History Main / InnocentBigot

* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': Blaze calls his [[FishEyes walleyed]] girlfriend Tracey "Ditzy-Doo" in "The Cameo." Played with in that he has apparently done this more than once, given Tracey's angry reaction.

* In the anonymously-published 1808 novel ''Literature/TheWomanOfColour,'' the biracial protagonist's young nephew calls her and her Black maid "dirty" for their dark skin. When she explains they are "quite as clean as you," he argues but does listen to her, and he comes to question the more obvious abuses of slavery when the protagonist tells him of them.

* ''Series/DaAliGShow'': Creator/SachaBaronCohen's character Borat is very much this with his antisemitism. He comes across as more pitiable than malicious when, for example, he faces a sweet elderly Jewish couple and acts like they are a pair of rabid dogs which might attack him any moment.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': After advice from black comedian [[Creator/ChrisRock Booda Sack]], Bobby looks up jokes about white people to develop comedy material, which leads him to a White Nationalist website. And when he shares the jokes at the comedy club, in front of a black audience, it goes as well as you would expect. He's obviously not racist, just doesn't understand what he's saying is offensive.

** When Trenderhoof (a unicorn writer) falls for Applejack (an earth pony farmer), he remarks to her that he has "such respect for the work ethic of earth ponies." He was genuinely well-meaning with it and didn't realize it was a case of discrimination, but Applejack was put off by it all the same.

* Cap'n Cuttlefish in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. Being a veteran of a war against the Octarians, he gets ''very'' awkward when attempting to befriend them, despite sincerely wanting to help mend the old wounds between the two species. While the original Japanese dialogue has him simply repeat ad nauseam that anyone who likes the [[MagicMusic Calamari Inkantation]] is a friend whenever the topic comes up, the English localization has him fall into this, attempting to shower Marina with compliments after Pearl demands that he be extra nice to the Octoling. Leading to lines like the oh-so-familiar "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace you are so articulate]]". Funnily enough, [[spoiler:he used to be good friends with an Octarian in his youth, before the war; [[BigBad DJ Octavio]], no less]].

* Cap'n Cuttlefish in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. Being a veteran of a war against the Octarians, he gets ''very'' awkward when attempting to befriend them, despite sincerely wanting to help mend the old wounds between the two species. While the original Japanese dialogue has him simply repeat that anyone who likes the [[MagicMusic Calamari Inkantation]] is a friend ad nauseam, unable to think of anything else to say on the matter, the English localization has him fall into this, attempting to shower Marina with compliments after Pearl demands that he be extra nice to the Octoling. Leading to lines like the oh-so-familiar "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace you are so articulate]]". Funnily enough, [[spoiler:he used to be good friends with an Octarian in his youth, before the war; [[BigBad DJ Octavio]], no less]].

* Cap'n Cuttlefish in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. Being a veteran of a war against the Octarians, he gets ''very'' awkward when attempting to befriend them, despite sincerely trying to help mend the old wounds between the two species. He even compliments one Octarian, Marina, with the oh-so-familiar "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace you are so articulate]]". Funnily enough, [[spoiler:he used to be good friends with an Octarian in his youth, before the war; [[BigBad DJ Octavio]], no less]].

'''Asuna:''' I'm sorry! It's just, you look like a very {{angry black man}}.\\

* ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'': Miss Morello. Though seemingly well-intentioned and genuinely supportive of Chris, she constantly makes ridiculous assumptions about his family life and financial situation based on his race, and usually refuses to believe Chris when he attempts to correct her. She goes so far as to guess that Chris has at least 15 half-siblings and that his mother is single and on drugs. The height of this occurs when Chris attempts to apply for affirmative action at an elite school so that he can attend high school with his best friend Greg, and is initially accepted purely because of the ridiculous claims Miss Morello had made about Chris's family situation being a complete trainwreck. After this is discovered, Miss Morello is completely shocked and asks Chris why he would lie, to which he simply shakes his head in disdain. After becoming the principal of Chris's high school in season 4, she also does this to a Puerto Rican teacher who Chris convinces to break curriculum by showing movies in class as a learning tool, stating that she [[CriticalResearchFailure "doesn't know how they do it in Puerto Rico," but in America]] teachers know not to stray from curriculum.

