Racial transformation is the process by which someone changes their appearance with respect to race, either from their current race to another race or to a new category. These changes are currently done through a variety of methods including surgery or chemical treatments.
Racial transformation is similar to passing; however, it requires someone attempt a medical procedure, rather than lying about one's race or a physical disguise such as in the movie White Chicks. Racial transformation refers to something surgical, medical, or an attempt at permanence.
Attempted full physical transformation is exceedingly rare, but some see a number of controversial appearance-changing practices as motivated by racial assimilation, though most practicing them claim their motivation is purely aesthetic.
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Fictional studies of race choice and transformation have often occurred in drama and literature and especially in works of science fiction. In Greg Bear's books Eon and Eternity, new human consciousness is created in a virtual realm and the parents choose the race of their children when it is time for them to be 'birthed' into the real physical world. In this work as well, many humans do not conform to the standard human shape and choose a variety of form and sizes in which to exist both in the physical world and in the virtually.
In an episode of the animated TV show South Park, Kyle tries out for the basketball team, but is not very good. Wanting to be better, he goes to a plastic surgeon and asks if there is a surgery to make him tall and black. The doctor recommends a "negroplasty" for Kyle. The surgery is done, but Kyle's knees bust during the basketball game. The doctor decides to revert him back to his normal white self, for a "small fee".
In another example, the movie Soul Man from 1986 involved race transformation of a white applicant to Harvard Law School. Unable to pay for tuition, the main character received a scholarship under the pretense of being black. [2]
The cast of the MTV reality TV show Jersey shore openly voice their preference for having darker skin/ tanning. They openly discuss their dislike of having light/ pale skin, so they tan themselves to a more ethnic skin color.
University of California, Berkeley offers a course on racial transformation, including references to Michael Jackson.[1]
Hair texture and color can have racial undertones, and straightening or coloring has been seen by the Black is Beautiful movement as an attempt at racial assimilation.
Skin whitening, often with harsh and potentially dangerous bleaches, is common in some parts of the world particularly in China, and some parts in Asia, Africa and Jamaica. In the U.S.A. and Europe tanning is very popular although tanning has shown many times to be very dangerous and harsh to the skin. Also in white/European communities tanning is not seen as trying to change one's race.
Propaganda such as racial transformation in minority groups trying to look more white/European is a negative view point because of history primarily in the U.S.A.and the Americas. During the time of slavery having lighter skin was seen as more acceptable than darker complexions and was used to separate people of color. Lighter skin was used as a survival method because for many it mean't they had more privileges and many used those privileges to help darker slaves, particularly escaping to freedom.
In today's society (mostly in minority communities) skin lightening/whitening and hair coloring/straightening are seen as trying to become white/European. In many cultures such as in Asia's many cultures lighter skin was seen as someone of wealth and who did not have to work in the fields and was also a sign of beauty. Skin lightening had taken place in Asia and various places before the slavery in the U.S.A. and the Americas.
However, this movement has become rather fashionnable today, and now some more criteria have appeared. This new fashion now also deals with eyes and hair color, since in many minority communities, it has become common to dye one's hair, have it straight and sometimes use color lenses. Surgery is also commmon, and minority magazines promote a new kind of beauty, using widely pictures of non-Caucasian persons (and celebrities) who abide by this fashion, changing their appearance to erase their non-European features and get closer to a Caucasian-like appearance, like Beyoncé or Tyra Banks (who admitted it in a TV show, presented in The Modern Racist Paradigm, a documentary).
Some consider tanning as an attempt to attain an ethnic skin color by looking darker. However, tanning is a natural skin process, especially for European peoples in summer (unlike skin whitening, which is unnatural). European people who are willing to get a tan are less willing to adopt other non-eureopean features such as black eyes and hair (unlike some non-European people who also want to get straight hair, use color lenses and sometimes even ressort to surgery to erase their 'ethnic' features). What is more, it is not widely promoted in magazines (mainly for health reasons) unlike white transformation in minority magazines and media. It is more a seasonnable fashion, since European people are not usually keeping their tan all year long but merely keep their natural skin color after summer. Therefore tanning may not be regarded as racial transformation.
However, in some southern European countries with warm climates such as Italy, Portugal and Spain (particularly the southern regions of these countries), many people have olive skin complexions. The same can be said of white Latin Americans who live in warm climates who primarily descend from this groups. Interestingly, despite being thought of as white, their skin complexions are viewed as dark and the ideal skin tone goal of tanning for white people who wish to get a tan.
Some plastic surgery procedures, such as Asian blepharoplasty, a surgical process designed to create an upper eyelid crease in people of East Asian descent, or rhinoplasty to change the appearance of an "ethnic" nose, can also be seen in a racial context. Lip augmentation (lip collagen and lip implants) is a very popular surgical procedure choice of white women, this surgical procedure enlarges the patients lips to a fuller lip size, changing their lips from Caucasian to ethnic/ black. Another surgical choice of white women is buttock augmentation (buttock implants and buttock enlarging injections), which gives the surgery patient buttocks that resembles a black woman's buttocks.