Basic Trope: Characters of African ethnicity die earlier.
- Straight: Bob, the Token Minority black guy, dies before all the white characters, such as Alice.
- Exaggerated:
- Dozens of black people (indeed, every black character) die right at the beginning.
- Bob died before the story proper even began. (See Posthumous Character or Dead All Along.)
- The villain starts by nuking Africa.
- Every character but the one Token White dies.
- Downplayed:
- Bob dies just before a non-black cast member, being fatally wounded less than a second before Charlie.
- Bob is injured first, and dies to his wounds much later in the story.
- Bob dies first along with a non-black character.
- While nobody dies, Bob is the first to get KO'd.
- Bob dies first, but he's not the only black character.
- Justified:
- The murderer is a white supremacist, so he targets Bob first.
- Or, Bob made a Heroic Sacrifice early on.
- Bob is tough and intimidating, so the killer goes after him first either to demonstrate that he is even tougher, to get rid of him first since he poses the biggest threat to his murderous rampage, or both.
- For a less malignant spin, Bob has been established to have serious health problems, which catch up to him.
- Or worse, he might even be Patient Zero.
- The entire cast is black.
- Bob, at age 97, was the eldest… it was just a matter of time for him to enter the Big Sleep.
- Inverted:
- Alice, the only white character in an otherwise all-black cast, dies first.
- The black dude dies last.
- The only black character is the killer.
- The black dude is the Sole Survivor.
- The black guy is the first one to be brought Back from the Dead.
- The movie is about the lives of pregnant women and the first to give birth has a black baby.
- Subverted:
- Bob is made a very obvious Sacrificial Lamb, being Alice's Token Black Friend or boyfriend, getting lots of screen time, etc. But Charlie, who is white and has stayed in the background, is killed first instead.
- Bob is seemingly killed first, but survives to return in the third act.
- The killer shoots at Bob, the black guy — but misses and instead kills Charlie, the white guy.
- Double Subverted:
- ...except Charlie is actually Not Quite Dead, and while gazing in horror at his "corpse", Bob is killed first, possibly by Charlie, who was feigning his death to lure Bob into a trap.
- Later, Bob dies for real. He's the first casualty in the story, in fact.
- Parodied:
- Bob is incredibly unlucky, comically falling victim to Everything Trying to Kill You. Maybe drawn out and subverted as many times as desired for maximum comic effect, but ultimately something does get Bob. Or, Bob keeps getting killed and revived multiple times, with much Lampshade Hanging.
- An arrow about to hit a Mighty Whitey changes its course at the last second to hit Bob.
- Emperor Evulz is just about to shoot Bob, when he sees a (white) man dressed in all-black clothing walk by. Evulz shoots him instead.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Same as Parodied, but played for suspense rather than for laughs, and it's the whole cast who are faced with Everything Trying to Kill You.
- Same as Double Subverted, but Bob knew Charlie was trying to kill him and either fakes his death or avoids Charlie's attack, thus allowing Bob to kill or apprehend him as so desired.
- Bob (who's black) is the first to be seriously wounded. While he's struggling to hang on, Charlie (who's white) takes an Instant Death Bullet. Shortly thereafter, Bob finally succumbs.
- Averted:
- No one dies.
- Everyone in the cast is biracial.
- Bob is one of the survivors.
- Bob dies too late in the story for his race to be significant.
- The entire cast is black, or there are no black cast members in the first place.
- Enforced:
- If Bob also counts as a Scary Black Man, then Big Guy Fatality Syndrome may be in effect.
- To woo young black viewers, the studio insists that Bob, as a black superstar, be cast. But Bob is very busy and can only be on set for a couple of hours. The script is hastily rewritten to ensure Bob dies first, thereby allowing his name to be plastered all over the production without risking Bob's other commitments.
- The director is a racist. So are his fans. Killing off black people is expected of him; it's part of his Signature Style. Of course, the actor who plays Bob didn't know this...
- The characters were originally written as racially and ethnically neutral. But the casting agency decided a black actor would be perfect for the role of Bob, the first to die.
- Bob is a local guide serving as Mr. Exposition for a soon-to-be-doomed foreign expedition to Darkest Africa. By taking Bob out first, the writer makes the remaining characters' situation more dangerous and hopeless.