Very often TruthInTelevision, particularly due to differing social values between cultures and even between different points in a nation's history. InnocentlyInsensitive is the supertrope. The character might grow into a TroubledSympatheticBigot, especially if CerebusSyndrome ensues. Other related tropes include CondescendingCompassion, PositiveDiscrimination, FairForItsDay, TheIngenue, MistakenForRacist, ObliviouslyEvil, RacistGrandma, ValuesDissonance, VirginityMakesYouStupid, YouKnowImBlackRight, YouAreACreditToYourRace, and NotLikeOtherGirls. For honest error rather than honest ignorance, see NobleBigot.

** When Trenderhoof (a unicorn writer) falls for Applejack (an earth pony farmer), he remarks to her that he has "such respect for the work ethic of earth ponies." He was genuinely well-meaning with it and didn't realize it was a case of PositiveDiscrimination, but Applejack was put off by it all the same.

* Cap'n Cuttlefish in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2''. Being a veteran of a war against the Octarians, he gets ''very'' awkward when attempting to befriend them, despite sincerely trying to help mend the old wounds between the two species. He even compliments one Octarian, Marina, with the oh-so-familiar "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace articulate]]". Funnily enough, [[spoiler:he used to be good friends with an Octarian in his youth, before the war; [[BigBad DJ Octavio]], no less]].

* Miss Morello from ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'' is this UpToEleven. Though seemingly well-intentioned and genuinely supportive of Chris, she constantly makes ridiculous assumptions about his family life and financial situation based on his race, and usually refuses to believe Chris when he attempts to correct her. She goes so far as to guess that Chris has at least 15 half-siblings and that his mother is single and on drugs. The height of this occurs when Chris attempts to apply for affirmative action at an elite school so that he can attend high school with his best friend Greg, and is initially accepted purely because of the ridiculous claims Miss Morello had made about Chris's family situation being a complete trainwreck. After this is discovered, Miss Morello is completely shocked and asks Chris why he would lie, to which he simply shakes his head in disdain. After becoming the principal of Chris's high school in season 4, she also does this to a Puerto Rican teacher who Chris convinces to break curriculum by showing movies in class as a learning tool, stating that she [[CriticalResearchFailure "doesn't know how they do it in Puerto Rico," but in America]] teachers know not to stray from curriculum.

* ''Series/{{Peacemaker 2022}}'': Peacemaker himself constantly makes comments about the attractiveness of his female colleagues, is often referred to as "that racist supervillain" because he seems to kill a disproportionate number of non-white criminals, and thinks climate change is a hoax because he gets all his news off Facebook. But he ''does'' genuinely intend his comments as compliments (he never comments on his plus-size coworker), he kills ''all'' criminals (and promises to be less trusting of white people so he'll kill more of them), and he has no reason to disbelieve what he hears in his Facebook bubble. Not to mention we meet his father, the explicitly white-supremicist supervillain White Dragon, who constantly disparages Peacemaker for being a "candy-ass" because apparently he doesn't kill ''enough'' people. In a way, it's the opposite of the sheltered bigot; Peacemaker's father is ''so much worse'' that he considers his son a "limp-dicked liberal commie," so it makes sense that Peacemaker would genuinely consider himself a feminist LGBT ally when ''that'' is what he's comparing himself to.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_monkey_man.png]]]]

* In the anonymously-published 1808 novel ''Literature/TheWomanOfColour,'' the biracial protagonist’s young nephew calls her and her Black maid “dirty” for their dark skin. When she explains they are “quite as clean as you,” he argues but does listen to her, and he comes to question the more obvious abuses of slavery when the protagonist tells him of them.

* Klara Prast, a 12-year-old immigrant from the 1900s who was brought into the 21st century by the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, has a tendency to say potentially insulting things to people who are different -- she once mistook the Young X-Men for demons (and even after learning that mutants are not demons, could be seen staring warily at the burka-clad devout Muslim Dust) and mistook Tigra for a prostitute because of her skimpy clothing. But she doesn't actually mean to insult people; she just has a relatively limited understanding of the modern world. Subverted in ''ComicBook/RainbowRowellsRunaways'', where she has been adopted by an interracial gay couple and gets upset when her friends insinuate that her dads might be supervillains.

* ''FanFic/BondsThroughTimeTheAdventuresOfInuyashaAndKagome'': In their initial meeting, Sango assumes that Kagome "tamed" Inuyasha and refers to him as a "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace credit to his kind]]."

