Line #43 Main/WhiteLikeMe


1	[[quoteright:331:[[Series/ChappellesShow https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WhiteLikeMe_7867.JPG]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:331:[[MinstrelShows What would the white equivalent of "mammy" be?]]]]
3
4	->''"There's a white man talking up here! ¡Silencio! ''Oongawah!''"''
5	-->-- '''Chuck Taylor''' (yelling into a booing multi-ethnic crowd during the racial draft), ''Series/ChappellesShow''
6
7	Similar to BlackLikeMe except usually played strictly for laughs as a black character pretends to be white. Generally, a very hip black male pretends to be a [[WhiteDudeBlackDude very straight, lame white male]].
8
9	Not related to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Like_Me the book,]] which is a personal story about white privilege.
10
11	Contrast BlackLikeMe. Compare and contrast {{Blackface}}.
12
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Comic Books]]
19	* During the ''Armor Wars'' storyline, [[ComicBook/WarMachine Jim Rhodes]], a black man, impersonated [[Characters/SpiderManRoguesGalleryAtoH Electro]] in order to infiltrate [[ExtranormalPrison The Vault]] in order to help ComicBook/IronMan neutralize the Guardsman armors that used his technology. Max Dillon is white, so Rhodey had to wear makeup over the exposed part of his face, and then quietly pray to himself that a brother didn't catch him removing the costume and makeup.
20	* {{ComicBook/Incognegro}} is a graphic novel series following Zane Pinchback, a reporter for a black newspaper in the early 1930s New York City and a black man born with very light skin. He infiltrates the Deep South to investigate and report on the KKK's criminal activities.
21	[[/folder]]
22
23	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
24	* A ''Tank [=McNamara=]'' arc involved the "{{token white}}" on a major basketball team: terrible at the game, but they kept him because he might give hope to white children that someday they ''might'' be able to play pro basketball. Then his teammates decided he'd gone too long without a shower ... and his whiteness washed off.... When Tank interviewed him, and asked if the deception had been tough, he exclaimed, "God, man, ''you'' pretend to like Music/TheBeachBoys for six years..."
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
28	* Creator/ChrisRock gets reincarnated into the body of a rich, white man in ''Film/DownToEarth2001''. The "straight, lame" part is averted though. He still most definitely behaves like Chris Rock... which gets him into awkward situations.
29	* Creator/LennyHenry in ''True Identity''.
30	* Shawn and Marlon Wayans combine this with DisguisedInDrag in ''Film/WhiteChicks''.
31	* Creator/EddieMurphy, thanks to the magic of ''really'' good makeup, played a CaptainErsatz of Richard Simmons in ''Film/{{The Nutty Professor\|1996}}''. You couldn't tell it was him unless you were explicitly told as such.
32	* Creator/EddieMurphy played the black barbershop's resident AlterKocker in ''Film/ComingToAmerica''.
33	* Creator/WhoopiGoldberg disguises herself as an elderly white businessman in ''Film/TheAssociate''.
34	* The lead character in ''Film/TheHebrewHammer'', at one point in the film, impersonates a Gentile. Although as an American Jew he should be in no way racially different, the whole scene is PlayedForLaughs very much in this way, as if being a Jew made one completely clueless of anything Gentile, and with the disguise being that of an outrageously stereotypical fundie redneck.
35	* ''Film/OJMadeInAmerica'': The documentary shows Creator/OJSimpson getting made up in "whiteface", as an elderly Jewish man Creator/EddieMurphy-style, for his surreal 2006 "comedy" special ''Juiced''.
36	* The lead character in ''Film/SorryToBotherYou'' is a down on his luck black telemarketer (played by Creator/LakeithStanfield) who finds success by calling clients using his "white voice" (dubbed by Creator/DavidCross).
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Literature]]
40	* In ''Literature/TheNewestPlutarch'', Esteban Ligeiro's "Ligeiro Albino", a chemical for turning black people white. First, there was a lot of controversy, then it turned out there are side effects... then [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory it turned out to be temporary]]]].
