What you’re really asking is “When people of color are turned, does their skin color change?” because not all African-Americans are people of color, and there are many people of color who are not African-Americans.

I have seen other vampires of color (”VoC”) in other media like Blade (1998), Blacula (1972), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Vamp (1986), Twilight Saga, True Blood (2008-2010), Vampire Diaries (2009-2010). The vampires I’m familiar with in those examples have retained their skin color.

You would probably get a better answer from @askavampirologist-blog​, because I think they have a wider spectrum of vampire media knowledge than I do, since this blog is mostly about Ricean vampires.

For Ricean vampires, they retain their original skin color, and over a very long period of time, their skin does become lighter. You would have to ask AR directly why she wrote her novels this way, I’m not going to guess at her intentions on that.

Here’s a VoC in QOTD:

“Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy,… His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time.”

^We don’t know how old this vampire is, but it appears that his own skin color acquired a “gold glow” when he was turned.

[^X] Akasha is an Egyptian VoC played in movie!QOTD by Aaliyah. According to Wiki, Aaliyah “was African American, and had Native American (Oneida) heritage from a grandmother.” Even though Aaliyah was not the same ethnicity of the fictional character, I was pleased that the filmmakers chose a person of color to play this vampire of color character. She was one of the best parts of the movie.

Akasha is described in the novels as having porcelain white skin because she is very old, and Ricean vampire physiology involves the lightening of the skin over time. This is a point of contention in the VC fandom, that AR has whitewashed her. I don’t have a stand on this partly because there is a debate as to what color the Ancient Egyptians’ skin really was. I have links to 2 articles about that, and some thoughts on the skin lightening issue, in a post from awhile back [X].

^This was from Vampires Suck (2010), a parody vampire movie, and aesthetically, I didn’t like the way they did the makeup for this vampire of color. He looks like someone assaulted him with baby powder! But that was probably intentional, to make him look unattractive? IDK maybe someone digs this look!