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** A partial case with Creator/WilliamShakespeare. When meeting Martha (who's already worried about being sold into slavery in this time), the Bard refers to her as a "delicious blackamoor lady." Martha is a bit offended by the term, but Shakespeare apologizes and asks if she would prefer any of the other terms his society claims should be used: "An Ethiop girl? A swarth? A Queen of Afric?" The Doctor points out that this is a case of PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, just like in modern times, so Shakespeare wasn't being offensive; in fact, he was trying to be polite.

* Klara Prast, a 12-year-old immigrant from the 1900s who was brought into the 21st century by the ComicBook/{{Runaways}}, has a tendency to say potentially insulting things to people who are different -- she once mistook the Young X-Men for demons (and even after learning that mutants are not demons, could be seen staring warily at the burka-clad devout Muslim Dust) and mistook Tigra for a prostitute because of her skimpy clothing. But she doesn't actually mean to insult people; she just has a relatively limited understanding of the modern world.
** Subverted in ''ComicBook/RainbowRowellsRunaways'', where she has been adopted by an interracial gay couple and gets upset when her friends insinuate that her dads might be supervillains.

* Marv from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' causally uses slurs and has some embarrassingly outdated views, but he clearly has no malicious or bigoted intent behind his behavior; he's just [[{{Manchild}} a naive, childlike guy]] raised with a lot of [[FairForItsDay old-fashioned]] ideas and attitudes. Of note is a scene where he refers to his lesbian parole officer as a dyke in the same breath as generously complimenting her, while also doing so in a way that indicates he doesn't even understand what being gay ''means'', admitting he doesn't understand why she's a lesbian when she's pretty enough to get any man she could want but shrugging it off as a personal choice.

* A common gag in the early comics of ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'', when the Freemans first move to Woodcrest. Though [[http://hueyfreemanonlyspeaksthetruth.tumblr.com/image/40052056313 Cindy McPhearson]] was the usual go-to character for this kind of joke, the teachers and principal of Huey and Riley's school were also fairly common examples of this as well - at least, before they [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappeared from the strip]].

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal, Johanna Smith-Rhodes is from the Disc's expy of [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra apartheid]]UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica. She has never really questioned her society's attitudes to black people before. Arriving in Ankh-Morpork, aged nineteen, she still believes the white race is superior and that black people are The White Man's Burden; that they are a few levels below the whites because the gods ordained this and as such are more to be pitied than scolded. It takes a few difficult encounters - such as speaking to a black Howondalandian pupil at the Assassins' School in a pidgin of native words drawn from several languages and treating a girl who is a Zulu Princess on the same level as if she were a Bantu housemaid or field-hand -- for her to start realising that it might be best to leave AmoralAfrikaner ways at home and do differently.
* {{Fanon}} has Apple from ''Ever After High'' as an [[TransparentCloset oblivious]] lesbian who doesn't grasp same-gender relationships well (especially her own feelings for Raven, often with a heavy hint of SelectiveObliviousness) due to the conservative, traditionalist nature of her upbringing. This appears in works such as ''Fanfic/TheTrueLoveLoophole'' and ''Fanfic/{{Girlfrenemies}}''.

* Asuna falls prey to this in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' when interacting with Agil, a black player who goes by Tiffany in this treatment. She tries not to be racist around him and so resorts to painfully stilted JiveTurkey speech, which pisses him off, and apologizes for using phrases like "a pot calling the kettle black."
-->'''Agil/Tiffany:''' What? It's a turn of phrase, it's got nothing to do with race.\\
'''Asuna:''' I'm sorry! It's just, you look like a very {{angry black man}}.\\
'''Tiffany:''' Okay, now you see that? ''That'' was racist.\\
'''Kirito:''' (''[[{{Troll}} grinning]]'') Ah, this is great, see? We're learnin' stuff. But in all seriousness, Tiff, could'ja check out this weapon before Asuna starts a full-on race war?

* Similarly, Jimmy Livingston from the ''Film/BubbleBoy'', due to being raised by TheFundamentalist. When dealing with Pushpop, a Hindu man who's hit his DespairEventHorizon after killing a cow...

* In ''Film/FreeGuy'', when Guy discovers that Millie finds him charming and funny, he tries to keep his momentum going by telling her a joke. Unfortunately, it’s a homophobic joke that Guy heard from one of the players. Millie then advises Guy not to repeat what he hears from trolls.

* The TwistEnding of ''Film/{{North}}'' implies [[spoiler:the title character]] may be this.

