Racist Grandma: Difference between revisions

'''Elderly Woman:''' Up yours, nigger!|''[[Blazing Saddles]]''}}

This can be [[Truth in Television]]. Although obviously not all old people are bigots, old people are more likely to subscribe to pre-civil rights cultural beliefs and are more likely to say [https://web.archive.org/web/20120507201629/http://blogwww.newsweekthedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/labnotes/archivelab-notes/2007/09/25/why-grandpa-talks-like-chris-rock-in-ncsays-17inappropriate-modethings.aspxhtml inappropriate thoughts out loud]. However, this tends to be counterbalanced by the fact that they were raised in a "more polite" era than ours. (''More'' polite, not "polite.") Take [[All in The Family|Archie Bunker]], for instance, who took care to substitute "spade" for "nigger," "hebe" for "kike," etc. It can also be [[Mistaken for Racist|accidental]] if the grandma is using what was [[Fair for Its Day|once the politically correct term]], without being aware that it is [[Society Marches On|now considered derogatory]], (e.g., in the article linked earlier in this paragraph, the author recounts her negative feelings when an elderly man referred to someone as "colored"—but this was in fact the politest term for black people when the man was likely raised, and the chosen way for most black people to describe themselves back then, like the NAACP.) Furthermore, elderly people whose views about minorities really did change with the times may suddenly begin spouting offensive beliefs from their youths if they're suffering from senile dementia.

This character is usually intended for comedy and will tend to be [[Affably Evil]] (or, at worst, [[Faux Affably Evil]] or [[Kick the Dog|a petty dog-kicker]]). BEWARE: This is not true of all bigoted senior citizens; [[Not So Harmless|some of them can perpetrate genocide just as adroitly as their younger counterparts.]]

** Count Piotr is so anti-mutant that he tries to bribe the doctor who is treating his grandson's fetus (damaged and in an artificial womb because his mother was pregnant during a chemical attack) to kill the child. He also ejects Aral and Cordelia from Vorkosigan House, and later on it is revealed that he tried to murder Miles in his crib with his own hands, prevented only by Miles' bodyguard. Miles ''has'' a bodyguard from birth because Piotr is not the only racist grandmagrandparent around. He does get a ''bit'' better later on, after Miles's intelligence begins to show; he is still a prejudiced, reactionary, embittered old man, but he not only stops trying to kill Miles, but actually becomes a (rather distant and authoritarian) mentor figure.

** Miles later meets an actual racist grandma in ''The Mountains Of Mourning'' - well, she ''would'' be a grandma if her granddaughter hadn't just been murdered for being a mutant (she had a harelip and cleft palettepalate - not mutations, but close enough for the village she was born in). {{spoiler|Not too surprisingly, she was the killer. [[Values Dissonance|As recently as her own youth, it wouldn't have been a crime]].}}

* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'', (the portrait of) Sirius Black's deceased mother is really [[Fantastic Racism|anti-Muggle/Muggleborn/"half-breed"]]. However, such beliefs are rather common in therthe Potterverse, even among young people,; Walburga Black is just [[Large Ham|really loud about it.]]

* [[The Catherine Tate Show]] has Nan, an extremely bigoted, foul-mouthed, grandmother.

== Webcomics[[Web Comics]] ==

* [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] to comic effect in [http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=131 this strip]{{Dead link}} of ''[[Pictures for Sad Children]]''.

** Played straight [http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=120 here]{{Dead link}}.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130205144002/http://www.daisyowl.com/comic/2008-09-05 Steve's] parents from ''[[Daisy Owl]]''

* ''[[A Softer World]]'': [http://www.asofterworld.com/index.php?id=426 We Love You, You Ignorant Prick]

* The furry webcomic ''[[Goblin Hollow]]'' has Lily's grandfather and grandmother who have a problem with Lily (a cougar-African lion hybrid) dating Ben (a bear). Even Lily's father admits that Lily's grandparents are raving bigots.

* [http://www.krrobar.com/mikebookseller/comics/385.html Ginger], a reoccurring character in ''[[Mike: Bookseller]]''.

* ''[[Time Cube|Gene Ray]]'': he'sGene Ray is racist against ''everyone.''

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': Lisa once researched her family tree. Grandpa told her about having an African-American ancestor and that he was reluctant about admitting it because his generation was racist.

* In an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'', Mrs. Pewterschmidt has found her husband cheating on her and leaves him. Peter suggests that Mr. Pewterschmidt get back on the dating scene, and takes him out to a club. Mr. Pewterschmidt sees a black man at the club and thinks he's a waiter or servant, and refers to him as "boy," which causes the women that Mr. Pweterschmidt was with to leave in disgust along with the black man.

== [[Real Life]] ==

* [[Truth in Television]]: [[Barack Obama]]'s white grandmother used to utter ethnic stereotypes, as did his paternal aunts - except being African, they had a ''different'' set of ethnic stereotypes, including ones about other African countries and ethnicities which passespass right over the head of Westerners. They still made Obama cringe, according to his biography.

* If you're at least partially white Protestant American, you may have relatives two or three generations back who were in the Ku Klux Klan. If you're from Germany or Austria and are not Jewish, you almost certainly did have relatives two or three generations back who were in the Nazi Party or in Hitler Youth. Many of the moderate democratic political establishment in Cambodia today had roots in the Khmer Rouge. Not everyone in these situations was a "true believer,", and may have been part of these institutions [[My Country, Right or Wrong|because they were (back then) the establishment]]. But some of them really were racists. Some people evolve in their old age, and some people take bigotry stubbornly to their graves. It's just human nature. To be fair, if you weren't in the Nazi party, you could not buy, sell or trade worth a damn. And if you were under a certain age, it was mandatory to be in Hitler Youth. A good chunk of Nazis belonged to the party as a way to survive in a fascist state.

** A majority of Germans in the Third Reich era were definitely ''not'' in the Nazi party. Nor did they let in everyone who asked. It was supposed to be an institution for the country's ruling elite, not a mandatory citizenship requirement. You had to be a member to get a good place in government, but plenty of old school military leadership never joined. There's more truth to the Hitler Youth part, but they didn't manage anything close to 100% participation, either.

*** It's true the NSDAP even stopped accepting new members for a while because they saw themselves as the "elite". However it was almost impossible to avoid joining the HJ, especially if you lived in parts of Germany where most people were firm believer of nazism. You had to be lucky that you never got an official order by the local government. Pope Benedict XVI is a good example, he was a member of a catholic youth organization, and refused to join the HJ as long as he could. But when the letter arrived, it wasn't his decision anymore.

* John McCain's comment during the 2008 American presidential campaign: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpE6ljPjSAk I can't trust Obama he's not...he's not...he's an Arab.]

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHsUi2Hu4Ug This].{{context}} Yes, do go ahead and yell "[[Godwin's Law|Heil Hitler]]" at a Jew who supports national health care. [[Sarcasm Mode|Really, he won't get pissed off. Not at all]].

[[Category:Racist Grandma{{PAGENAME}}]]