- Bob's actor Charles died on set, and the director had Bob die with him to avoid costly reshooting.
- Lampshaded:
- "Hey, Bob, how come Alice died when you were standing right next to her?"
- "There's a Serial Killer on the loose and I'm the only black dude in the neighborhood. Screw this, I'm moving to Canada!"
- "Well, we should've seen that coming."
- The rest of the group reacts to Bob's death with "Well, now that that's out of the way..."
- "Really nigga? I'm dying first? It's like fate's racist!"
- Invoked:
- Bob is blatantly the biggest threat to the evil force, so it targets him first.
- The cast arrive on an island full of people who have never seen a black man before and consider Bob some sort of evil spirit. So, they kill him first to protect themselves.
- Bob knows he's going to die very soon, so he kills himself painlessly at the start to avoid the possibility of a more drawn-out and painful death.
- Bob knows he's going to die soon, so he panics and tries to escape/avoid his fate, making him predictable and easier to pick off.
- Defied:
- Bob is smart and does everything he can to stay away from danger for as long as possible.
- Bob is smart and gets out of town as soon as he learns a serial killer is at large.
- Bob's very protective friends are smart and risk danger themselves to keep him safe.
- Mike says, "Okay, guys, we're a bunch of teens and a serial killer is on the loose. We all know that serial killers go for the black dude first — you can beat the crap out of me later, Bob — or for defenseless young girls — same for you, Alice. Therefore, all us white males should do whatever we can to protect the black guy and the girl while we all get the hell out of here. As long as Alice and Bob are alive, then the rest of us are, hopefully, pretty much invincible."
- The murderer or monster somehow decides Bob is Not Worth Killing.
- The racist killer wants Bob to suffer and thus targets his friends so that Bob will have to be the one to see the bodies.
- Exploited: Bob pulls off a plan to exploit his death. He has a grenade wired to go off if his life signs fail. Bob is ambushed and ends up the only one to die to the monster, who dies with him.
- Implied: Bob is the first character to disappear, but it's not made entirely clear whether it's because he was killed.
- Discussed: "Don't you hate it how the black guy always dies first in this sort of situation?"
- Conversed: "I like horror films and all, but it's a bit jarring how the black guy always dies first."
- Deconstructed: Bob spends all of his time cowering in fear due to the existence of this trope.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob receives constant death threats from racist groups, perhaps because he is outspoken about an issue that has a negative impact on them. Therefore, he spends all his time cowering in fear from the potential invocation of the trope. Ultimately, near the start of the story, the threats are acted upon.
- Bob learns every self-defence technique he can, and knowing he can fight off anyone who wants to kill him replenishes his self-confidence.
- Alice and the other characters are just as worried as Bob for this trope to happen, so they prepare themselves and end up saving his life.
- Intended Audience Reaction: The writers made Bob the first guy to die in the story to set the audience up for a Plot Twist: When Bob died, he went to Hell. But he was badass enough to fight his way out. He doesn't actually come back to life, however, until the rest of the gang face the murderer near the end. More than half the fandom is shocked, and the twist is so well known that it becomes an It Was His Sled situation.
- Played for Laughs:
- See parodied, but turned up to eleven, with Bob being The Chew Toy.
- Bob suffers many Amusing Injuries and several cases of No One Could Survive That!, but ends up as one of the only survivors of the story, hooks up with Alice, and walks away with a large bag of money.
- Played for Drama:
- The highly racist Caucasian cast conspire to ensure that Bob is always in the most danger, thus making it inevitable that he'll die first. Alice is appalled by this, and a major theme of the rest of the story is the conflict between those like her who tried and failed to protect Bob, and those who ensured he was the first victim. The drama is even greater if this scenario takes place before the Emancipation, thereby bringing overtones of Fair for Its Day into the mix.
- Bob is the Meta Guy and one of the most sympathetic members of the cast and he not only knows he has already been fit for a toe tag ahead of everybody else in the cast, but that he probably won't be lamented.
- Played For Horror:
- Bob's death, aside from the obvious cliche, has to establish what kind of franchise this is and what kind of fiend we are dealing with. As such, his death is designed to be as brutal, horrific and sadistic as possible.
- The killer of the story is either extremely racist or really, really hates Bob. He specifically was looking to kill him first. He was looking for it way too much.
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