** Deconstructed in "Colors". Bayliss's cousin Jim shoots Turkish exchange student Hikmet Gershel in perceived self-defense, and Pembleton investigates. He pieces together that Gershel had thought he was at a Music/{{KISS}}-themed party and had mistaken Jim's warnings for a joke, and pushed for his conviction much to Bayliss's anger. When Jim is acquitted and Bayliss confronts Pembleton about it, Pembleton bluntly tells Bayliss that Jim is unaware of his own racism, which paradoxically makes him more dangerousnow believes he shot the student out of racism and that he intends to leave Baltimore out of guilt.
--> '''Bayliss:''' My cousin could not consciously kill someone.\\

* Ichabod Crane of ''Series/SleepyHollow'' has a moment of this in the Pilot when he asks African-American police officer Abbie Mills if she's "been emancipated." He's been asleep for the last 200+ years, [[FishOutOfTemporalWater so it takes some time for him to adjust.]]
** Since he does not know how the Civil War ended, it is a reasonable question. Later, he seems more bemused by a female police officer than an African American one.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Dr. Bashir, chief medical officer of ''Deep Space Nine'', comes from the Federation and is thus pretty much free of prejudice along gender, race, or sexual orientation lines... but he still calls working on Bajor "real frontier medicine" to the face of a Bajoran patriot. Some commentators have noted that the very name of the series implies this trope by referring to a space station located near a civilized planet as ''Deep Space'' Nine, seemingly just because it is far from [[EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Earth]].
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': When Shran calls Archer "pinkskin", it's a combination of FantasticSlur and InsultOfEndearment. When his (adorable) daughter does it, it's clearly this trope.

* In ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' this behavior would be perfectly good roleplaying in many situations. For instance, in the introductory adventure on the moon, it is perfectly reasonable for the player characters to react to the insect-like Selenites with something like: "Gosh, I thought giant ants would be stupid, hive-minded and vicious -- but you’re just people who just happens to look really unpleasant to us."

-->'''Mochi''': I'm glad we could become friends! Even though you're a wolf, you've been so nice to me all day!\\
'''Treat''': Could you... stop saying that?\\
'''Mochi''': Huh? Saying what?\\
'''Treat''': ...When you say "even though you're a wolf", and try to compliment me... doesn't that assume wolves are supposed to be bad?\\
'''Mochi''': N-no! It's not that I think ALL wolves are bad... it's just, I always thought they can't resist eating bunnies like me!\\
'''Treat''': But that's the problem.\\
'''Mochi''': ...Huh? but normally... That's just how it is, right? It's just nature!\\
'''Treat''': I know... I just... don't want anyone to think I'm bad... that wolves are bad...

* Asuna in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' appears to have a ''very'' outdated idea on black people. When trying to converse with Tiffany [[GenderBlenderName (Agil's name in the abridged)]], she tries talking in a terribly rendered form of JiveTurkey and catches herself in near offensive jokes. To be fair, [[AntiHero it's]] [[HeroicComedicSociopath not]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold that]] [[{{Yandere}} bad]].

** Deconstructed in "Colors". Bayliss's cousin Jim shoots a Turkish exchange student in perceived self-defense, and Pembleton investigates. He pieces together that the student had thought he was at a Music/{{KISS}}-themed party and had mistaken Jim's warnings for a joke, and pushed for his conviction much to Bayliss's anger. Meanwhile, throughout the episode, it's shown that Jim is a caring, genuinely good man, but he's also deeply racist. In the end, he's acquitted much to Pembleton's anger, who expresses to Bayliss that he feels Jim's brand of racism is by far the most dangerous, as it's otherwise undetectable. The final scene has Jim tearfully confess to Bayliss that he now believes he shot the student out of racism and that he intends to leave Baltimore out of guilt.

--> --> '''Bayliss:''' My cousin could not consciously kill someone.\\

* A common gag in the early comics of ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'', when the Freemans first move to Woodcrest. Though [[http://hueyfreemanonlyspeaksthetruth.tumblr.com/image/40052056313 Cindy McPhearson]] was the usual go-to character for this kind of joke, the teachers and principal of Huey and Riley's school were also fairly common examples of this as well - at least, before they disappeared from the strip.

* As shown in the quote, Quasimodo from ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' was raised to believe that Romani are sinful and evil. He blatantly tells Esmeralda that she's "not like the others" because she's not evil like "other gypsies". To add to the issue, Quasimodo is actually Romani himself.
* Petrie from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' calls Littlefoot a "flathead" several times when he first meets him. It's implied from Littlefoot's reaction -- and that Longnecks seem to be a general target of prejudice in the film -- that this is something along the lines of a racial slur. Furthermore, he stops using this word as the film goes on and as he gets to know Littlefoot better.

