Word.ws English Dictionary

once you go black

once you go black phrase: once a person of another race has a sexual relationship with a black person, implying that they will not return to having sexual relationships with members of the former race.

Phrase

once you go black

  1. (informal) Once a person of another race has a sexual relationship with a black person, implying that they will not return to having sexual relationships with members of the former race.
    • Is it true what they say about once you go black . . . .2009, Carleen Brice, Children of the Waters: A Novel, page 78
    • “What did I say about once you go black?” “Lila, if it was just sex I could understand...”2014, Sam Leonard, Messenger from God: A Story of Fate and Faith, page 183

Origin of once you go black

Clipping of once you go black, you never go back.

Questions about once you go black

What does once you go black mean?
Once you go black means once a person of another race has a sexual relationship with a black person, implying that they will not return to having sexual relationships with members of the former race.
What part of speech is once you go black?
Once you go black is a phrase.

Words near once you go black in the dictionary

  1. once or twice
  2. once over
  3. once overs
  4. once removed
  5. once upon a time
  6. once you go black
  7. once you go black, you never go back
  8. once you go Persian, there's no other version
  9. once-in-a-generation
  10. once-in-a-lifetime
  11. once-off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: once you go black (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-once you go black.wav.

Cite this entry: “once you go black.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/once_you_go_black. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.