Basic Trope: Character A is thought to be discriminating against character B for reason X, but it turns out they were discriminating for reason Y.
- Straight:
- Alice, a White woman, brings home her Black friend Bob, who's employed as a lawyer. Her father, Frank, is rude to him, but his rudeness turns out to be because he hates lawyers.
- Alice rolls her eyes at seeing two same-sex couples, first Charlie and Derek, later Emma and Frances, making out in public. Her friends think she's homophobic until they see her do the same thing with Gordon and Helen making out in public.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice brings home her Black, gay, fat, bald friend Bob — who's employed as a lawyer. Her dad's outright militant hatred of him stems from being a lawyer.
- Alice aggressively chews out two same-sex couples, first Charlie and Derek, later Emma and Frances, for having sex in public, calling them degenerates. Her friends think she's homophobic until they see her do the same thing with Gordon and Helen having sex in public.
- Downplayed:
- Alice brings over Bob, a Black guy who wears baggy clothes. Frank dislikes Bob because he wears baggy clothes, but not out of racism.
- Alice isn't really comfortable around same-sex couples, but neither is she comfortable around opposite-sex ones. She's a firmly Celibate Hero.
- Justified:
- Alice's dad isn't racist (indeed, he may be the first person to call out racist acts and words), but he does hate lawyers.
- Alice isn't homophobic; she really does just think people shouldn't have make out in public (especially not in places where they could be hurt or killed by any old thing passing). It doesn't help, either, that Charlie, Derek, Emma, Frances, Gordon, and Helen are not among the people whom one would actively want to see kissing.
- Inverted:
- Alice brings a Black lawyer home. Her dad is extremely nice to him — it's at first thought to be sucking up to him because he's a lawyer, but he's actually being kind due to a sort of political correctness.
- Alice brings Bob, a Black lawyer, home. Her dad is rude to him and she ascribes it at first to his established mistrust of lawyers, but then she realizes it's worse than normal and he is being racist.
- Alice rolls her eyes at Gordon and Helen making out in public. Her friends think she's just annoyed with that in a "Get a Room!" sort of way, but then she's much sterner with Charlie and Derek and later with Emma and Frances making out in public. This clues them in to her homophobia.
- Subverted:Frank: Alice, I don't want you to be friends with that nig—Alice: Dad!
- Double Subverted:Frank: What? I was going to say "niggling lawyer!"Alice: Oh.
- Zig-Zagged:Frank: But I still don't approve of you hanging around a Black kid.Alice: Oh, come on, Dad...Frank: Why not? He's Bob Black. I never got along with his dad, our fathers didn't get along, our mothers were mutually antagonistic...
- Parodied:
- Alice comes home with Bob, who is an Ten-fer Token Minority in her town: a Black, gay, Buddhist, colorblind, bald, autistic, left-handed, wheelchair-bound lawyer with a Speech Impediment. Frank is White, heterosexual, Christian, color-seeing, hair-possessing, neurotypical, right-handed, fully ambulatory, able to speak clearly, and works in some skilled trade. He couldn't care less about any other way in which Bob is different from him, but harasses him because he is a lawyer.
- Bob is a Starfish Alien and a lawyer. Frank is unfazed by or welcoming of the former fact but driven into an Unstoppable Rage by the latter one.
- Frank starts a movement to eliminate all lawyers, and the way he dresses and behaves is awfully reminiscent of certain governments known for their racial and religious discrimination.
- Alice campaigns to make public affection a federal crime punishable by death. Because she started out her television speech by focusing on same sex couples kissing in public, everyone (including homophobes) thought she is a Heteronormative Crusader until she said "and straight couples too," causing a Mass "Oh, Crap!".
- Averted:
- Bob isn't treated any differently.
- Alice's father openly hates Bob for being Black.
- Enforced: A shock factor to get people's attention on Alice's father's 'bigotry.'
- Lampshaded:
- This exchange (the racism version):
Alice: Thanks for not ruining my internal image of you, Dad. You should probably lighten up about lawyers, though.Frank: Oh, I'm not actually that kind of guy who judges people by their skin color. I am, however, that kind of guy who tends to have met his fair share of Amoral Attorneys, though, those bottom feeding scavengers preying on the weak...- This exchange (the homophobic version):
Bob: So you're not actually homophobic? I thought you were, considering you chewed Charlie, Derek, Emma and Frances out.Alice: Nah, I'm not. I just feel icky seeing people, regardless of orientation, make out in public. Like, Get a Room! - Invoked: Frank has developed no hatred of Black people as such because he grew up around decent working- and middle-class Black people, but he has met overwhelmingly Amoral Attorneys in his interactions with the legal community. He hates White lawyers just as much.
- Exploited: Other characters who do hate Black people as such, but want to be discreet about it, learn of Frank's attitude and bother Bob, hiding behind the fig leaf of 'their' mistrust of lawyers.
- Defied:
- Frank makes himself show no signs of disliking Bob for any reason not connected to his own personal character.
- "I don't care if you're not discriminating against Blacks, you're still being bigoted!"
- Discussed:Bob: Alice, I'm worried your dad will disapprove of me. I'm less sure if it will be because I'm a lawyer or I'm Black.Alice: Believe it or not, Bob, it's probably going to be because of your job.
- Conversed: "You know, in real life, bigotry usually is based on ethnicity or race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, not profession."
- Implied: Alice takes Bob to meet Frank. Frank is unfazed that Bob is Black, but rolls his eyes when Alice explains that he's a lawyer.
- Deconstructed:
- Frank is so easily Mistaken for Racist that he's made a pariah.
- Alice was so hurt that her friends would think she is homophobic despite knowing her for years that she stopped talking to them.
- It does not matters that it's because of Bob being a lawyer instead of anything else that he is; hatred is hatred. Whatever the heck made Frank hate lawyers this much, if this is the way he is automatically going to react to being around anybody who has a law degree, he needs to see a shrink..
- Reconstructed:
- He gets to explain himself in a fair setting and, as an ancillary benefit, Bob and his peers drop the acts that made people like Frank hate them.
- Alice's friends apologized to her and said that they should had known to not think so low of her. Plus, the people she saw making out apologized for making her uncomfortable and promised to be more considerate in the future.
- Because it's a hatred of lawyers instead of something more vile, Alice and Bob are willing to give Frank a chance for redemption.
- Played for Laughs: Frank insults Bob in ways that are seen in-story as narmy or as Insult Backfires.
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob are in love, but Frank's disapproval of lawyers puts as much strain on their relationship as his hypothetical racism would have done.
- Played for Horror: Frank is ready to murder Bob solely because he's a lawyer, by which point the motive is at most a secondary concern to the potential crime.
- Intended Audience Reaction: It's meant to make viewers who think they oppose discrimination reconsider how committed they are to that thought and feeling.
Go back to Discriminate and Switch — your kind isn't welcome in my house! That's right, you heard me! No Tropers allowed!
