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{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:janitor_mrt_7869.jpg|link=Not Another Teen Movie|right|I'm the wise janitor. I impart knowledge and help overcome fears.]]
{{quote|''"The film opens with yet another voice over narration by [[Morgan Freeman]], extolling the saintly virtues of a white person who deserves our reverence."''
|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''' reviewing ''[[The Bucket List]]''}}
{{quote|''"Friendly black optimistic advice"''
▲{{quote|''"The film opens with yet another voice over narration by [[Morgan Freeman]], extolling the saintly virtues of a white person who deserves our reverence."''|'''[[Roger Ebert]]''' reviewing ''[[The Bucket List]]''}}
|'''[[A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever]]'''}}
In order to show the world that minority characters are not bad people, one will step forward to help a "normal" person, with their pure heart and folksy wisdom. They are usually black and/or poor, but may come from another oppressed minority. They step (often clad in a clean, white suit) into the life of the much more privileged (and, in particular, [[White Male Lead|almost always white]]) central character and, in some way, enrich that central character's life. If the Magical Negro (also known as Magic Negro or Mystical Negro) is from a society of [[Noble Savage
▲{{quote|''"Friendly black optimistic advice"''|'''[[A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever]]'''}}
With such [[Closer to Earth|deep spiritual wisdom]] (and
▲In order to show the world that minority characters are not bad people, one will step forward to help a "normal" person, with their pure heart and folksy wisdom. They are usually black and/or poor, but may come from another oppressed minority. They step (often clad in a clean, white suit) into the life of the much more privileged (and, in particular, [[White Male Lead|almost always white]]) central character and, in some way, enrich that central character's life. If the Magical Negro (also known as Magic Negro or Mystical Negro) is from a society of [[Noble Savage|Noble Savages]], expect an [[Anvilicious]] [[An Aesop|Aesop]] about the failings of the protagonist's society -- which usually leads to the [[Mighty Whitey|protagonist]] "[[Going Native|going native]]".
▲With such [[Closer to Earth|deep spiritual wisdom]] (and sometimes -- though not always -- actual [[Ethnic Magician|supernatural powers]]), you might wonder why the Magical Negro doesn't step up and save the day himself. This will never happen. [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|So enlightened and selfless is he]] that he has no desire to gain glory for himself; he only wants to help those who need guidance...which ''just happens'' to mean [[White Male Lead|those who are traditionally viewed by Hollywood as better suited for protagonist roles]], not, say, his own oppressed people. In fact, the Magical Negro really seems to have no goal in life other than [[Black Best Friend|helping white people]] achieve their fullest potential; he may even be [[Mentor Occupational Hazard|ditched or killed outright once he's served that purpose]]. If he does express any selfish desires, it will only be in the context of helping the white protagonists realize their own racism and thereby become better people.
This can work somewhat as [[An Aesop]] about tolerance and not dismissing individuals from underprivileged groups, and it's certainly an improvement on earlier tendencies to either never depict minority characters at all or make them all villains. However, ultimately it's usually a moral and artistic shortcut, replacing a genuine moral message with a well-intentioned but patronizing homage to the special gifts of the meek. Minority characters still all too often aren't portrayed as the heroes of their own stories, but as helpers of standard white, able-bodied, middle-class heroes, and they aren't depicted as, you know, actual ''people'' with their own desires, flaws and character arcs, but as mystical, [[Closer to Earth]] plot devices.
See also [[Whoopi Epiphany Speech]], [[Black Best Friend]], and [[Mammy]]. For a similar trope about women, see [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]] (as well as [[Disposable Woman]] and [[
The term "Magical Negro" was popularized by [[Spike Lee]] during a lecture denouncing this trope.
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'''NOTE ON WRITING EXAMPLES FOR THIS PAGE:''' Merely having supernatural powers is neither necessary nor sufficient to make a minority character an example of this trope. Simply being a minority character who plays a mentor role is also not sufficient. Think carefully before you add a character to this list just because they're black and serve as a mentor and/or use magic.
