History Main / WhiteGuilt

* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' features some examples of this. Most prominently President Warner, a semi-sympathetic villain character who differs from most of his allies in actually being honest in his liberal beliefs, shame for white racism and compassion for the oppressed minorities.

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* This attitude in general was parodied by T.J. Kirk (aka The Amazing Atheist) in a 20-second clip where he self-flagellates with a belt while shouting "Sorry I'm white! Sorry I'm male!" then finishes the clip screaming "WHY?! WHY AM I A MONSTER?!"

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* In his ''Series/RedDwarf'' memoir ''The Man in the Rubber Mask'' Robert Llewellyn often refers to his white middle-class guilt, considering it to be a rather self-centred emotion in that it makes ''him'' the main character. One example is when he has to take dehydration tablets due to the Kryten costume, and frets that this ''obviously'' means some kid in famine-torn Africa ''doesn't'' have dehydration tablets.

* In the ''Series/KeyAndPeele'' sketch "Awkward Apologies from White People", [[Creator/KeeganMichaelKey Keegan]] and [[Creator/JordanPeele Jordan]] are sharing a drink at a bar and repeatedly have their conversation interrupted by white people tripping over themselves to apologize for the mistreatment of Black people in the U.S. and prove how not-racist they are in increasingly uncomfortable ways. The pair get increasingly frustrated until the bartender makes them feel better by defying this and admitting that Black people make him very uncomfortable.

* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' episode ''The Raiders Minimization'' Sheldon tells Amy "I heard they were illegally squatting on Native American land. Personally, I think what we did to the Native Americans was wrong," hinting that he may experience some amount of this... insofar as [[AmbiguousDisorder Sheldon is capable]] of feeling guilt about anything. Knowing Sheldon, he more than likely just said that to get back at Amy for ruining his favorite movie for him.

* The Cree Summer song "Curious White Boy" is about a woman of color who believes a white man is dating her out of white guilt.

* This was a plot point on ''Series/MurphyBrown'' when the team, collectively the avatar of bleeding-heart liberalism, got a new black producer on the departure of their friend Miles. The newcomer saw it from a mile away and milked it for a while to win concessions, before confessing he'd used their guilt to reshape his intrusion as a stranger into a well-oiled machine and in place of someone both talented and loved.

* In the review of ''WesternAnimation/CareBearsNutcrackerSuite'', ''WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic'' had Malcolm and Tamara browsing some movies to feed the Critic's Christmas addiction, and Malcolm mentions that he loves those "inspirational movie about black men trying to succeed in a racist world" because the Critic always feels guilty at the end and takes him out for dinner.

Compare SinsOfOurFathers, where punishment is externally imposed whether or not the punished feels any guilt or responsibility for their ancestors' actions, and MustMakeAmends and TheAtoner, where a character is driven to make amends for their ''own'' crimes rather than the crimes of their race, class, or social group. Compare and contrast IntolerableTolerance, where someone from an "underprivileged" group demands special treatment beyond what is reasonable. A specific variant of CulturalCringe.

This trope is when a character from a currently or historically privileged race, class, religion or other group feels very guilty about their (real or perceived) position of privilege. They will be made very uncomfortable when dealing with characters from less-privileged groups. They live in fear of being MistakenForRacist, but their every attempt to prove that they aren't will be chock full of things that [[NotHelpingYourCase only make them look worse]] (sometimes because the guilty person is concerned less about justice for the underprivileged and more about [[ItsAllAboutMe salvaging their own self-esteem]]), and they'll just wind up [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves deeper]]. It may manifest as PositiveDiscrimination toward people of less-privileged groups.

* Creator/DaveBarry's ''Claw Your Way To The Top'' (a business "help" book) has this scenario, where two women are equally qualified for a promotion, but one is black. Do you: a) give the promotion to the black woman to make up for centuries of slavery and racism; b), give the promotion to the white woman, otherwise people will think the promotion was only given out of PositiveDiscrimination? The book suggests option c): promote a man.