History Main / BlackDudediesfirst

''Harry:''' I've seen this movie, the black dude dies first. ''You'' snag it!

''Harry:''' "Snag one"?\\

->''"I've seen this movie, the black dude dies first."''
-->-- '''Harry''', ''Film/{{Evolution}}''

* While ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' is a game that can end with everybody either [[EveryoneDiesEnding dead]] or [[EverybodyLives alive]] depending on [[MultipleEndings how one plays it]], the lone black character Matt is one of the first characters who one can potentially get killed. What's more, it's likely that many first-time players ''will'' get him killed, due to the fact that, unlike [[SlashersPreferBlondes Jessica]], the one character who can die before him and whose fate hinges on the player successfully passing [[PressXToNotDie quick-time events]], the decisions that lead to an inescapable death for Matt -- being nice to Emily, choosing to head to the fire tower, using the flare gun to signal for help -- may [[ViolationOfCommonSense seem logical at first]].

* In BBC's ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'', they added black knights to Uther's court. The [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]] seem to love killing them, and if a knight needs to die to establish the threat, it will be the black dude. Being a black knight in ''Merlin'' appears to be like being a RedShirt in ''Star Trek''. Heaven help you if you're a black Knight and wearing a red tunic. The first major character to be killed in the series was Tom, who is also black.

* The first person killed by Morlant when he returns from the grave in ''Film/TheGhoul'' is Aga Ben Dragore's Arab servant Mahmoud.

* ''Film/ChristmasBlood'': While there have already been several white victims by this point in the movie, Ritika is the first of the main cast to be killed by the Santa killer.

* ''Film/DieHard'' inverts this with the terrorists. The group's hacker [[BlackAndNerdy Theo]] is the only one who doesn't die by the end of the film.

* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Darwin is the only one of the X-Men to die. A particularly egregious example of the trope given that [[AdaptiveAbility Darwin's power]] is ''specifically'' that he's incapable of dying.

* In ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', Darwin is the only one of the X-Men to die. A particularly egregious example of the trope given that [[AdaptiveAbility Darwin's power]] is ''specially'' that he's incapable of dying.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lily, who's biracial, was the first character to die.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* In the ''VideoGame/GhostRecon: Future Soldier'' prequel film ''Ghost Recon Alpha'', the one black member of the squad, Chuck, is the only one to die. Especially apparent in that the film replaces the bald and black leader "Ghost Lead" from the game with some random white guy, despite the rest of the squad being unchanged between the film and game.

* Played straight in [[Machinima/PinkiePiesExcitingAdventure Pinkie Pie's Exciting Adventure]], where the first character to die is a Demoman in Part 3.

* In ''Machinima/ADayInTheLifeOfACommissar'', two Guardsmen see Commissar Steve get gassed. One trooper, horrorstruck, wonders who's going to be the first to die. His buddy says "we should go by the movie rule that states the black guy always dies first." They're relived that none of their troops are black. But then one trooper says, "wait, I'm half-black!" and is promptly blown to pieces.

* In a Halloween special of ''LetsPlay/AnalogControl'' involving ''VideoGame/SlenderTheEightPages'', MJTR confided in his current, mixed-race cohost Trey that at least one of them would survive. If Slenderman started pursuing them, he'd be too busy killing Trey to get MJTR.

* At the beginning of ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', the film shows a black father desperate to save his [[IllGirl bedridden daughter who is suffering from some fatal sickness.]] He's approached by John Harrison, who tells the man he can save his daughter if he does something for him first. The black man commits a suicide terrorist bombing that kills hundreds of people and sets the movie's main plot.

* In ''Film/doctorstrange2'' the only black member of the Masters of the Mystic Arts is killed first when Scarlett Witch attacks the Kamar-Taj.

* Comicbook/BlackPanther is the first hero to be killed on-panel in ''Comicbook/AgeOfUltron'' (though [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]], Comicbook/{{Cyclops}}, and [[Comicbook/IncredibleHulk the Hulk]] [[GreatOffscreenWar were all stated to have been killed prior to the start of the story]]).

* While ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' is a game that can end with everybody either [[KillEmAll dead]] or [[EverybodyLives alive]] depending on [[MultipleEndings how one plays it]], the lone black character Matt is one of the first characters who one can potentially get killed. What's more, it's likely that many first-time players ''will'' get him killed, due to the fact that, unlike [[SlashersPreferBlondes Jessica]], the one character who can die before him and whose fate hinges on the player successfully passing [[PressXToNotDie quick-time events]], the decisions that lead to an inescapable death for Matt -- being nice to Emily, choosing to head to the fire tower, using the flare gun to signal for help -- may [[ViolationOfCommonSense seem logical at first]].

** In the first PaintballEpisode, Troy is the first member of the study group to be "killed". This is shockingly unlampshaded.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* In the first volume of ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'', African American Clyde Rawlins is the first and only member of the main cast of the story to die.

Compare GayGuyDiesFirst, VasquezAlwaysDies, DisposableWoman, SlashersPreferBlondes, and RedShirt. Contrast FinalGirl, an archetype guaranteed to make it to the end.

Over time and due to social push, access to higher-paying jobs and relative economical stability began to open up for black people, with more and more prominent black characters in films and other media, with more big-name black actors emerging to show off their talents. Studios had also ''finally'' accepted that white audiences are generally not as racist as was once assumed, and certainly do not need to have a white protagonist all the time in their favourite media. Obviously this trope is a lot less common nowadays but it's been noted that in action and horror movies even today, the minority guy is shockingly unlikely to survive to the end and may still be the second or third. At least they don't go down easy.