History Main / ColorMeBlack

* "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin

->Oh no! It's me! I'm a horrible black thing, I turned black!

-->-- '''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._W._Botha P.W. Botha]''', ''Series/SpittingImage''

Not to be confused with BlackLikeMe. In Black Like Me, the subject undergoes the change voluntarily while in Color Me Black, the subject is changed involuntarily. Also, Color Me Black is much more likely to involve supernatural forces than Black Like Me, which usually involves more realistic methods of changing one's appearance.

* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', Caesar's Legion looks down on ghouls. However, if you [[spoiler:nuke the Legion outpost at Dry Wells]], many of the Legion troops there are turned into ghouls.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode "A Walk On The Flip Side" (a parody of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'') has Montana Max, "rabbit-hater extraordinaire", wake up to find that he's a rabbit himself.

** He also uses it on a clueless Steve Dallas, who assumes it is a KarmicTwistEnding and starts searching for Rod Serling (of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'') in the bushes.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':
** There's an episode where a white racist is sent back in time and perceived by those around him as black, and is sent to UsefulNotes/NaziGermany where he is seen as a Jew.
** Sammy Davis, Jr. wrote in his autobiography that he suggested an episode have a white supremacist wake up one day and he's black. Rod Serling eventually wrote the story "Color Scheme" for his anthology ''Literature/TheSeasonToBeWary''. The other two stories in that collection were part of the ''Series/NightGallery'' pilot, but "Color Scheme" was seen as too raw even for 1970s TV.
** There's also "The Quality of Mercy" where a GI in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII who's just a little too enthused about killing is suddenly transformed into a Japanese soldier and hears his commander on that side speak in a bloodthirsty way about killing Americans.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Shades of Guilt", a white man sees a black man being attacked and drives away instead of helping. He later learns that the man was a college professor who was beaten to death by skinheads. As he is consumed by guilt his skin begins to darken over time until he looks just like the victim and ends up in the same situation.[[spoiler: It is actually a chance for him to realise that he was wrong and change his decision.]]

* In ''Film/HookLineAndSinker'', JerryLewis attempts to get revenge on his wife and her doctor lover who convinced him he was dying and urged him to have one last spree (and run up an unpayable credit card debt forcing him to flee forever). Before Lewis discovers the plot the doctor tells him the diagnosis was a mistake and arranges for a body to be shipped home in his place. Lewis switches that body (of a black man) with the body of a old time Southern Colonel being shipped home for a big funeral. During that funeral, after much pomp and Confederate flags the casket is opened for one last look and everyone is stunned to see the black man's corpse in there. The clueless undertaker says "I was going to ask you about that", and is promptly punched to the ground.

* RodSerling wrote a story called "Color Scheme" in ''Literature/TheSeasonToBeWary'' where a racist rabble-rouser in the South gets changed into a black man; his victim (a black civil rights preacher whose youngest daughter is killed when his house is set on fire by the mob the racist guy stirred up) turns white and [[IronicEcho uses the rabble-rouser's own words against him.]] [[DownerEnding It ends]] with the preacher returned to his black self but [[EvilStoleMyFaith pushed]] past the DespairEventHorizon and believing GodIsEvil and HumansAreBastards while the racist-- still black-skinned, what's left of him-- has been dragged to death behind a car.

* Subverted in an episode of ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch''. The morning after receiving a lecture fom one of her relatives about the importance of not judging by appearance, Sabrina checks herself in the mirror and is grateful that her appearance wasn't modified in the night. [[spoiler:Harvey, however, spends the episode transformed into a beast-man, and Sabrina has to accept him before the curse is undone.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has the boys making [[TokenEvilTeammate Cartman]] think he's...[[RedheadedStepchild a ginger]]. Freckles and hair dye. The episode then turns this on its head--rather than making Cartman rethink his horrible attitude, he actually ''starts a ginger supremacist movement'' and nearly kills every non-ginger in the town.

