]).
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Print Media]]
151	* ''Contact'' magazine, based on the ''Series/ThreeTwoOneContact'' TV show, had a recurring segment involving two time-traveling teenagers. One installment had the (presumably white) American kids get in trouble when they ended up in Japan during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In Hiroshima just before the bomb was dropped, no less.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
155	* In the time-travel RPG ''TabletopGame/{{Continuum}}'', one of the flavor text stories deals with Cynthia, a white newbie spanner, [[DiscussedTrope discussing history's nastier periods]] with Evana, a more experienced African-American:
156	-->"1886. I couldn't handle going [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar any farther Down]] then. I was young. Playing the slave was not something Evana was ever going to do."
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Video Games]]
160	* ''[[VideoGame/DotsHome Dot's Home]]'': When Dot, a Black woman, time travels back to 1959, she tries to get out of what would become her home while her grandparents discuss the housing deal with Mr. Murphy's grandfather, a white man. Murphy I then chases her down the neighborhood, telling her not to go any further because she "doesn't belong" there, to her frustration.
161	* ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'':
162	** A FantasticRacism variation of this trope: player races that were not a part of the Alliance prior to the Third War are given a RaceLift while running certain instances in the Caverns of Time so that they avoid attracting unwanted attention. Of course, many of ''World of Warcraft'' PC races weren't even known to exist until sometime during or after the Third War, including the Worgen, Tauren, Night Elves, and Pandaren -- who weren't even discovered by the larger world until the aftermath of the Third War, and remain an obscure and little-known race by the start of ''Mists of Pandaria'' -- so some of it is less unwanted attention in the form of overt racism and more in the form of "What the hell are you, and why are you here?"
163	** A similar disguise is used in ''Mists of Pandaria'' to explain each faction taking part in Scenarios featuring the other faction's leaders. Well, sort of; the in-character explanation is that the characters are listening to/participating in a sort of historical record.
164	** Partly done in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheAncients'' trilogy of novels, where the three time travelers all come from races that weren't around 10,000 years ago (or, at least, aren't known to the Night Elves). Rhonin, a human, is seen as a pale, mutated elf. Krasus is a red dragon but his humanoid form is that of a High Elf. He is the most accepted, although his pale skin gets strange looks. Broxigar is an orc. Since orcs are not native to Azeroth and wouldn't show up in that world until thousands of years later, he's just seen as a big, green brute. It's also implied that seeing Brox would inspire Mannoroth to seek out others like him and corrupt the original orcs later.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder:Western Animation]]
168	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Road to Germany". Mort, who is Jewish, accidentally activates Stewie's time machine and is set to Poland on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Stewie and Brian go back in time to rescue him. At one point they need to pass as Nazis themselves, and having Mort the walking stereotype in tow proves problematic. At one point, they tried to pass Mort off as a Catholic priest. [[HilarityEnsues And then he's asked to give someone their Last Rites]].
169	* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' episode "Legends", several leaguers are sent to an alternate Earth based on UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks and team up with [[{{Expy}} expies]] of The ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica. On most accounts, they are actually [[FairForItsDay Fair For Their Day]], but include uncomfortable moments like Black Canary's expy suggesting to Hawkgirl that they should leave the room and "[[StayInTheKitchen cook something while the men talk]]" and Jay Garrick's praises African-American Green Lantern Jon Stewart by calling him "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace a credit to his people]]".
170	* Averted in the ''WesternAnimation/TransformersRescueBots'' season 1 finale "It's a Bot Time"/"Bot to the Future". No one says anything at all about Frankie's race or gender. This is justified since Rescue Bots is a children's show and the scientists that meet her have [[TransformingMecha bigger things]] to think about. However, many of the town's top scientists of that era also seem to be non-white, so it seems that Griffin Rock was just as far ahead socially from the rest of the country as it was technologically.
171	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'', a few alternate-universe versions of the X-Men travel back to the '50s to save the younger Professor Xavier from a time-traveling assassin. They all talk at a cafe, and the owner gets pissy about the fact that [[Characters/MarvelComicsStorm Storm]] and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (an African woman and a white man, respectively) are a couple. Naturally, this makes Wolverine completely flip out.
172	-->'''[[http://comicsalliance.com/x-men-episode-guide-season-4-episode-one-one-mans-worth-part-one/ Chris Sims]]:''' At the same time, shouldn't this dude have been worried when these people walked in and two of them were dressed like characters from a ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' game and one of them was CARRYING A GIGANTIC GUN? I will say, though, that I do like the idea of a dude being '''''so racist''''' that the laser shotgun [[SkewedPriorities isn't as big a problem]] as interracial hand-holding.
173	** Not surprising given that the X-Men are [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything one big metaphor for racism and prejudice]]. Though Storm is more amused than offended -- after facing persecution her whole life [[FantasticRacism for being a mutant]], she remarks that plain old-fashioned racism is almost ''quaint''. Amusingly also something of an inversion, as this also gets them mistaken for beatniks, resulting in a patron with beatnik sympathies siding with them in the ensuing brawl.
174	[[/folder]]

Context Main / NoEqualOpportunityTimeTravel