'''Basic Trope''': A white character sets out to help improve the lives of a (usually racial) minority.
* '''Straight''': [[HairOfGoldHeartOfGold Wanda]] takes [[BlackAndNerdy Bill]] into her BigFancyHouse, and helps him achieve his dream of becoming famous.
* '''Exaggerated''': Wanda seeks to help the entire nations of {{Bulungi}}, {{Qurac}}, the BananaRepublic, {{Wutai}}, and {{Countrystan}}. But ''not'' {{Ruritania}} anytime soon.
* '''Downplayed''':
** [[BlackAndNerdy Bill]] drops his books, and Wanda stops to help him pick them up.
** Bill is black but far more emphasis is placed upon him being a [[ShellShockedVeteran homeless veteran.]]
* '''Justified''':
** Wanda is a teacher at an InnerCitySchool; getting through to students and helping them succeed in life is her job.
** Wanda is well-connected and really ''does'' have the resources to help Bill, who happens to be her friend regardless of race.
** Wanda opposed segregation during the early 1950s, this was just one of the more short term ways she did so.[[note]] for longer term she provided the [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts SCOTUS]] with evidence for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education Brown v. Board of Education]].[[/note]]
** The work is set in UsefulNotes/AntebellumAmerica or during UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust. The situation is really [[NightmareFuel so awful]] for minorities they absolutely depend on a [[EveryoneHasStandards well-intentioned white person]] to help them.
* '''Inverted''':
** [[MagicalNegro Bill takes Wanda into his home and helps her achieve her dream of becoming famous.]]
** Wanda finds herself stranded in another peoples' community. Cue GoingNative.
** [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Wanda]] sets out to stop Bill from advancing to keep him in his place.
* '''Subverted''':
** Bill tells Wanda, [[UnwantedAssistance "Thanks, but no thanks."]]
** Wanda's motives are not pure at all; she's doing this as part of an AssimilationPlot or something.
** Wanda passes Bill's resume along to her contacts, but the rest is all his doing.
** Wanda is non-white, or not wealthy.
* '''Double Subverted''':
** Then he decides he could use Wanda's help anyway, and contacts her again.
** But Bill doesn't know that.
** She did not ask Bill if she could do that.
** But she is privileged in some other way, shape, or form.
* '''Parodied''':
** Wanda teaches Bill basic skills, such as how to use a spoon.
** Bill is actually a StarfishAlien.
* '''Zig Zagged''': Some cases of this are due to genuine concern; some are only for ulterior reasons; some are for both...
* '''Averted''':
** Wanda doesn't help Bill, for any reason.
** Wanda and Bill's races are never mentioned (as in a piece of literature); the question of [[AmbiguouslyBrown what they]] [[TheNondescript look like]] is left up to the audience's imagination.
* '''Enforced''': [[{{Glurge}} "Let's make our story more inspirational!"]]
* '''Lampshaded''': "Oh, is your help out of genuine affection... or some kind of guilt?"
* '''Invoked''':
** Wanda meets Bill, and he seems really [[StarvingArtist down on his luck]], and Wanda feels bad for him.
** Bill poses as poor and ignorant to help Wanda learn to use her advantaged situation to improve the lot of others.
* '''Exploited''': Wanda is sent as a missionary to {{Bulungi}} to give them access to clean water and food...and also convert them to the church of CrystalDragonJesus.
* '''Defied''': Wanda doesn't really ''know'' Bill, or whether he would like help (and if so, how much help is OK versus "too much"), so she gives him her best wishes but doesn't take him under her wing.
* '''Discussed''':
->'''Bill:''' Sooo... are you helping me because you want to be nice, or because of something racial?\\
'''Wanda:''' What does race have to do with this? I just want to be a good person.
* '''Conversed''': "And now this white girl is gonna lead the black guy to success because, you know, she's ''white''. Is it always like that the black guy can't achieve anything on his own?"
* '''Deconstructed''': People of Bulungi don't trust Wanda because they think she might not be as well-meaning as she appears. So they either just ignore her, or worse, start a rebellion to depose their new leaders.
* '''Reconstructed''': Rather than getting Bulungi outright assimilated into a white culture, [[MightyWhitey Wanda]] only teaches them to adjust to modern life with all technical and scientific wonders, while encouraging the locals to go on with their old cultural and religious ways (well, most of them) and even taking on some of the local traditions herself.
* '''Played For Drama''': Bill believes that Wanda is being nice because of this trope and accuses her of doing nice things out of guilt. This ends up hurting Wanda's feelings and ruining their relationship.
* '''Played For Laughs''': Wanda is a BourgeoisBohemian who feels white guilt and decides to "help the disenfranchised". None of what she does is actually helpful, and Bill is not only annoyed at her antics but also offended by how InnocentlyInsensitive Wanda is.
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%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
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%%* '''Implied''': ???