History Main / WhiteGuilt

* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Liz Lemon has her fair share of this, as when she finds it difficult to break up with an annoying black boyfriend played by Wayne Brady for fear of being thought racist. She also admits that she voted for Obama primarily out of White Guilt. She [[CharacterDevelopment mostly gets over it]] after a couple seasons of Tracy playing the EverythingIsRacist card a few times too often, although characters like his wife Angie can still throw her off-balance by playing off of this trait.

* ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'': Arthur does some research on his ancestry and discovers some of his ancestors were once slave traders, he apologizes to Deacon (the only black person he knows, apparently), who tells him there is no need since he didn't do it. Later though he discovers he's wrong, and his ancestors were actually Irish travelers. He's now free of guilt and unabashedly tries to get Deacon doing unpaid chores for paying off a debt he owes Arthur, outraging him with this about-face.

[[folder: Real Life]]
* 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 barely had an African-American population against which to discriminate (even in 2015 the black population only just passes 1%).
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* ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'': Arthur does some research on his ancestry and discovers some of his ancestors were slave traders, he apologizes to Deacon (the only black person he knows, apparently), who tells him there is no need since he didn't do it. Later though he discovers he's wrong, and his ancestors were actually Irish travelers. He's now free of guilt and unabashedly tries to get Deacon doing unpaid chores for paying off a debt he owes Arthur, to understandable outrage.
---> You want me to be your ''slave''?!?

* Creator/LouisCK has a standup bit where he extols how wonderful it is being a white male in a world that's basically run by (and for) white men. He says whites will be held down and raped but they deserve it.
** Surprise twist: Louie is jewish -not white.

* Creator/LouisCK has a standup bit where he extols how wonderful it is being a white male in a world that's basically run by (and for) white men. He admits that he's going to enjoy this while it lasts, because he figures karma is going to bite white men in the ass soon (and that they're going to deserve it when it does).

* This has become increasingly popular for minorities to try and do in the past few years as police violence and apparent profiling of blacks by police officers have gained increased prominence. Even then it's happened before, as sometimes someone black will tell someone white that they "deserve an apology" because "your ancestor owned my ancestor", regardless of whether or not that white person is descended from someone that owned slaves or not.

* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', Piper is the target of jealousy after getting furlough days (basically a break from prison) when the other non-white inmates have been trying for years and failed. She initially tries to get the furlough days revoked, although Officer Healy points out that she should be grateful. Piper then has an outburst in the cafeteria about how she's not sorry that she's white and got the furlough days.

It may result from PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad or EverythingIsRacist, or be a self-inflicted form of it. It can overlap with InnocentBigot when the character is accused of bigotry and doesn't quite understand why, or BoomerangBigot when the "guilty" party lets their guilt lead them to treat members of their own group unfairly. It can also overlap with WhiteMansBurden if the character attempts to help the poor underprivileged minority, and can also overlap with OpinionOverride if said minority [[StopHelpingMe doesn't want or even need their help in the first place]]. Expect to hear cries of "SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX!" Some characters may even seek out a BlackBestFriend for this exact purpose, which would defeat the purpose.

[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment As there is a fine line between a normal level of sensitivity to those of other backgrounds and this trope]], please limit real-life examples to those in which the person ''self-identifies'' as experiencing White Guilt.

** Before that particular special ("Neverlution"), he appeared on ''ComedyCentral'' and [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/22dird/stand-up-christopher-titus--formal-apology issued a formal apology]] for slavery.

* Yahtzee from ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' mentions feeling this during his review of ''VideoGame/{{Condemned}} 2'', which casts you as an upper-class person beating up the homeless, being "British, middle class, and whiter than a snowman with a bukkake fetish."

--> ''Stuff White People Like'', [[http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/ #101: Being Offended]]

It may result from PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad or EverythingIsRacist, or be a self-inflicted form of it. It can overlap with InnocentBigot when the character is accused of bigotry and doesn't quite understand why, or BoomerangBigot when the "guilty" party lets their guilt lead them to treat members of their own group unfairly. It can also overlap with WhiteMansBurden if the character attempts to help the poor underprivileged minority. Expect to hear cries of "SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX!" Some characters may even seek out a BlackBestFriend for this exact purpose, which would defeat the purpose.

* 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's true that his people were horribly oppressed.... It takes an epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Spike to goad them into decisive action. Spike's speech itself deconstructs this concept, since he rather bluntly (and politically incorrectly) points out that the spirit simply ''doesn't care'' about their white guilt -- it's pissed off and wants them all dead, and even if it was willing to talk there isn't actually a lot the Scoobies could say to defend themselves or make themselves better. Essentially, he points out that while the Scoobies might have reason to feel guilty, their embracing of this trope is just self-indulgent hand-wringing that's preventing them from taking any meaningful action to solve the problem.