41	* PlayedForDrama in ''Literature/AfterTheRevolution''. Roland, a black man with his body full of [[{{Cyborg}} advanced military cybernetic hardware]] due to a stint in the US Army during the SecondAmericanCivilWar, has amongst his more special body modifications some implants that allows him to drastically alter his appearance. When recruited for infiltration and rescue mission alongside Manny, a local fixer, into the heavily right-wing and extremist Christian insurgent [[TheTheocracy theocracy]] of the Heavenly Kingdom, Roland disguises himself as a white man. This only serves to strengthen Roland's contempt for the Kingdom and its adherents, as he notices that while he flies under the radar, Manny, being of Hispanic descent, is near constantly subjected to varying degrees of racism by the inhabitants, both of the casual and the more serious kind.
42	* In ''Literature/TheStoryOfDoctorDolittle'', African prince Bumpo agrees to help the Doctor in exchange for making him white (he had earlier [[ThinksLikeARomanceNovel tried to kiss a sleeping princess]], but she was racist and rejected him for being black). The doctor does the best he can, but it doesn't last long, and Bumpo is back to normal by the next book.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46	* Creator/WhoopiGoldberg pulled a stunt of this nature during one of her hosting of the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Awards\|Ceremonies}}, where she came dressed and madeup as Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and called herself "Film/TheAfricanQueen".
47	* Any time Creator/DaveChappelle plays/impersonates/imitates a white person, it's always in the same calm monotone that says "I have nothing exciting about me because I'm ''extra'' vanilla." Chuck Taylor, the white news anchor that Chappelle plays on [[Series/ChappellesShow his show]], gets physically whiter and whiter with every appearance. In his final appearance in one of the Lost Episodes (pictured above), he's ''literally white''.
48	* Creator/EddieMurphy did this for the first time in an old ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' short where, with the help of a good make-up artist, he discovered that white people regularly give stuff to each other for free. All the time. It ends with him with several of friends undergoing the make-up process [[ItsForABook "to continue this strange education."]]
49	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'':
50	** An episode had an ImagineSpot where Turk (Donald Faison) portrayed a white insurance salesman "Cal Turk".
51	--->'''Cal Turk:''' Here at Cal Turk, we don't just sell insurance, we sell peace of mind. But only to white people. ''[beat]'' Would you like some milk?
52	** Another episode had a flashback to Turk and J.D.'s student days in which they were going to an African-American fraternity with Turk in whiteface and a visibly uncomfortable J.D. in blackface. Turk assured J.D. that as long as they were both there, the fraternity would get the gag, but then spotted a hot girl and ditched J.D. at the last second to go talk to her, meaning the black fraternity members answered the door to ''just'' J.D. in blackface and were not pleased.
53	* A series of sketches on ''Creator/LennyHenry: Live and Unleashed'' had Henry, not just in whiteface, but in a very convincing latex Creator/SteveMartin mask. At one point he rips it off while explaining "Inside every funky white man, there's an even funkier black man trying to get out!"
54	* One episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' sees [[TheDitz Tracy and Jenna]] betting to see if living as a black man in America is harder than living as a white woman in America, with Tracy donning white makeup and a dress to try and live a white woman's life (Jenna, meanwhile, puts on {{blackface}} and engages in ModernMinstrelsy, which Toofer quickly calls her out on). Eventually, both Tracy and Jenna each declare the other the winner of the bet.
55	* ''Series/LovecraftCountry'': [[spoiler:Ruby]] takes on a white appearance and name thanks to Williams' magic, enjoying how much easier life is for her in that guise.
56	* ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' has a skit called "Das Negros" in which two black men in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany wear whiteface and try and act white to fool an [[ThoseWackyNazis SS officer]] hunting for "Das Negros". There are also several skits in which they play characters who are white, including rednecks and Eastern European spy villains, though without any makeup.
57	* PlayedForDrama in ''Series/Watchmen2019'', as [[spoiler:Will Reeves]] dons whiteface around his eyes and spouts pro-Nazi rhetoric he knows is false to fully get into character as [[spoiler:Hooded Justice]].
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Music]]
61	* French rapper Kamini (who's of [[UsefulNotes/DemocraticRepublicOfTheCongo Zairian/Congolese]] descent) has made a song and a video clip titled ''[[https://youtu.be/GI8ocLayq3c "J'suis blanc"]]'' (''"I'm white"''), where God turns him white. He finds quite a few advantages to the situation... except for [[TeenyWeenie the size of something between his legs]].
