Basic Trope: An elderly person who carries racist attitudes and/or uses racial terms now considered derogatory.
- Straight: Alice refers to Bob as "that colored man over there."
- Exaggerated: Alice treats Bob like he's there to serve her even though he isn't.
- Downplayed: Alice ignores Bob in a reception line because she doesn't shake hands with black people.
- Justified:
- Alice is unaware that the term "colored" is no longer acceptable.
- Alice hasn't been around many different-race people in her life; anyone who looks different really stands out to her.
- Alice grew up in a time when her behavior would have been seen as normal and acceptable, and has a hard time accepting that times (and standards of behavior) have changed.
- Or, she has accepted that times have changed, but is going senile.
- Alice is a member of a Neo-Nazi group.
- Inverted: Alice is one of the most Politically Correct characters on the show, possibly even to the point of Political Correctness Gone Mad.
- Subverted: Alice uses no unacceptable terms in reference to Bob.
- Double Subverted: But she keeps staring at him because he looks different and/or regards him with suspicion.
- Parodied: Alice has the attitudes towards racial matters of the Deep South in the Fifties. The Eighteen-Fifties.
- Zig Zagged: Alice doesn't show outdated prejudice against people of color—as long as they're professionally dressed and groomed. Any variation from business attire brings out her bigoted side.
- Averted:
- Alice uses no racially-insensitive terms.
- Alice never meets or sees Bob.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "I'm sorry, Bob...Grandma hasn't caught on with the whole PC movement..."
- Invoked: Alice can't reach something at the supermarket, and requests (or demands) help from Bob.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice doesn't want to be seen as racist, so she reaches for the MacGuffin herself.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Bob is one of her grandson Charlie's best friends and their relationship becomes strained.
- Reconstructed: Someone informs Alice of the social changes of the last few decades, and Alice makes an effort to comply with current social norms. (But not in a Totally Radical way.)
- Played For Drama: Bob takes Alice's remarks personally.
I don't want to be the one who has to back to
the main trope and tell Gran that she doesn't has
N-Word Privileges anymore...