{{noreallife|real people are not defined by a single trope.}}
{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==▼
▲== Comic Books ==
* In the story "[[Batman]] R.I.P.", Bruce Wayne is found lost on the street with no memory of who he is, when he comes across a black homeless man named Honor Jackson. Honor helps Bruce start his path to recovery, but then disappears and is revealed to have already been dead. However, while it looks like this trope at first, it's actually a subversion - it's eventually revealed that Honor is looking for his own personal redemption, saying that he'd never done anything he could be proud of, but was now happy to save one man's life.
* Ali Ka-Zoom from ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' fits this trope. He even appears to be acting as a wise mentor of sorts to Shining Knight at the close of the book.
* Yinsen from [[Iron Man]]'s origin, who exists only to be very wise and honorable and then die so Iron Man [[Stuffed in The Fridge|can get motivated to kick evil ass]], is an Asian version of this. (He has since been retconned to Afghan rather than East Asian, and was played by Shuan Toub in the 2008 film.)
* ''[[What If]] ... [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]] Fought In The [[American Civil War|Civil War]]?'' reduces Falcon to a cross between a
* In Neil Gaiman's ''[[
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
** ''[[Wanted]]''. {{spoiler|Actually a subversion, since he's manipulating the Fraternity for profit, and all his talk about "destiny" and "duty" turns out to be a smokescreen.}} ▼
** ''[[Driving Miss Daisy]]'' is very close to this trope, but Freeman's character gets a bit too much of his own character development to qualify.
** The ''[[Bruce Almighty|Bruce]]/
** Interestingly enough, this is ''inverted'' in the film ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]].'' Red is the narrator, everyman, and a murderer, while a fellow white prisoner, Andy Dufresne, is the suffering saint that re-ignites his hope.
▲** ''[[Wanted]]''. {{spoiler|Actually a subversion, since he's manipulating the Fraternity for profit, and all his talk about "destiny" and "duty" turns out to be a smokescreen.}}
** He finally won the Oscar for playing this trope in ''[[Million Dollar Baby]]''.
▲** Really, just ''[[Morgan Freeman]]''. See the picture at the top of the page. If you're looking for a pure hearted mentor chock-full of folksy wisdom, who ''may'' or ''may not'' have magical powers, you can't do much better.
* Harlan in ''[[Adam]]''.
* The mortician in ''[[Final Destination]]'' subverts this trope, not only in the fact that his advice essentially boiled down to [[Failure Is the Only Option|"you're all screwed, but have fun trying to stay alive"]], but also by the [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] that he [[The Grim Reaper|is
* Lamont in ''[[American History X]]''.
* Harry Mitchell in ''[[The Adjustment Bureau]]'', the Adjuster who decides to help David.
* How about the Bogo-Matassalai from ''Arthur and the Invisibles''?
* Gloria in ''Because of Winn-Dixie'' is a [[Twofer Token Minority|fourfer:]] [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged|blind]], black, female, and a dry alcoholic.
* ''The Defiant Ones'': Sydney
* ''[[Dogma]]'': Rufus is somewhat of a parody. And according to Rufus, [[Jesus]] is the [[Ur Example]]. Taking in consideration the Brazilian movie ''O Auto da Compadecida'', it could be taken literally.
* ''The Family Man'': Cash
* ''[[The Green Mile]]'' has a character who is simultaneously a
* Inverted in ''Finding Forrester'', when [[Sean Connery]] plays a mysterious ''white'' man with incredible writing ability that helps a clueless inner city youth (black) become a famous writer and [[Memetic Mutation|the man now, dog]].
* Moses the clock worker in ''The Hudsucker Proxy''. He provides sagely narration in a stereotypical patois, is satisfied coaxing the protagonist to success, and apparently has the {{spoiler|unexplained power to stop time by obstructing the gears of the Hudsucker Building's clock}}. He's a bit of a parody of the trope, though, by being a blatant, ''literal'' Magical Negro.
* ''[[
* In the second ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film, the black voodoo lady Tia Dalma seemed to be a
* ''[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0316465/ Radio]'', the 2003 film. Despite being [[Based on a True Story|based on the true story]] of James Robert "Radio" Kennedy.
