The film Black Like Me (1964) is a drama about a white journalist from Texas named John Horton (James Whitmore) who uses a combination of medication and heat lamps to darken his skin so he resembles a black man. He travels through the American South on a fact-finding mission to determine how
This film is based on a book of the same name, written by John Griffin to describe his experience preforming a fact-finding mission such as this in real life.
This fil provides examples of:
- "Angry Black Man" Stereotype: John starts out friendly and polite, but being subject to suspicion, accusations, invasive questions, and blatant racism on a daily basis cause John to become angry and bitter.
- Black Like Me: The Trope Namer.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: At one point in the film, a white man tells John that Black Is Bigger in Bed, and when John denies this the other man propositions him. John responds by almost strangling the man.
- Race Fetish: On at least two occasions, white men from the north feel comfortable asking John invasive questions about black sexuality. This proves to be a Berserk Button for John.
- Sexual Extortion: One white farmer openly brags to John about forcing black women who work for him as farm hands to have sex with him in exchange for employment. The farmer also states that it's common in his state.
- Where da White Women At?: John is happily married, but since people see him as a black man he falls under suspicion whenever he interacts with a white woman or girl, no matter how innocuously.
