Straw Affiliation

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"Damon, you can't be a Republican!" "Why not?" "Because only Democrats fight racial stereotyping!" "Well... why me?" "Why?! Because you're black!!" Day By Day

Bob belongs to a lot of groups. For example, he might be a man, an atheist, a heterosexual, and he might also have black skin.

Now, Alice picks one of these many groups, and simply assumes that because of that Bob has certain opinions, beliefs, even needs. If Bob doesn't agree, it's because Bob doesn't know what's good for him, or maybe doesn't even know what he really wants. She might even go so far as accusing him of being a Category Traitor. Or simply dismiss him as not being a real man/atheist/heterosexual/black/whatever. When a character does this kind of stereotyping, it is Straw Affiliation. When it's the author who does this, it's something else... typically a Strawman Political, maybe in an Author Tract.

See also Gay Conservative, No True Scotsman, Cultural Rebel, Uncle Tomfoolery. Contrast Mars and Venus Gender Contrast, where gender-based Straw Affiliation is justified by the narrative.

Examples of Straw Affiliation include:

Live Action TV

• In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Cardassians, the main characters do a creepy case of Pitying Perversion by deciding Ruko's identity for him against his will, and then insisting that he's suffering from Internalized Categorism because the identity they have chosen for him and eventually condemned him to, by giving him away to the stranger Ben decided deserved him the most - by virtue of being his biological father and the victim of a political conspiracy is one he hates.
• The 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "Dick the Vote" included this subversion:

Mary: Hecky Mulligan! How can you vote for Hecky Mulligan? Nina, can you believe that? Nina: How do you know I'm not voting for Mulligan? Mary: I thought you were a Democrat. Nina: And why do you think I'm a Democrat, because I'm black? Mary: Go ahead, vote for Mulligan! Nina: I'm not voting for Mulligan!

• Used to great effect in an early episode of The West Wing, where Josh is arguing with a Republican congressman, Matt Skinner, over provisions in a proposed anti-gay marriage law. He is baffled by the congressman's refusal to vote against it, even though Skinner himself is gay. When Josh finally breaks down and asks why he doesn't vote against the bill, and why he's even a member of the party when the Republicans always have an anti-gay message, Skinner replies that yes, he is gay. But he is also for lower taxes, less government, and most other Republican positions, and he simply chooses not to let his sexuality, rather than his principles, decide how he should vote.
• In an episode of Parks and Recreation, much of the cast decided to look up dirt on each other as part of a bet to see who could run for office. It's discovered that Donna (who is black) donated money to David Duke (of Ku Klux Klan fame) when he ran for president. She explains that, "I got a phone call. They said he would lower taxes."

Real Life

• Both in fiction and reality, middle-class black people are often accused of "selling out their race" or words to that effect, the Unfortunate Implication being that blacks should stay poor and uneducated. This is related to the No True Scotsman Fallacy, described on the article You Fail Logic Forever.
  • The Other Wiki describes this as "Crab mentality".
  • The issue is actually much more complicated than blacks "wanting" other blacks to stay poor and uneducated. Most of it has more to do with classicism and intra-racism within the black community.
  • This goes beyond black people; any member of a minority, be it women who choose to stay at home with the kids (independent of what their husbands think) or children of immigrants who assimilate into the dominant culture, typically gets accused of this at some point.
• Chris-chan is known to rant about how people with Asperger's are "stealing the glory" of autistics (to cut a long story short, he uses his autism to excuse his bad behavior, which is convenient since there's so much to excuse); because of this, he angrily insists that the two aren't related, and that this "fact" is his idea. To make things worse, he tends to act like he's the only autistic who's special, describing other autistics as "zombies" or "windows into hell". Most people on the autism spectrum refuse to assosciate with him.
• Heaven help you if you're a Gay Conservative.
• A famous mother of a child with Down Syndrome attacked Family Guy for an episode in which Chris dated someone with it and then broke up with her when, in an unrelated twist having nothing to do with her Down Syndrome, she turned out to be controlling, mean, and borderline abusive person. The actress herself has Down Syndrome, and said "In my family we think laughing is good. My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life."

Web Comics

• The Day By Day cartoon outlined at the top of the page.
  • It gets worse. It is later revealed that Damon is an orphan, causing Jan, the Straw Liberal to declare that this explains why he's a Republican as he doesn't know how a black person is supposed to act. Did I mention they're now a couple?
• The now defunct online comic Queer Nation featured the examples of a black gay man who spoke at a Republican benefit and, during it, received superpowers; the "Lambda Rays" put him in blackface, a hobo suit, and apparently gave him the moniker "Uncle Tom". He immediately began dancing for the white crowd in front of him. An Author Tract example of this trope in action.
  • Basically, this comic featured every possible level of hatred for the Gay Conservative possible. All examples were either racist (on the part of the author), mocking (one gay conservative was wealthy, so he was just greedy and evil), or in denial (the most prominent gay "bad guy" turned into a hideously ugly violent monster instead of being ever-so-pretty like all the good gays, er, guys).

Web Original

• Happens a Whateley Universe story, and the person doing it gets blasted by the target's grandmother for perpetuating negative stereotypes.

Western Animation

• In South Park, at the end of "Cripple Fight", Big Gay Al gives an inspiring speech about how he doesn't believe the government has the right to force the Scouts to accept homosexuals. A bewildered Gloria Allred quickly attacks Big Gay Al as being a homophobe.
• On Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Master Shake is surprised to learn that Frylock is not amused by a Jive Turkey talking cellphone, despite the fact that Frylock is black. Or at least, he sounds black.