* ''[[
* ''[[O Brother, Where Art Thou?]]'' kicked off with a
* A historical/film example which seems to play with or subvert the trope is the movie ''Something the Lord Made''. It tells the story of a white surgeon (Alan Rickman) aided in his cardiac research by a black assistant (Mos Def) who is clearly the greater genius of the two. However, against type, the black assistant is not shown as being happy having another take credit for his work, but realizes this is the only way for him to do what he is interested in rather than being a janitor. There is also an implication that despite his goodness and supposed liberalism, the white doctor was essentially a plagiarist taking advantage of the racist system. Based on the true story of Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blalock, whose relationship the Wikipedia summarizes as "complicated and contradictory".
* Uncle Remus from ''[[Song of the South]]'' epitomizes this trope, a key reason why the movie isn't seen much today. Even the horrors of Jim Crow can't dampen his determination to be a cheerful mentor to white children.
* ''Waiting...'' had Bishop, a [[Refuge in Audacity|ridiculously blatant execution of this trope]]. Seriously, he existed only to give complex advice to everyone's social and psychological problems, and did so with a calm, deep-voiced, wise demeanor.
* Djimon Hounsou also seems to be playing this sort of role A LOT since his role as Maximus' friend in ''[[Gladiator (
* ''[[Not Another Teen Movie]]'' has a parody of a
* In M Night Shyamalan's ''[[Unbreakable]]'': Elijah Price ([[Samuel L. Jackson]]), the black and physically-handicapped mentor to [[Bruce Willis
* ''[[Hitch]]'' manages to subvert this trope just by changing the focus. [[Will Smith]] plays a character whose job is ''literally'' teaching white guys how to be as cool as he is - he's a "date doctor" who coaches socially clueless men on how to woo women. However, since Hitch himself is the protagonist, not the white
* The handicapped (black) golf instructor/mentor Chubbs Peterson, whose hand got eaten by a crocodile in ''[[Happy Gilmore]]''.
* ''[
* Shaquille O'Neill in ''[[Kazaam]]'', though there's plenty of [[Unfortunate Implications]].
* There was that guy from the 2nd segment of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' movie.
* The prisoner in
* Solomon from ''[[Hand That Rocks The Cradle]]'' is an example of this character type as well.
* In ''The Basketball Diaries'', Ernie Hudson plays the only black character in the film, who does a lot to help the protagonist.
* Averted by Ossie Davis in ''[[Do the Right Thing]]''. Surrounded by a mostly black cast, he is merely the [[Only Sane Man|voice of reason.]]
* Played with in ''A Patch of Blue'': Selina, who is blind, white and incredibly sheltered, thinks Gordon is this (in a good way), but he's really just a regular, non-stereotyped guy who wants to help her become independent.
* Vadinho from the ''[[Puma Man]]'', whose job it is to hand the protagonist the magic belt with the mystical powers of the Puma Man and make him realize his destiny without using these awesome powers for himself, instead becoming the hero's [[Sidekick]]. The problem is, the hero is so ineffectual that Vadinho ends up looking like [[The Hero]] by comparison and making the film unintentionally subvert the trope.
* Mateo in Jim Sheridan's ''In America''. Despite his appearance as [[Starving Artist]], he turns out to really be one of those [[Rich People]], so he's able to pay the Sullivan family's hospital check. Along with teach the family's father how to feel again.
▲== Literature ==
* [[Stephen King]] seems to have issues on this subject; many of his writings and their [[The Film of the Book|film adaptations]] include examples of this trope. To be fair to King, he does acknowledge his tendency to write characters such as Dick Hallorann and Mother Abigail as superblack heroes (his words) and says they are products of his white liberal guilt.
** ''[[The Green Mile]]'': John Coffey, the gentle black man who calmly dies so as not to cause a fuss while using his powers to help those who guarded his cell. There is a [[The Messiah|Christ-metaphor]] at work there, subtly (?) showing the white audience how their structural racism killed Coffey.
