View source for Some of My Best Friends Are X/Analysis

{{Analysis}}{{trope}}
In most contexts, this is enough of a [[Discredited Trope]] that genuinely straight uses are rare, at least in works of fiction, unless the author is really clueless. When this trope is invoked ''without'' ironic intent, whether by people in [[Real Life]] or [[In-Universe]] by authors of fiction, it is typically used with a side of defensiveness by people who realize this is not generally considered to refute charges of discrimination or prejudice, and consider this unfair. This persistence of usage tends to take the trope from [[Discredited Trope|discredited]] to [[Pet Peeve Trope|pet peeve]] for those that find the trope in itself dubious let alone its use by the more or less subtly racist, sexist, classist, etc. Do not expect these to be mollified by the introduction of a [[Black Best Friend]] or [[Pet Homosexual]] into the picture, most especially not if their characterization also invites [[Stop Being Stereotypical]] reactions. 

Straight versions of the trope face three main kinds of problems:

1) As indicated above, it is strongly associated with no longer accepted biases and prejudices ("[[Some of My Best Friends]] are..." women/gay/members of ethnic minorities/etc.)

2) The belief that the minority friends are the "exception" to the person's prejudices, making it open season on everyone else in the group for not holding up to his ideals (ie, not being just like him).

3) More fundamentally, friendship does not guarantee an absence of prejudice, and the very act of thinking of someone not as your friend Bob or Alice, but as your [insert group name here] friend Bob or Alice, suggests bias and stereotyping. This may not apply if you find yourself faced with a group from a [[Planet of Hats]], but [[Planet of Hats]] is itself a trope that relies on stereotyping, as in a lack of individual and other variety within a group. By extension, there is the worry that this trope is a way of claiming [[N-Word Privileges]] by proxy, and the user may even use a form of proxy [[Boomerang Bigot]]ry to this end ("[[Some of My Best Friends Are X]], and ''they'' think that their group have these faults, too, so why can't ''I'' say it?")

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[[Category:Some of My Best Friends Are X]]
[[Category:Analysis]]