* 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 "[[LampshadeHanging God bless your guilty white ass!]]"
* ''Series/ThirtyRock'': Liz Lemon has her fair share of this, as when she finds it difficult to break up with an annoying black boyfriend played by Wayne Brady for fear of being thought racist. She also admits that she voted for Obama primarily out of White Guilt. She [[CharacterDevelopment mostly gets over it]] after a couple seasons of Tracy playing the EverythingIsRacist card a few times too often, although characters like his wife Angie can still throw her off-balance by playing off of this trait.

* This is the theme of the song "Guilty of Being White" by Minor Threat.
* The Cree Summer song "Curious White Boy" is about a women of color who believes a white man is dating her out of white guilt.

* 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 barely had an African-American population against which to discriminate (even in 2015 the black population only just passes 1%).

* Creator/ChristopherTitus delivers a gag with the idea of atoning for it via "Slavery Rehab".
-->'''Titus''': Only 398 more years to go, and we've got that monkey off our back! ''({{Beat}})'' That's ''not'' [[ThatCameOutWrong what I meant.]]
** before that particular special ("Neverlution"), he appeared on ''ComedyCentral'' and [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/22dird/stand-up-christopher-titus--formal-apology issued a formal apology]] for slavery.
-->'''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]]. I also love whiskey - and [[CryingIndian hate trash on the freeway]]."

* Yahtzee from ZeroPunctuation mentions feeling this during his review of VideoGame/{{Condemned}} 2, which casts you as an upper-class person beating up the homeless, being "British, middle class, and whiter than a snowman with a bukkake fetish."

* Joked about in an installment of "Weekend Update" on ''SaturdayNightLive'' in the late 1990s, with Colin Quinn reporting on President UsefulNotes/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."

* What the Cree Summer song "Curious White Boy" is about.

It may result from PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad or EverythingIsRacist, or be a self-inflicted form of it. It can overlap with InnocentBigot when the character is accused of bigotry and doesn't quite understand why, or BoomerangBigot when the "guilty" party lets their guilt lead them to treat members of their own group unfairly. I can also overlap with WhiteMansBurden if the character attempts to help the poor underprivileged minority. Expect to hear cries of "SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX!" Some characters may even seek out a BlackBestFriend for this exact purpose, which would defeat the purpose.

* The entire point of ''Film/TheHelp'', where Skeeter, a Southern Belle in TheSixties who doesn't quite fit in, decides to write a book from the perspective of the serving black maids. The potential UnfortunateImplications of the (well-meaning) movie were fairly well explored by critics of pop culture around the time it was released.

* 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. Spike's speech itself actually deconstructs this concept, since he rather bluntly (and politically incorrectly) points out that the spirit simply ''doesn't care'' about their white guilt -- it's pissed off and wants them all dead, and even if it was willing to talk there isn't actually a lot the Scoobies could say to defend themselves or make themselves better. Essentially, he points out that while the Scoobies might have reason to feel guilty, their embracing of this trope is just self-indulgent hand-wringing that's preventing them from taking any meaningful action to solve the problem.
* Leslie Knope shows occasional signs of this on ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'', especially when dealing with Ken Hotate, the leader of the local Wamapoke Indians. The rest of Pawnee's government is similar, constantly kowtowing to Ken and letting him do whatever he wants because they're afraid of being seen as racist and to make up for what Pawnee's settlers did to the Wamapoke. The ironic part is that Ken couldn't care less about them or what their ancestors did to his ancestors; he just [[{{Troll}} loves to exploit their white guilt to make them look like fools]].

* Liz Lemon of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' has her fair share of this, as when she finds it difficult to break up with an annoying black boyfriend played by Wayne Brady for fear of being thought racist. She also admits that she voted for Obama primarily out of White Guilt. She [[CharacterDevelopment mostly gets over it]] after a couple seasons of Tracy playing the EverythingIsRacist card a few times too often, although characters like his wife Angie can still throw her off-balance by playing off of this trait.
* 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 [[NeverMyFault Sheldon]] [[AmbiguousDisorder is capable]] of feeling guilt about anything.

* ''Series/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]], studies the history of colonialism and imperialism. He is 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.

* 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 barely had an African-American population against which to discriminate (even today the black population only just passes 1%).

* Creator/ChristopherTitus delivers a similar gag, but with the idea of atoning for it via "Slavery Rehab".

** And before that particular special ("Neverlution"), he appeared on ''ComedyCentral'' and [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/22dird/stand-up-christopher-titus--formal-apology issued a formal apology]] for slavery.

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

May result from PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad or EverythingIsRacist, or be a self-inflicted form of it. Can overlap with InnocentBigot when the character is accused of bigotry and doesn't quite understand why, or BoomerangBigot when the "guilty" party lets their guilt lead them to treat members of their own group unfairly. Can overlap with WhiteMansBurden if the character attempts to help the poor underprivileged minority. Expect to hear cries of "SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX!" Some characters may even seek out a BlackBestFriend for this exact purpose, which of course has UnfortunateImplications of its own.