* After hearing an adult say it, the little white girl in ''Film/CorrinaCorrina'' tells her best friend, a young black girl, "I'm a nigger lover." Though the friend objects, she then realizes that she's not sure why it's a mean thing to say, either.]

* In ''Film/RushHour'', Jackie Chan's character inadvertently provokes a brawl after saying "What's up, my n***a?" to a black bartender right after he saw Chris Tucker's character say it, not realizing it's considered offensive [[NWordPrivileges when a non-black says it]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Talisa in her backstory. She recalls never questioning living in slave-dependent Volantis until a slave committed a capital offense to save her brother.

** Elliot was raised in an exclusive, white, upper-class environment and when she comes to work at Sacred Heart, she inadvertently offends almost everybody because she has never been in a mixed-race, mixed-class environment. [[CharacterDevelopment She gradually learns what is offensive]] and eventually becomes best friends with Carla, who originally hated Elliot's bigotry.

** Wrex also calls out Kaidan for making a similar comment... but in all fairness, even other krogan say that Wrex is an unusually calm and thoughtful example of the species. And he's also shown to [[{{troll}} enjoy pretending to be offended by something so that he can watch people squirm]].

* Young BJ Blazkowicz is revealed to have been one in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', largely due to his father being an AbusiveParent who blamed everyone else for his failing business. Upon Billy's first meeting with [[NamesTheSame Billie]], a young black girl, he runs down the LongList of why his daddy wouldn't want him playing with her while looking for tadpoles to catch.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', the team ends up in a dimension that's an AffectionateParody of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, with social mores similar to [[TheFifties 1950s]] United States. One of the superheroes there, a white man, sincerely tells John Stewart, the African-American Green Lantern, "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace You're a credit to your people, son]]." It's clear that he genuinely means it as a compliment, and it probably is a forward-thinking thing to say [[FairForItsDay by the standards of that universe]]. (John is obviously not pleased, but he's understanding enough to take it in the spirit it was intended.)

** Rainbow Dash, similarly, once let slip the phrase "stubborn as a mule" but immediately realized it to be an in-universe slur and apologized to a nearby mule who didn't care.

* British people are often taken aback to be told that in the USA, the word "Jap" is a pejorative term for Japanese and Japanese-American people. Unless you are part of the dwindling number of older people with [=WW2=] experience, this genuinely is not intended as an insult[[note]]Fourteenth Army veterans tend to have even more blistering words for their wartime enemy[[/note]]. "Jap" is just an abbreviated version of "Japanese".

-->-- '''Quasimodo''', ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame''

* As shown in the quote, Quasimodo from ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' was raised to believe that Romani are sinful and evil. He blatantly tells Esmeralda that she's "not like the others" because she's not evil like "other gypsies". To add to the issue, Quasimodo is actually Romani himself.

** Bayliss, who's less malicious as he is blinkered in his heteronormative attitudes and unaware of his own biases. He's frequently called out by Pembleton and Lewis for repeatedly assuming that poor, black suspects are automatically guilty, and he shows abject disgust at non-heteronormative subcultures.

NobleBigot is a closely related trope. The difference is that the Noble Bigot has attitudes that are overtly bigoted and probably understands perfectly well that their beliefs would be considered offensive by many people, but is a good person otherwise. The Innocent Bigot holds absolutely no malice toward the people they offend, and sincerely has no idea that their ideas about other cultures are ignorant, insensitive and harmful. It is not quite this simple in RealLife, where the Innocent Bigot and the Noble Bigot can subtly overlap (e.g., a character ''really'' wants to be kind to people who are different and tries their best, but harbors feelings of fear or resentment deep down which occasionally manifest themselves as crude comments[[note]]In RealLife things get even more complex ''again'', in that the institutionalized prejudice of the environment where someone grows up colors their views at a subconscious level, and even if they know at an intellectual level what the ''right'' viewpoint is, they may be fighting their own background in-built responses in trying ''not'' to react to someone different in an offensive way! This is often the case for people who come from non-diversive communities and suddenly interact with people that they are unfamiliar with, or in unfamiliar ways[[/note]]).

