Mistaken for Racist: Difference between revisions

*** Even earlier: ''Me, myself and Irene'', at the beginning. The Karmic Punishment in many ways vastly outweighs the supposed crime.

** In a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' skit, [[Keith Olbermann]] (played by Ben Affleck) "proves" that Bush is racist by playing a clip of him in which he says "to find those folks". When it's pointed out that Bush was referring to Al-Qaeda, "whose members are entirely Middle-Eastern", Olbermann replies "[[Sustained Misunderstanding|so we have a president who is not only a racist, but also an imbecile]]".

* An incredibly awkward version pops up in ''[[True Crime]]'', when Clint Eastwood's character goes to see the mother of a black possible witness. She assumes he's racist, and while he's sputtering, trying to explain herself, she correctly figures out that the other two witnesses and the victim were all white. Eastwood's character tells her she's "making it into a race thing" and tells her the condemned man he's trying to save is ''also'' black. She tells him the man he came to see has been dead for three years, and asks him where he was when he got stabbed.

* In ''[[National Security]]'', which gets a good half-hour out of the joke, Earl (Black) played by Martin Lawrence tries to get into his car when he finds that he has locked his keys inside. The police officer Hank (White) played by Steve Zahn confronts Earl and mistakes him for a car thief trying to break into the car. However, immediately after Earl is cuffed a bumblebee arrives and, as Earl is allergic to bumblebees, Hank attempts to swat the bee away to protect Earl from a potentially lethal reaction. Unfortunately, all that the bystanders see is a white cop savagely swinging a nightstick near a hand-cuffed black man, and to top it off the bee ''does'' manage to sting Earl. Afterwards, with a jittery recording of the encounter on the news and Earl seemingly bruised from the beating (But really just swollen from the bee sting) Hank was convicted with aggravated assault by an all black jury and sentenced to six months in prison.

* In the 2005 ''[[Dukes of Hazzard]]'' film, Bo and Luke are shown stuck in traffic. As several other drivers pass them they make comments. The first is a stereotypical [[Deep South|redneck]] who shouts out "Southern By the Grace of God!" leaving them a little confused. Then a black couple drives by them and asks them if they're late for their Klan meeting, leaving them even more confused. Another redneck drives by complimenting them again. Then another black woman drives by and says "Nice roof." Bo and Luke then check their roof of the General Lee and discover the Confederate flag that it was so well known for on the TV series.

* The first ''[[Rush Hour]]'' movie combines this with [[N-Word Privileges]] when Carter (who's black) and Lee (who's Asian) go to a pool hall. Carter, who's known by the patrons, greets them by saying "What's up, ma nigga?" While Carter goes into a back room to interrogate a source, Lee tries to start a friendly chat with the bartender using the same line. Since this is a [[Jackie Chan]] movie, [[Bar Brawl|Fighting Ensues]].

* The ''[[Father Ted]]'' episode where Ted manages to offend Craggy Island's surprisingly large Chinese community. Somewhat subverted in that the presentation intended to prove that he's not racist is actually pretty racist in its own right.

{{quote| '''Father Ted''': The Chinese: A great bunch of lads!}}

{{quote| '''Liz''': I am not racist! I love black men! I love you! This is fantastic! Let's get dessert. Death by Chocolate! ''[her date gives her a look]'' No, no, not that kind of chocolate.}}

** Happens to Liz again when she's interviewing for adoption in "Do Over." She calls a black technician by the wrong name (maybe)...

** A similar occurrence happened in the episode where he went to Mexico.

** Thankfully avoided in the first part of the series finale - after shaking hands with a black physician, Monk does his normal wiping thing...and is complimented by the doctor, who notes that if more people did that, he'd have a much easier job. Almost as if they were [[Continuity Nod|referencing the earlier jokes]]...

** In another episode, Dick, having failed to infiltrate a black study group, decided to seek out the white equivalent. He ended up taking his family to a "white power" rally.

*** He also started calling other white people "brothers" after hearing some blacks doing this, always getting insults in return because of this trope.

*** Another episode contains a flashback where JD is mistaken for racist against blacks when he shows up in black-face at a black fraternity while the white-faced Turk dropped the joke at the last second to talk to a cute girl.

** In one episode Dr. Cox tells Turk he doesn't approve of "you people". Turk has just enough time to get offended before Dr. Cox finishes his blanket insult, declaring, in his own special Dr. Coxy way, his endless disdain...for ''surgeons''.

* On ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'', Mimi tells Drew that the Hispanic corporate executive he's going to interview is just the guy applying to be a janitor. Among other unfortunate things Drew says about "his kind" (by which he means janitors) is that they have to come into the store through the back entrance so that the customers don't see them.

* On ''[[Just Shoot Me]]'', Elliot mistakes an Asian-American client for the Chinese food delivery guy. Jack's attempt to set things right backfire when the person he thinks is the returning client actually works for him. To cap it off, Elliot is drinking a Slushie and gets brain freeze. Holding his temples so tightly his eyes slant, he bows back and forth saying "Ah, so cold!" - just as the client returns to be insulted a second time.

{{quote| '''Cameron''': I wish that tart would go back to Columbia and take her little Brown friend with her.}}

** Also on ''[[Modern Family]]'', Phil inadvertently pisses off a black cab driver when, after representing the White team at Family Camp, sports a t-shirt that reads "If You Ain't White, You Ain't Right" in a flashback.

{{quote| '''Davis''': [after losing the Grey Cup tickets] Well, I'll have to go to a scalper.<br />

'''Karen''': Isn't it weird for you to go to a scalper?<br />

* In the first season finale of ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]'', the various sleazy politicians are talking about how to win an election by encouraging voters and one comments about getting the spooks to vote. This gets an angry reaction from the black gangster Chalky, who is in attendance. The speaker hastily clarifies that he meant spooks in the sense of ghosts and was talking about having the dead "vote".

* On ''[[Party Down]]'', at Constance's wedding to a Jewish man, Kyle's band performs a song he wrote for Constance. He sings about how he and Constance, with their blond hair and blue eyes, are special and should rule the world, but a conspiracy of money-grubbers tries to hold them down. Then the song ostensibly describes the path to stardom as "a midnight train" to a place where they "brand you with a star" and "give with a number". . [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]? The song is also called [[Adolf Hitler|"My Struggle"]]. Constance has to interrupt him and force him off stage as the Jewish guests are horrified.

* Yet another "you people" example in ''[[True Blood]]'' when Arlene is referring to religious people.

 

 

== Music ==

 

 

* [[Rhett and Link]] knew that their [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnOyMSEWNTs Red House Furniture Commercial] would create controversy, but it has no touches of racism in it. In fact, it is the exact opposite. It may only include blacks and whites, but they made it very clear that persons of all races are welcome at The Red House.

* On one story on Clients From Hell, the designer accidentally printed a publication with a black cover when the client wanted a different one; the client asked if they could take the misprints but get a discount. Leading the designer to say to his supervisor "They (i.e. the client) want a discount because they (i.e. the documents) are black." The client in question was an African-American church group. Hilarity did not ensue.