** ''[[The Stand]]'': Mother Abagail, elderly and black; Nick Andros, deaf-mute; Tom Cullen, mentally disabled. Abagail is arguably an aversion, since she's pretty much the single most powerful person in Boulder. Also averted in that we spend quite a lot of time inside Mother Abigail's head, and her self-doubt complicates the situation for the heroes in the second act. But other than that, yeah.
*** Don't forget Joe, a twelve-to-fourteen-year old who, due to trauma, regressed into a non-speaking, sometimes violent savage. Larry at one point realizes that Joe is ''reading his mind''.
** ''[[
** Magic, mentally disabled guys are arguably a ''literal'' trope in themselves with Stephen King. They seem to have special immunity to dark magic and what-not.
** ''[[
** ''[[The Dark Tower]]'': Sheemie Ruiz, the slightly retarded {{spoiler|psychic and teleporter}}. Avoided, however, with Susannah.
** But he manages to mostly avoid doing it in ''It'', with Mike Hanlon, who, while sage-like, is a very active participant in the big battles and {{spoiler|doesn't even die!}}
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** Let's not forget Dick Hallorann from [[The Shining]].
* In ''Boy's Life'' by Robert McCammon, Moon Man and The Lady are typical Magical Negroes.
* Uncle Tom, from ''[[Uncle
* Brom's ''[[The Plucker]]'', despite being beautifully written and illustrated, unfortunately casts the character Mabelle as a blatant Magical Negro: she uses forbidden magic to help the white family, then {{spoiler|dies unpleasantly and returns as a ghost}} to tell the little boy how to {{spoiler|dispose of the Big Bad's remains.}}
* The title character in Bernard Malamud's short story ''The Angel Levine'' is an early (and very blatant) example.
* ''The Cay,'' by Theodore Taylor, features an old black man who rescues a racist white boy who had become blinded when their ship sinks. The two live together in a tropical island and the black man lives long enough to make the boy a better person before [[Death
** Taylor later told the old man's backstory in the sequel/prequel, ''Timothy of the Cay''.
* Jim from ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'' is a nice subversion. While he is Black, and into magic, it doesn't Flanderize him and certainly isn't portrayed typically. Bonus points for averting [[Hollywood Voodoo]].
* Hassan, from ''[[The Kite Runner]]''. Not black (he's Hazara), but hits the rest of the criteria so heavily to demand recognition.
* Burton Galilee in ''[[Little Green Men (
* Stuart "Straight" Rathe in the Christian ''[[Underground Zealot]]'' series by Jerry Jenkins. Straight leads Paul, the white (and atheist) "hero" to Christ. He then spends his time driving Paul to chess tournaments, giving him Biblical advice on his relationship, and getting him in touch with other Christians.
*
▲== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[Life On Mars]]'': Nelson
{{quote|
** In ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' {{spoiler|he turns out to be an angel}}.
* Parodied in a series of ''[[The Man Show]]'' sketches. A hapless white guy is presented with an opportunity to cheat on his wife, and as he agonizes over the decision, a self-identified
* The premise of ''[[New Amsterdam]]'' is that a [[Mighty Whitey]] saves the life of a [[Magical Native American]] and in return they use their magic to make him immortal. Naturally, it never occurs to them to make the members of their own tribe immortal, perhaps because the immortal magic only works on superior white genes. However, they only made him immortal until he found his true happiness ([[Blessed
** A bizarre twist and possible
* Rose on ''[[
** However, Rose later grew a bit, becoming a character in her own right in season 2 with a back story and her own side plot. And by season 4, she's actively snarking at Jack. And then she decides to {{spoiler|just give up and just live in "retirement" with Bernard}}.
** On the other hand, it's completely subverted by Eko. While he seems to be a Magical Negro priest who tries to restore Locke's "faith", he's actually {{spoiler|not a real priest, but a former brutal drug lord in disguise}}. Oh, and he's [[Too Dumb to Live|so idiotic he tries to use dynamite to blow open a blast door]]...
