Magical Negro

What exactly is a magical negro? I find the article definition not very clear. I couldn't find any non parody character that fits what the article lists as the typical Magical Negro (a white suit wearing African-American janitor who dishes out folksy wisdom) The term supposedly originated from Spike Lee who talked about movies where supporting characters had some supernatural abilities and helped the white protagonist over come his problems (usually learn a lesson), sometimes through advice (Bagger Vance), but also through putting them through experience (The Family Man). Most of the analysis outside of TV tropes focuses on the idea of the self sacrificing black character, practically ignoring the magic or mystical element. Besides that every Morgan Freeman role is shoehorned into this trope.

It seems to me, that there are a couple of tropes that overlap here. One is the wise janitor, a background character of humble status who shares his wisdom gained from his life experience. Another is a guardian angel or spiritual guide, a third is a saintly self-sacrificing black person.

Anyway, there are just too many different characters that are to various to all fit under this trope. What is it that makes one character a magical Negro and another not?

Magical Negro is the use of a black character as an instigating force for a white characters growth while having little to no independent goals within the plot themselves. It comes somewhat from a place of good intentions, as the black character comes across as wise, spiritual and even magical, but also serves as stark reminder they are not really a character but a plot device for the actual main character.

This is a term outside the wiki and not really subject to redefinition or renaming. Other associated tropes you describe are already covered like Token Black Friend, Almighty Janitor or Wisdom from the Gutter.

Thanks for the answer. I think the problem with the article is how it describes the definition, not how it defines it. Outside of the wiki there seems to be flexible and unclear definitions of the term. Your explanation is much better than what is currently written.

I guess some of the most prominent examples don't fit, and some are questionable. Uncle Tom has his own goals, and I am not sure anyone grows in that book (the white characters could be seen as plot devices). In Evan Almighty, God has has his own goals and there is conflict between God and Evan because of that.

Uncle Tom in the original story definitely isn't a Magical Negro (he sacrifices himself and has idealistic views, yes; but does so to help other black people, not white people.) However, it might still be mentioned on the page as an aversion because (via Minstrel Shows that distorted the original story) it heavily influenced later works that used the trope despite not really representing it itself, making it an important part of the trope's history.

Looking outside of TV tropes, I have found the history of the Magical Negro to be rather short. The first mention that I could find of the idea, is from 2000, with Christopher John Farley writing about the idea. A year later Spike Lee gave his lecture. Both refer exclusively to characters that are actually magical or mythical and all the movies they cite as examples were recent. They differ a little in one the same, but the jist of both is that giving African Americans magical powers is a new trend, but rooted in old prejudices. There are some articles from 2003-2004 that focus on magical characters but one can see the concept creep cutting in, with non magical characters in more recent films.

The focus shifts to black characters who selflessly help white characters, especially when they have no characterization of their own. That definition is fine, although prone to misuse, however it seems to coexist with the idea of the Magical Negro as a stock character. Wikipedia says that it is a stock character.

Pretty much everything that I have read on it seems to be more concerned about pointing out the racial prejudice involved and less so with a systemic classification of tropes and every critic feels free to define the trope to fit the argument that they are making.

I think all this has resulted in multiple tropes being given the same name.

The problem with tropes that are based on terminology created outside the wiki is that we cannot establish a precise definition on what they are, because people tend to use them for many things, and since we aren't an authority on how those terms can or cannot be used, all we can do is categorize their use. This is the same problem that other nebulous terms, such as Low Fantasy or Afrofuturism have.

Edited by SoyValdo7 on Jan 10th 2024 at 8:10:04 AM

Part of the issue is tropes like Magical Negro and Manic Pixie Dream Girl is that the character type was identified through people trying to criticize the trend. There are numerous examples that defy the controversial implications of the tropes, often long before such issues were ever brought up, but are still being wrapped into that concept. Makes me think we could possibly create the missing Supertrope (such as "Minorities are Wiser" or "Aimless Love Interest"), but at the same time I think it is within the ability of TV Tropes to provide a holistic analysis of the idea without falling into the trap of pure negativity.

I see. Should the article be rewritten to make that clearer? I deleted some stuff already.

Just wanna say, apparently most people don't even know of the trope if you look at the reaction to the trailer of The American Society of Magical Negroes.

Like Mary Sue, it may be better to leave this as an example-less definition page, but it does need to explain what the term is used for, even if that can vary.

I think making this an outright Definition-Only Page is going too far; even if the examples are muddled and the definition unclear, there does seem to be a legitimate archetype under all the confusion.

It seems to me that this suffers from the same issues as Black Guy Dies First: it wasn’t all that common in the first place, and when people started seeing it as a trope, writers started to dedicatedly avoid it, causing it to become parodied more than it is played straight. (To go off-topic a bit, when I saw the The American Society of Magical Negroes trailer pop up, my first thought was “why are you bothering to parody an archetype that’s almost never played straight anymore?”)

I’ll also note that we have Wisdom from the Gutter and Whoopi Epiphany Speech, which, while not fully encapsulating, might cover a considerable number of examples.

Edited by jandn2014 on Jan 11th 2024 at 12:45:52 PM

Well I think the idea got a boost from the Key and Peele sketch, however I can't find a straight example that is similar.

I do think that the comparison to Black guy dies first is apt, because both tropes can be the result of casting choices.

Edited by ry4n on Jan 14th 2024 at 12:10:47 PM