* Dave Chappelle does something very strange with this in one ''Series/ChappellesShow'' sketch. The sketch revolves around a BlindBlackGuy who grew up unaware of his own race and became a prominent KKK leader and writer of white supremacist literature. His race is kept secret by his friends, who make sure he is never seen in public out of his KKK robes and don't tell him he's black because they think it will make him kill himself just so there will be one less black person in the world. At the climax, he is speaking at a rally, when one audience member asks to see his face. Ignoring the protests from his friends, he rips off his hood and shocks the whole crowd full of rednecks (one guy's [[YourHeadAsplode head explodes]]). A WhereAreTheyKnow segment at the end of this sketch (which was framed as a news show doing a special feature) reveals that he has come to accept the fact that he is black... but he still divorced his wife "[[RefugeInAudacity because she's a nigger-lover]]".

* Creator/RayBradbury's "The Handler" is about a disgruntled undertaker, who defiles all the bodies sent to him with lessons they should have learned in life. In particular, a white supremacist is embalmed with ink, turning his skin 'black as night'. Memorably turned into a story for ''[[ECComics The Haunt of Fear]]''.

* A short-lived [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica South African]] comedy series called "The Coconuts" focused on a suburban white family that get turned black by a sangoma when they set up their camper on sacred ground.

* A short-lived [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica South African]] comedy series called "The Coconuts" focused on a suburban white family that [[ColourMeBlack get turned black]] by a sangoma when they set up their camper on sacred ground.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Shades of Guilt", a white man, because of reluctance, fear and suspicion (which had a lot to do with colour), doesn't provide assistance to a black man in danger who later turns out to be a college professor and is killed in a hate crime as a result. As he is consumed by guilt the white man's skin then begins to darken over time until he looks just like the victim and ends up in the same situation.[[spoiler: It is actually a chance for him to realise that he was wrong and be able to make the right choice and he does.]]

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': "Tribunal", the 100th episode, featured an ending where a Nazi war criminal who's escaped justice for 50 years is put into the uniform of his prisoners and taken back in time to his own camp. His younger self shoots him after the "old Jewish man" says he isn't supposed to be there, and in an attempt to explain himself to his younger self cites details from his childhood and seriously disturbs the younger self.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Shades of Guilt", a white man, because of reluctance, fear and suspicion, doesn't provide assistance to a black man in danger who later turns out to be a college professor and is killed in a hate crime as a result. As he is consumed by guilt the white man's skin then begins to darken over time until he looks just like the victim and ends up in the same situation.[[spoiler: It is actually a chance for him to realise that he was wrong and be able to make the right choice and he does.]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'': In "Shades of Guilt", a white man doesn't provide assistance to a black man in danger who turns out to be a college professor and is killed in a hate crime as a result. The white man's skin then begins to darken over time until he looks just like the victim and ends up in the same situation.

* Dave Chappelle does something very strange with this in one ''Series/ChappellesShow'' sketch. The sketch revolves around a black man, blind from birth, who was raised as a white man...''and'' as a white supremacist. At the climax, he's speaking at a hate rally, dressed in KKK-style regalia so as to hide his face. [[spoiler:When he lifts up the hood, his redneck allies just sit there with the most priceless expressions on their faces. CrossesTheLineTwice when the host of the news show doing the story on him does a little WhereAreTheyNow segment at the end, which reveals that although he has come to terms with being a black man, he divorced his wife "because she was a nigger-lover".]] You can watch it [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/7nnosh/chappelle-s-show--frontline----clayton-bigsby-pt--1---uncensored here]].

** Sammy Davis, Jr. wrote in his autobiography that he suggested an episode have a white supremacist wake up one day and he's black. Rod Serling eventually wrote the story "Color Scheme" for his anthology ''Literature/TheSeasonToBeWary''. The other two stories in that collection were part of the ''NightGallery'' pilot, but "Color Scheme" was seen as too raw even for 1970s TV.