** Locke initially seems to fit the role of a strange white version of a Magical Negro, possessing mystical, almost shamanistic knowledge and a deep, unexplained communion with the island, always ready to dispense nice bits of pop-wisdom and jungle smarts...that is, until later in the series when he goes from subservient shaman spirit-guide to full-blown [[The Messiah|Messiah]]. And then crazy person/gullible dupe, responsible for much ill-advised [[Stuff Blowing Up]].
* Inverted in the 1980s version of ''[[
** In the short story upon which the episode is based, author [[Harlan Ellison]] states, "One of these men was black, the other white" and refuses to say which one is which. Of course, for a visual medium, they had to make a choice, and it seems that they deliberately chose to avoid the Magical Negro trope.
* Guinan in ''[[Star Trek:
** However, while Guinan fits the trope closely enough to be a definite example, she's also a little more complex than most Magical
* ''[[American Gothic]]''. Although Mrs. Holt is certainly mysterious, wise, and spiritual enough to be a Magical Negro. The extent of her 'magic spell' to help sway the judge in Caleb's custody hearing is...a nice big bowl of homemade chicken soup. Aside from some hints at African tribalism in her ancestry, a bit of voodoo, and some understanding of how the Afterlife works, she dispenses only common sense advice.
** In one episode her [[Good Is Impotent|ineffectiveness in protecting Caleb from evil]] is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Buck, after being thwarted by her interference, apparently makes her verge on choking to
** By the end of the show, though, she has indeed been ditched from the plot, and without even really serving a real purpose other than to give Caleb her halfway house to stay in. We can only speculate whether her role was cut due to [[Executive Meddling]], or if it might have been expanded had the show not been [[Cut Short]].
* Examples from ''[[Degrassi High]]'':
** Maya is a wheelchair-bound girl who is always the voice of reason in her circle of friends, and (unlike every single one of those friends) never gets a spotlight episode.
** BLT also fit this trope. He was instrumental in helping [[Shrinking Violet|Michelle]] overcome her insecurities and even confront her parents about their own racism. He then helped her overcome her addiction to caffeine pills. Magnificently subverted later when BLT cheated on and dumped Michelle showing how flawed he was.
** Strangest of all is Patrick, who is a Magical ''Irishman.'' He befriends Liz and Spike (the two grimmest girls in the show). Then he teaches them to live and enjoy life again, to a degree where he's like a mild male version of the [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]]. The
** Speaking of Degrassi, Jimmy Brooks from ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' counts as well. He was pretty much always right and always good and always the voice of reason before and after he was crippled.
* Larry Wilmore, "Senior Black Correspondent" on ''[[
** A subsequent incident involving "imaginary black crime" featured the other party pointing out that the "imaginary black people who help whites", such as most Morgan Freeman characters, "aren't ''imaginary'', they're ''magical''!"
** On an episode of ''[[
* Usutu in Volume 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' bears deep, ''deep'' elements of this. His sole purpose seems to be to send Parkman (and later, Hiro) on spiritual visions of the future and the past, and then die.
** And apparently the poor guy can't even rest in peace, because Volume 4 has him appearing to Parkman in visions, explaining that Matt is destined to become a prophet to the world.
** Charles Deveaux is pretty bad, too. In the season one finale, he appears in Peter Petrelli's dreams to tell him about the power of love, and about Peter's very special destiny to save the world. This is despite the fact that Peter had recently instigated a fight that ended with Charles' daughter Simone getting ''shot and killed.'' So if Charles is teaching Peter anything in his dreams, it really ought to be about the power of an incredibly pissed off father [[No
* ''[[Benson]]'' is an odd
* ''[[
** In the Sylvester McCoy episode "Remembrance of the Daleks" the Doctor is helped out by a black man who serves tea in a cafe while inexplicably offering philosophical insights based on the enslavement of his ancestors.
** Earl Sigma in the following story "The Happiness Patrol"
* Referenced in an early episode of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Zack:''' Apparently all Angela needed was to hear her job description in a deep, African-American tone. }}
* In ''[[
** This is a parody though, he tells Robin that he couldn't be bothered to remember their names and implies that however poetically he may have pretended to phrase it for them, he was leaving because he was bored.