Very often TruthInTelevision, particularly due to differing social values between cultures and even between different points in a nation's history. InnocentlyInsensitive is the supertrope. The character might grow into a TroubledSympatheticBigot, especially if CerebusSyndrome ensues. Other related tropes include CondescendingCompassion, PositiveDiscrimination, FairForItsDay, TheIngenue, MistakenForRacist, ObliviouslyEvil, RacistGrandma, ValuesDissonance, VirginityMakesYouStupid, [[YouKnowImBlackRight You Know I'm Black, Right?]], YouAreACreditToYourRace, and NotLikeOtherGirls. For honest error rather than honest ignorance, see NobleBigot.

* There was a soap ad where there are two little girls, one white and one black, with the white girl asks the black girl if her family doesn't use soap.

* The French comic book ''ComicBook/TheRabbisCat'', as well as its AnimatedAdaptation, feature a Franchise/{{Tintin}} parody (from the ''[[Recap/TintinTintinInTheCongo Tintin in the Congo]]'' period) who is welcoming enough, but seems to think of the protagonists (a Jew and Muslim from Algeria) as completely backward, and expect them to be puzzled by concepts such as ''hygiene''. He's also utterly oblivious how condescending he can sound.

* ''Fanfic/AllAssortedAnimorphsAUs'': Ax comes from a society where the disabled are ostracised, which appals the humans. In "What if Marco was Deaf?", they spend ages explaining what sign language is and that they don't want to isolate Marco. In "What if Ax joined the team in the first book?", Jake compares his description of Andalite ''nothlits'' being treated as outcasts to ghettos.

* ''Fanfic/ButYouWontHaveToDoItAlone'' turns Usagi's [[ValuesDissonance 90s-typical discomfort with same-gender romance]] into this. It's the reason the other Senshi don't want to come out to her. She apologizes after her friends finally confide their discomfort. It turns out that Usagi actually doesn't even know you can like ''both'' men and women. After this realization, she soon [[ClosetKey comes to figure out]] that she's [[EveryoneIsBi bisexual herself]].

* Asuna falls prey to this in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' when interacting with Agil, a black player who goes by Tiffany in this treatment. She tries not to be racist around him and so resorts to painfully stilted JiveTurkey speech, which pisses him off, and apologizes over using phrases like "a pot calling the kettle black."

* Petrie from ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' calls Littlefoot a "flathead" several times when he first meets him. It's implied from Littlefoot's reaction -- and that Longnecks seem to be a general target of prejudice in the film -- that this is something along the lines of a racial slur. Furthermore, he stops using this word as the film goes on and as he gets to known Littlefoot better.

* ''Film/JojoRabbit'' is largely a deconstruction of this trope. Jojo is an indoctrinated 10 year old member of Hitler Youth who has had Nazi propaganda forced down his throat when he discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic. Through bonding with Elsa, he begins to doubt the Nazi ideology.

* in ''Literature/BrimstoneAngels'', [[ShelteredAristocrat Brin]] is pretty freaked out upon meeting the heroine and her twin sister, believing them to be devils (to be fair, the sisters are tieflings, humanoids who bear a strong superficial resemblance to devils and suffer FantasticRacism as a result, and he'd never actually ''met'' a tiefling before). Upon hearing other humans expressing the belief that tieflings are AlwaysChaoticEvil, Brin feels pretty horrible about the things he said and seeks out the twins to apologize.

* While clearly a nice, well-meaning Christian girl, [[Literature/ElsieDinsmore Elsie Dinsmore's]] belief that black Christians will be made white in Heaven would definitely raise more eyebrows today than in 1867, when the first book was published.

* Brenda's parents in ''Series/TheCloser'' are from the south and have old fashioned values. One Christmas, Brenda's parents gave Det. Sanchez a pair of maracas for work since he has so many at home. Sanchez just accepted them.

* ''Series/DaAliGShow'': Creator/SachaBaronCohen's character Borat is very much this with his antisemitism. He comes across more pitiable than malicious when, for example, he faces a sweet elderly Jewish couple and acts like they are a pair of rabid dogs which might attack him any moment.

** Second Doctor companion Jamie has some fairly sexist beliefs, like [[StayInTheKitchen that women should be protected from anything dangerous]] and how girls are better when they act like a ProperLady. But he has no actual problem treating women like equals, and in fact doesn't even seem to know why he believes these things at all -- the implication is that he's basically good-hearted but being from the 18[[superscript:th]] Century he's never had to think about gender politics much.

