Annmarie Throckmorton, M.A.
- Apr 12

If I Were Negroid

Look at me, look closely at me. See my skin color? Look closer, at the color of my freckles. I have a lot of them, especially on my face and arms which the sun kissed me for many years. My guess is that if I were Negroid this is the lovely color of toast that I would be.

Half a century ago, I recall a race "conversion" machine in a little museum somewhere in Georgia, USA that claimed to photograph your face and then displayed how you would look if you were Negroid, with altered skin tone, facial features, and hair. I did not recognize myself in that dark portrayal, and I guess that was the point of it. Half a century later I wonder if the museum showed the same couple of pictures to everyone, and perhaps the claims of conversion were simple trickery. But it started me thinking.

I think that I would like very much to write a science fiction story about a future where everyone could instantaneously change their skin, eyes, hair, to whatever color they chose; like squid or octopi. We would have tiny color-changing chromatophores and iridescent iridophores throughout our epidermis. We would use our muscles and emotional states to expand or contract those color-changers to any hue imaginable. Our color changes would communicate our mood or emotional intentions, heightening our sociability and beauty.

Colors Of Choice