* Neatly subverted by Shepherd Book in ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''. He may be Serenity's resident mentor and act as [[The Conscience]] for the Caucasian crew members, but he's not the holy man he appears to be -- {{spoiler|he's the man who killed him.}}
** ''[[
* Heylia on ''[[Weeds]]'' subverts this thoroughly; she's always giving Nancy advice both on pot dealing and on life in general, but whenever it looks like the show might follow this trope, she proves that while she likes Nancy well enough, it's ultimately a business relationship and her first priority is herself and her own family. Whenever Nancy can't pay for her product, she either takes something for collateral or simply tells her "Tough shit."
* From ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'': Brother Tuck. Yes, ''Tuck'' was turned into a Magical Negro. The fact that they dropped the "Friar" and referred to the only black man in England as a "Brother" who never once gave any kind of spiritual or moral guidance was another way in which the combined forces of Political Correctness and Narm beat this show to death.
* In the pilot episode of ''[[
{{quote|
* Hilariously parodied and [[Subverted]] on [[
{{quote|
Girl, I am high on PCP! I was gonna ask you how you was followin' me. }}
* ''[[The Sarah Silverman Program]]'' has Sarah learn the lesson that older black women are wise beyond their years {{spoiler|:and younger black women are prostitutes}}.
* Averted in ''[[Homicide: Life
* Averted in ''[[Oz]]''. While Kareem Said is a brilliant leader and fiercely intelligent, he deals with many of his own problems. Character depth also prevents him from just being a cliche. His friendship with Tobias Beecher is also more destructive in a sense than helpful.
* Played straight in ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' with the Lunch Lady, who occasional dispenses real, down-to-earth wisdom, but whose primary role is to divine the future through baked beans.
* Played in the first season of ''[[True Blood]]'' were Tara's mother; [[Abusive Parents|an abusive alcoholic ultra-catholic woman]], becomes a "normal person" after an
* Ogion the Silent becomes this in the Scifi Channel's version of [[Ursula K.
* ''[[Smallville]]'' plays this painfully straight with their take on the [[Martian Manhunter]], who even winds up sacrificing his powers for Clark.
* ''[[
** [[Mitch Benn]] would probably agree:
{{quote|
It's gonna be just like voting for Morgan Freeman.'' }}
** Obama-as-magical-Negro is also a popular meme on the political Right. Paul Shanklin, an impressionist-singer-comedian for ''The [[Rush Limbaugh]] Show'', composed a song (
** The sensitivity of this depiction may be in question, but he does seem to be able to calm babies in a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uNoNn0KjZA semi-magical way.]
* Approached directly in the monologue of a recent ''[[
* ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' has a bit of an issue with this. They made almost all the witches black (and almost all the black people witches). They made almost all the witches spend their time helping white people and rarely using their powers for their own benefit, or even for the "balance" they're supposed to be preserving. Notably, Emily Bennett worked as Katherine's handmaid as well as using her powers to provide her and other vampires immunity from sunlight. ''Why'' she would do this despite obviously not approving of vampires eating people is apparently a [[I Owe You My Life]] situation that is never expanded on. The subtext isn't really helped by the series being set in the American South.
* The sketch comedy series ''[[
** The sting in the tail comes when a middle-aged black woman enters and the white man mistakes her for yet ''another''
== [[Theatre]] ==
* Played oddly straight by the black playwright August Wilson, many of whose ''Century Cycle'' plays include characters of this nature as parts of all-or-nearly-all-black casts (Stool Pigeon in ''King Hedley II'', Elder Barlow in ''Radio Golf'', Aunt Ester in ''Gem of the Ocean'' and offstage in other plays).
* Papa, the old steam engine from the musical ''[[Starlight Express]]'', although he at least takes part in one race (and wins). In the original London cast, Rusty, the young steam engine under his tutelage, was also black, but later productions cast white actors as Rusty....