62	* Zigzagged in Music/FrankZappa's "Music/YouAreWhatYouIs", featuring a young Caucasian [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy who starts singing the blues, talking in an exaggerated African-American dialect, eats chitlins, and uses Royal Crown pomade in his hair.]] By contrast, the young African-American stopped eating such soul foods as pork and greens, traded his dashiki for designer jeans, plays golf, and drives a Mercedes-Benz, acting like a white {{yuppie}}.
63	* Music/MichaelJackson was accused of doing this in RealLife. While it's undeniable that his skin tone started getting lighter around the mid-1980s or so and kept getting lighter for the rest of his life, the cause is a little disputed. General consensus is that he suffered from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo vitiligo]], a skin condition where parts of his skin suddenly lose their pigment. He dealt with this first by covering the light patches with dark foundation to match the rest of his skin, but as the disease progressed this became too difficult, so he resorted to using light foundation and then eventually straight up removing his remaining pigment with creams and injections. But there were persistent rumors that Jackson was ashamed of his blackness and trying to whitewash himself -- rumors that Jackson quite resented, having always identified as black and proud of it. The rumormongers also claim that Jackson got cosmetic surgery to remove his "black" facial features, and while he ''did'' get a lot of cosmetic surgery, a lot of it was to fix actual medical problems.[[note]]He broke his nose in 1979 and had several nose jobs because the first one was botched, making it difficult for him to breathe (if you sing and dance, that's ''real'' important). His thinning face was the result of weight loss -- a combination of dietary changes, tissue damage from lupus, and the dermal filler injections for his skin tone. He also claimed he ''always'' had prominent cheekbones from Native American ancestry. The only cosmetic change that actually appeared to be for beautification purposes was a chin dimple.[[/note]]
64	* The song "If I was White" by rapper Sticky Fingaz. Bonus points for featuring Music/{{Eminem}} on the hook.
65	* Music/{{Eminem}}'s imitation of Jackson in the music video of "Just Lose It" from ''Encore''.
66	* Music/{{Chamillionaire}} played a dual role as a white newsreader in his follow-up songs "Hip Hop Police" and "The Evening News".
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Web Videos]]
70	* In ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'', Malcolm once has to disguise as a white man in order to escape from a GenreSavvy Nostalgia Critic turned insane because of the miniseries based on Stephen King's ''Series/TheShining''. Thankfully, Malcolm manages to avoid being another victim of the BlackDudeDiesFirst trope, by putting on a rather impressive disguise with blonde wig, white shirt... he even reads a purely white book and listens to [[Music/MileyCyrus Wrecking Ball]]! Now that's dedication. In the behind-the-scenes, he was the only one not laughing at it and said he didn't know how to make it not offensive.
71	* Singer and talk show host Lexi Allen does this in numerous videos, such as ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-RzhjIuW2o White Church vs. Black Church]]''.
72	* [=YouTuber=] iSekC does this in his ''[[https://youtu.be/-c6vKoaqWvU Justin Bieber eats his own poop]]'' video that has over 30 million views and has been a great conversation starter at elementary school lunches all across the globe since 2010.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Real Life]]
76	* [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2381902/Robbers-disguised-white-cops-inspired-Ben-Affleck-movie-The-Town.html This incident]] in 2013 involved two African-American bank robbers disguising themselves as white cops using LatexPerfection-style silicone masks of "handsome" white bald guys.
77	* Can happen unintentionally in the case of vitiligo, which causes affected individuals to lose all the melanin in their skin, resulting in them looking freakishly white. The above-mentioned Music/MichaelJackson is probably the most famous case of this, if only due to his own high public profile, but it was well-documented even before Jackson stopped trying to retain his darker complexion, with the disease becoming a major source of dysphoria and discrimination among African-Americans and other people with naturally darker skin tones.
78	* Baseball player Sammy Sosa's skin complexion gradually became lighter and lighter starting in 2009, first making itself visible at an awards show that year before eventually leading to an infamous interview spot where he [[https://twitter.com/BigHeadBS/status/885488389679722496 looked]] like a bottle of Pepto Bismol. While many speculated that his lightening skin color was the result of steroid abuse, body dysphoria, or vitiligo (this being long after Jackson's battle with the disease became well-known), Sosa denied all of these rumors and explained that it was an unintended side effect of a nightly skin-softening cream he used.
79	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WhiteLikeMe