--->'''Adric:''' That's the trouble with women. Mindless, impatient and bossy.\\

* Miss Morello from ''Series/EverybodyHatesChris'' is this UpToEleven. Though seemingly well-intentioned and genuinely supportive of Chris, she constantly makes ridiculous assumptions about his family life and financial situation based on his race, and usually refuses to believe Chris when he attempts to correct her. She goes so far as guess that Chris has at least 15 half siblings and that his mother is single and on drugs. The height of this occurs when Chris attempts to apply for affirmative action at an elite school so that he can attend high school with his best friend Greg, and is initially accepted purely because of the ridiculous claims Miss Morello had made about Chris's family situation being a complete trainwreck. After this is discovered, Miss Morello is completely shocked and asks Chris why he would lie, to which he simply shakes his head in disdain. After becoming the principal of Chris's high school in season 4, she also does this to a Puerto Rican teacher who Chris convinces to break curriculum by showing movies in class as a learning tool, stating that she [[CriticalResearchFailure "doesn't know how they do it in Puerto Rico," but in America]] teachers know not to stray from curriculum.

** Deconstructed in "Colors". Bayliss's cousin Jim shoots a Turkish exchange student in perceived self-defense, and Pembleton investigates. He pieces together that the student had thought he was at a Music/{{KISS}}-themed party and had mistaken Jim's warnings for a joke, and pushed for his conviction much to Bayliss's anger. Meanwhile, throughout the episode it's shown that Jim is a caring, genuinely good man, but he's also deeply racist. In the end, he's acquitted much to Pembleton's anger, who expresses to Bayliss that he feels Jim's brand of racism is by far the most dangerous, as it's otherwise undetectable. The final scene has Jim tearfully confess to Bayliss that he now believes he shot the student out of racism, and that he intends to leave Baltimore out of guilt.

* Handled very well on ''Series/{{Scrubs}}''.
** Elliot was raised in an exclusive, white, upper-class environment and when she comes to work at Sacred Heart she inadvertently offends almost everybody because she has never been in a mixed-race, mixed-class environment. [[CharacterDevelopment She gradually learns what is offensive]] and eventually becomes best friends with Carla, who originally hated Elliot's bigotry.
** True of J.D. as well, in a less overt way. Him and Turk are best friends and have a relationship [[HeterosexualLifePartners that goes beyond best frienditude]]. Their relationship is certainly based on deep feeling and similarities -- but J.D. ''frequently'' references Turk's blackness, and often in what would be an offensive way coming from someone else. Turk calls him out on it when he goes too far, but more often there's humour based around the fact that Turk is OK with J.D.'s innocent attitude to Turk's blackness. The point is that J.D. clearly regards Turk's race as the coolest thing, and any comments he makes are coming from a place of innocent admiration. Turk, for his part, is as innocent and immature as J.D. and is able to accept comments on that basis too.

* The infamous ''Tokyo Breakfast'', a spoof sitcom pilot produced for Japan One Television, is all about this trope. It features a family of Japanese hip-hop fans who keep addressing each other as "[[NWordPrivileges my nigga]]." They clearly have no idea of the connotations and history that word has in English. At the end, [[FromBadToWorse a black delivery guy comes to ask if anyone there ordered a case of beer, and they all look up at him and joyfully shout, "We did, nigga!"]]

* Based on a few moments both on and off screen, Wrestling/VinceMcmahon qualifies. Particularly, calling Wrestling/JohnCena the N word and mistaking Michael Tarver for Shelton Benjamin.

* In ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' this behavior would be perfectly good roleplaying in many situations. For instance, in the introductory adventure on the moon it is perfectly reasonable for the player characters to react to the insect-like Selenites with something like: "Gosh I thought giant ants would be stupid, hive-minded and vicious -- but you’re just people who just happens to look really unpleasant to us."

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'', Raiden assumes a poncho and sombrero is appropriate incognito for modern-day Mexico, and doesn't seem to understand why this is wrong until his Codec contacts spell it out for him later. Passers-by laugh at the "cyborg mariachi".