== [[Video Games]] ==
* [[In Name Only|Literally true]] but otherwise completely inverted by Akafubu from ''[[
* ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour]]'' has Howard Blackwood, who [[Canon Immigrant|first appeared]] in the comic ''Silent Hill: Past Life''. He's a mailman who appears to be [[Weirdness Censor|oblivious]] to everything going on in town, but still dispenses some wisdom the protagonist, Murphy. {{spoiler|This is because he's a manifestation of the town and has been present since before 1867.}} The [[Multiple Endings|Full Circle ending]] also implies that {{spoiler|he was the [[Hero of Another Story]], but failed and became trapped in [[Groundhog Day Loop|Silent Hill limbo]] as a result.}}▼
==
▲* [[In Name Only|Literally true]] but otherwise completely inverted by Akafubu from ''[[Golden Sun (Video Game)|Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'', who is a ([[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|fantasy tribal-African]]) [[Playing With Fire|Mars Adept]] with [[Hot Blooded|typical Mars Adept personality]], only helps Felix [[Unwitting Pawn|unwittingly and indirectly]], and [[Jerkass|thinks it unfair]] that his people's deity wants to reward Felix, a foreigner, for doing all the actual work.
▲* ''[[Silent Hill Downpour]]'' has Howard Blackwood, who [[Canon Immigrant|first appeared]] in the comic ''Silent Hill: Past Life''. He's a mailman who appears to be [[Weirdness Censor|oblivious]] to everything going on in town, but still dispenses some wisdom the protagonist, Murphy. {{spoiler|This is because he's a manifestation of the town and has been present since before 1867.}} The [[Multiple Endings|Full Circle ending]] also implies that {{spoiler|he was the [[Hero of Another Story]], but failed and became trapped in [[Groundhog Day Loop|Silent Hill limbo]] as a result.}}
== Web Comic ==▼
* The doctor in ''[[Pockett]]'' seems to be one of these.
* Spoofed by [[Cracked
▲* Spoofed by [[Cracked (Website)|Cracked]].com, who pointed out some of the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of this trope in their list of [http://www.cracked.com/article_15989_hollywoods-6-favorite-offensive-stereotypes.html Hollywood's 6 Favorite Offensive Stereotypes].
▲* ''[[How to Kill A Mockingbird]]'' jokingly portrays Calpurnia this way.
* [[The Comics Curmudgeon]]'s description of "Clambake" from ''[[Gil Thorp]]'':
{{quote|
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* This is one trope that ''[[The Simpsons (
** They finally did outright subvert this in the episode "Brawl in the Family", with the character Gabriel, an apparent Magical Negro (who Homer thinks is an angel) and social worker assigned to help the family with their dysfunction. He's also voiced by Delroy Lindo. Homer expressly compares him to the aforementioned Bagger Vance example. Gabriel, confronted by Homer's [[Negative Continuity|long lost Vegas wife]], gives up on the family, telling Homer, "Your seed should be wiped from the Earth!"
* ''[[The Wrong Coast]]'' had one movie parody with the title ''Magical Black Men''. Starring Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Don Cheadle and Lawrence Fishburne (all four of which are or have been typecast into this trope) teaming up to solve the problems of white men in a moral crisis.
* Subverted and parodied by Toots in ''[[Clone High]]''. Toots is a blind jazz clarinetist who tries to give sagely advice, and really, ''really'' fails.
* Subverted by Chef of ''[[South Park]]''', whose advice usually amounts to him singing passionate soul songs about sex. That, or imparting information an 8-year-old really shouldn't know.
{{quote|
Chef: "Oh, that's easy! You just have to find the clitoris." }}
** And on one occasion where Chef ''could'' have given Stan useful information, he didn't.
{{quote|
Stan: "Chef, Chef! What would a priest wanna stick up my butt?"
Chef: "...G'bye!" }}
* Inverted in ''[[Yvon of the Yukon]]''; the title character, a ludicrously uncouth, unkempt, vulgar and crusty Frenchman becomes a "sagely" mentor to the thoroughly ordinary teenager Tommy, who happens to be Inuit.
* Somewhat parodied with Mashed Potato Johnson on ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', in that he gives the boys advice on how to become successful blues musicians, when they're already the most popular musicians in history.
* Played with in season four of ''[[
* Zecora from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Mentors]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
[[Category:Magical
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