Basic Trope: Two characters of the same race go out with each other.
- Straight: Alice, who is White, and Bob, who is African American, were dating at one point, but the two eventually broke up. Alice is currently dating the White Charlie, and the two fall in love with each other.
- Exaggerated: Alice falls in love with anyone who is of the same race as her.
- Downplayed:
- Justified:
- Alice feels she's obligated to fall in love with someone of the same race and culture as her.
- Alice was raised by racist or intolerant parents who pressure her to marry within her race.
- Alice lives in a country that is very racially homogenous and isolated from the outside world so the opportunity to date outside her race never presents itself.
- Alice is afraid of the stigma associated with interracial relationships in her community.
- Alice is the last surviving female of her ethnic group and therefore feels obligated only to date men of the same ethnicity as her.
- Alice is not attracted to men of other races.
- Inverted: White Alice falls in love with African American Bob instead of White Charlie.
- Subverted: Alice dates White Charlie but a genetic test reveals that White Charlie has African ancestry and Alice is okay with this.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice immediately breaks up with White Charlie after she realizes that she is in a relationship with a biracial man.
- There was an error in the genetic test and White Charlie actually does not have African ancestry.
- Parodied: People date exclusively outside their race and ridicule same-race couples.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice only dates white men but makes an exception for white-passing biracial men.
- Averted:
- Alice is not in a relationship or is not seeking one.
- Alice lives in a society where same-race relationships are highly stigmatized if not outright illegal.
- Enforced: The work dates from the period when The Hays Code forbade the portrayal of mixed race relationships onscreen, meaning Alice and Bob can only be in a relationship if they are both of the same ethnicity.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: Alice's parents urge her to not date outside of her race.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice decides not to date within the race, especially if she is pressured by her parents or her race to do so.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "I wish the show didn't break up Alice and Bob, but the media prefers it when people date within their racial group."
- Deconstructed: Alice is accused of being a racist.
- Reconstructed: Alice dates a man outside of her race but the relationship fails because she was not attracted to her partner and she ultimately decides that she prefers men of her own race/ethnicity.
- Played For Drama: Alice feels like she must date within her race but she cannot deny her feelings for African American Bob which causes her a great amount of pain.
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