This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Is there a trope for the Black Best Friend?I: From YKTTW
Twin Bird: Hmm. I was going to add Gus and Turk when I saw the title, but looking at the description, they don't seem to fit. What does everyone think?
Stm177: I thought about adding Gunn from Angel too, but the male black best friend is a slightly different trope than the female black best friend. Gunn is urban, poor, tough, and will lay his life on the line for Angel. The actor that plays Gunn actually grew up in a upper middle class family in the suburbs (if I remember right). The male black best friend may or may not throw in wisecracks.
32_Footsteps: Maybe I'm missing something - but isn't this just a Token Minority?
Stm177: I view the Black Best Friend as an unpowered version of the Magical Negro. He or she is there to dispense advice and make the protagonist look better —- without being a Christ-like figure. They exist as an appendage of the protagonist, and do not have independent lives. The Token Minority really do exist independently from the protagonist, although they are often turned into racist stereotypes of their ethnicity. Also, here's a Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22black+best+friend%22&btnG=Google+Search
I heard the trope on the NPR program that you see on that page.
Shire Nomad: The Token Minority is just one of several members of the team, often the one who gets little to no story time. A Black Best Friend is half of a two-person close friendship, the other half usually being the white lead, and the fact that they interact so casually shows that they're both above ethnic concerns (and are, by extension, enlightened human beings).
Looney Toons: Yo, Billy The Hick? Learn how to capitalize and learn how to code for the wiki. Looking at the other entries in a page you're editing will help immensely.
Rissa: Removed this, because it doesn't seem to fit the trope:
- Subverted in the first season of the new series of Doctor Who - Rose's black boyfriend is ultra-dorky and clumsy, although once separated from Rose in the second season, he grows into a brave, badass commando.
- Was this an actual subversion, or was it just that the actor happened to be black?
- 52% of American voters in November 2008.
- Because every one of that 52% was a white guy looking for a Black best friend (never mind that the majority of white voters actually didn't vote for the Black guy - I'm sure race had NOTHING to do with that).
