History Main / NoEqualOpportunityTimeTravel

* 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 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 she has gained of Tori from the future.
* Loosely features in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''/''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).

Modern 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.

*** 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 — the taboo was being, if one was gay, the receiver rather than the giver; 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).

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 school' (i.e. university) in the "Great Lakes" area USA 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 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).

* 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".

* 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.

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 school' (i.e. university) in the "Great Lakes" area USA 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 and simply having a non-English name could cause you a lot of trouble. Go back to 1600 and you're more likely to be ragged on about your religion than your race: [[NewerThanTheyThink modern racism as we think of it was in its infancy at this time]]. Before 1600, time travel would actually be pretty equal-opportunity; at least for straight, cisgendered men.

->''"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.'"''

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMen'', 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 ComicBook/{{Storm}} and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (an African woman and a white man, respectively) are a couple. Naturally, this makes Wolverine completely flip out.

* 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 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. Part of Jade's time in the past sees her struggle to find the balance between being a supportive friend for Tori and outright taking advantage of her or scaring her away.

** "[[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 woman scoff at the idea of not being basically slaves.

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 school' (i.e. university) in the "Great Lakes" area USA 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 officially ban slavery until the very last months of the Civil War.[[note]]The Emancipation Proclamation had already come into effect at the time, but it was only used to free slaves in Confederate territory; the justification being that it would hamstring the economies of the rebellious states and not that it would decide forever the ultimate fate of slavery, the uncertain and controversial future of which had been a big factor in starting the war.[[/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 and simply having a non-English name could cause you a lot of trouble. Go back to 1600 and you're more likely to be ragged on about your religion than your race: [[NewerThanTheyThink modern racism as we think of it was in its infancy at this time]]. Before 1600, time travel would actually be pretty equal-opportunity; at least for straight, cisgendered men.

-->''"It would be neat to go back in time and meet that famous person. Would it? You really think that people in the 1700s or 1800s are gonna let my Black ass near a president? I wouldn't even be allowed in the White House. But I would be allowed to work outside of it."''
-->-- Amber Ruffin.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': 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.

* Cited on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' 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]]

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': 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).

* Averted in ''Film/BlackKnight''. 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.

* In the 1990's DC series ''Chronos,'' about a time traveler named Walker Gabriel (who, we eventually learn, is half Chinese and half ''ancient Mayan)'' his 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.

* 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.

* In ''Series/SecretsOfSulphurSprings'', African-American teenager Harper, traveling from 2020, isn't allowed into the Tremont Hotel in 1960. Showing amazing naivete, her white best friend Griffin actually doesn't understand why, at first, until Harper reminds him of when they are.

* In ''Series/SecretsOfSulphurSprings'', African-American teenager Harper isn't allowed into the Tremont Hotel in 1960. Showing amazing naivete, her white best friend Griffin actually doesn't understand why, at first, until Harper reminds him of when they are.

** 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.