History Main / WhiteGuilt

-->'''Titus''': But we had this country to build and we needed some help! We could've used the Indians to help us... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide but we killed them]]. ''({{Facepalm}} and extended {{Beat}})'' [[HereWeGoAgain To the Indian people]]...

* Lampshaded in the ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' episode "Dr. Mary''. Frasier hires an African-American call-screener and is unhappy with the way she is timid and quiet on the air, unlike the assertive Roz she is filling in for. He encourages her to speak up more on the air, but when she does so she takes over his show by calling herself "Dr. Mary". He is afraid to say anything because she is black and came from an underprivileged background, and imagines that any attempt to reclaim his show would be seen as trying to put her "in her place". Eventually she gets her own show at a rival station, and when she finds out that he refused to say anything because of his guilt she tells him "God bless your guilty white ass!"

* Creator/StephenKing has admitted in interviews that his tendency to overuse the MagicalNegro trope is likely due to his own White Guilt. Yes, even though he grew up in Maine - a state that abolished slavery very early and historically has not even had an African-American population against which to discriminate.

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. A specific variant of CulturalCringe.

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.

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. A specific variant of CulturalCringe.

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.

* In one episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the Scoobies do a lot of hemming and hawwing about how to handle a Native American spirit bent on vengeance against the white man. On the one hand, he's hurting more-or-less-innocent people. On the OTHER hand, it IS true that his people were horribly oppressed.... It takes an epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Spike to goad them into decisive action.

* Leslie Knope shows occasional signs of this on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', especially when dealing with Ken Hotate, the leader of the local Wamapoke Indians.

* Joked about in an installment of "Weekend Update" on ''SaturdayNightLive'' in the late 1990s, with Colin Quinn reporting on President BillClinton sending the Reverend Jesse Jackson to Sarajevo to negotiate with Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic about bringing an end to the Yugoslav civil war. Apparently, Quinn remarked, "white guilt even works in Yugoslavia."

-->'''Titus''': We had a nation to build... and we needed help. We could've asked the Indians to help us... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide but we killed them]]. ''({{Facepalm}} and extended {{Beat}})'' [[HereWeGoAgain To the Indian people]]...

-->'''Titus''': We had a nation to build... and we needed help. We could've asked the Indians to help us... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide but we killed them]]. ''({{Facepalm}} and extended {{Beat}})'' To the Indian people...

-->'''Titus''': We had a nation to build... and we needed help. We could've asked the Indians to help us... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide but we killed them]]. ''({{Facepalm)) and extended {{Beat}})'' To the Indian people...

-->'''Titus''': We had a nation to build... and we needed help. We could've asked the Indians to help us... [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide but we killed them]].

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 UnfortunateImplications (usually 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]]. May manifest as PositiveDiscrimination toward people of less-privileged groups.

* Lampshaded in the ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' episode "Dr. Mary''. Frasier hires an African-American call-screener who takes over his show by calling herself "Dr. Mary", spouting ghetto-psychology; but he's afraid to say anything because she's black and came from an underprivileged background. Eventually she gets her own show spouting more ghetto-psychology, but finds out about his guilt and tells him, "God bless your guilty white ass!"

* ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'': Professor Dick Solomon, one of a group of aliens who is sent to Earth to study it, after [[MistakenForRacist making several comments regarding one of his African-American students]] [[UnfortunateImplications that came out in a way he didn't intend]], later studies on the histories regarding colonialism and imperialism. He is found revolted by the way [[HumansAreBastards humans have treated each other based on their skin color]] and utterly regrets the things he said earlier. In effect, he has White Guilt despite being "white" through happenstance rather than birth.

* ThirdRockFromTheSun: Professor Dick Solomon, one of a group of aliens who is sent to Earth to study it, after [[MistakenForRacist making several comments regarding one of his African-American students]] [[UnfortunateImplications that came out in a way he didn't intend]], later studies on the histories regarding colonialism and imperialism. He is found revolted by the way [[HumansAreBastards humans have treated each other based on their skin color]] and utterly regrets the things he said earlier. In effect, he has White Guilt despite being "white" through happenstance rather than birth.

There are generally two subcategories of this personality type. The first, and more common, is the more passive and sympathetic version, usually found among the upper and middle classes of the white population. Such a person will be very depressed or nervous much of the time, sometimes to the point of being TheWoobie. He/she will either display tremendous self-loathing or be insufferably self-righteous, [[CulturalCringe constantly lecturing other whites]] that ''they'' should feel guilty too. In extreme cases, the person will outright identify with the group they have supposedly wronged, sometimes to the point of sheer childish delusion: dressing up in ethnic clothing practically all of the time or even [[PassFail claiming to secretly have racial heritage in the oppressed group and looking ridiculous for it]] (expect a ton of PretenderDiss). The second, more aggressive subtype tends to be found among the lower or lower-middle white classes (particularly "ethnic" whites who don't see themselves as historically very privileged). Rather than being self-loathing or moralistic, this character will be touchy, defensive, and belligerent a great deal of the time, claiming to see PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad or [[AngryBlackMan Angry Minority People]] everywhere. They'll sneer at civil-rights activists, telling them they need to [[NoSympathy be quiet and quit whining]], and even damn other whites for being [[CategoryTraitor "race-traitors."]] They'll deeply resent affirmative-action programs, calling them unfair. They'll loudly protest that ''their'' ancestors were different: more tolerant and progressive than other whites, even suffering discrimination of their own (and this sentiment usually won't result in WeAreStrugglingTogether). Such a person might even be driven to become a full-blown racist - or at least a practitioner of PretendPrejudice - reasoning that everyone already believes them to be one, so [[ThenLetMeBeEvil there's no point in proving otherwise and they might as well oblige]]. This might even lead to [[SelfFulfillingProphecy outright hate crimes committed against the group felt guilty about]], who are now viewed as [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]].

* Creator/StephenKing has admitted in interviews that his tendency to overuse the MagicalNegro trope is likely due to his own White Guilt.

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 UnfortunateImplications, and they'll just wind up [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging themselves deeper]]. May manifest as PositiveDiscrimination toward people of less-privileged groups.