** Zelos's [[FantasticRacism feelings toward half-elves]] are like this. A bit of a subversion in that he isn't quite "innocent," in the traditional way, however the game shows his feelings as inevitably derived from a society that feels the same way he does. Zelos's initial dislike for half-elves is also pretty justified when you learn that [[spoiler:his mother was killed by the half-elf mistress of his father (Seles's mother)]]. So there's that. Even with the friction between him and [[spoiler:[[BrattyHalfPint Genis]],]] though he thinks that [[spoiler:Genis and Raine]] seem like nice enough people and never protests to them being in Lloyd's group, finding common ground in that the Church isn't fond of ''him'' either. Over the course of the game you can see his development -- by the end he is even willing to risk his life to save a half elf named [[spoiler:Kate]] from execution by her father ([[spoiler: the Pope]]). When the group is talking to her after the rescue, he tells her "it's a good thing [she] takes after [her] mother." This culminates in a Z-Skit where he and Regal are discussing the racism against half-elves in Tethe'alla.

** In a softer version we have Lloyd, who at first seems to equate Desians with half-elves (as the pool of reference is mostly [=NPCs=], the player may feel this way too). When the group goes out into the world, he learns that while Desians are half-elves, not all half-elves are Desians. Being the innocent, good-hearted idiot he is, his acceptance of this is quick. When it is [[TheReveal revealed]] that [[spoiler: both Genis and Raine are half-elves]], he is surprised by the fact, but couldn't care less what their race is. [[spoiler:He only cares about saving his best friend and teacher from being put to death by the Imperial Knights.]]

* Young BJ Blazkowicz is revealed to have been one in ''VideoGame/WolfensteinIITheNewColossus'', largely due to his father being a AbusiveParent who blamed everyone else for his failing business. Upon Billy's first meeting with [[NamesTheSame Billie]], a young black girl, he runs down the LongList of why his daddy wouldn't want him playing with her while looking for tadpoles to catch.

* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': Emil has moments of this both in-universe and at a meta level. Him encountering a piece of Chinese writing by chance and calling it "Kung Fu" due to not knowing the correct name serves as a reminder that the region of the world in which he lives has lost contact with Asia several decades ago. When it comes to the surviving nations to which he isn't native, he's shown asking a Finn if it's true that her country doesn't have any electricity and expressing doubts about Norway having a "proper civilization", but to otherwise have no ill feelings towards the inhabitants of either country.

* Cromwell in ''WebVideo/ShadowrunCorporateSins'' who's a Troll just can't understand why Humans, Elves and Dwarves get offended at being called "piggies", "twinges" and "stumps" respectively.
* Asuna in ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' appears to have a ''very'' outdated idea on black people. When trying to converse with Tiffany [[GenderBlenderName (Agil's name in the abridged)]], she tries talking in a terribly rendered form of JiveTurkey, and catches herself in near offensive jokes. To be fair, [[AntiHero it's]] [[HeroicComedicSociopath not]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold that]] [[{{Yandere}} bad]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', the team ends up in a dimension that's an AffectionateParody of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, with social mores similar to [[TheFifties the 1950s]] United States. One of the superheroes there, a white man, sincerely tells John Stewart, the African-American Green Lantern, "[[YouAreACreditToYourRace You're a credit to your people, son]]." It's clear that he genuinely means it as a compliment, and it probably is a forward-thinking thing to say [[FairForItsDay by the standards of that universe]]. (John is obviously not pleased, but he's understanding enough to take it in the spirit it was intended.)

** When Trenderhoof (a unicorn writer) falls for Applejack (an earth pony farmer), he remarks to her that that he has "such respect for the work ethic of earth ponies." He was genuinely well-meaning with it and didn't realize it was a case of PositiveDiscrimination, but Applejack was put off by it all the same.

* A lot of non-blacks have preconceived notions of how black people sound like, and some may say "You/He/She sound(s) very white" when taken aback by the fact that a brown skinned American, whether a Website/{{YouTube}}r who rarely shows their face or a voice actress, is capable of speaking with a (white?) General American accent.

* British people are often taken aback to be told that in the USA, the word "Jap" is a pejorative term for Japanese and Japanese-American people. Unless you are part of the dwindling number of older people with [=WW2=] experience, this genuinely is not intended as an insult[[note]]Fourteenth Army veterans tend to have even more blistering words for their wartime enemy[[/note]]. "Jap" is just an abbrievated verion of "Japanese".

** Italian used the word ''negro'' as a descriptive for black people until TheSixties, when it was discouraged from use, and more neutral terms such as ''nero'' and ''di colore'' became substitutions for the older word.

* [[http://satwcomic.com/art/monkey-man.jpg Denmark]] in ''Webcomic/ScandinaviaAndTheWorld'', making fun of the stereotype that all Danes are racist without realizing it. As for trope image, that particular situation is thankfully diffused... until Denmark loudly asks why no one is freaked out by the talking monkey.