History Main / LikeGoesWithLike

* Subverted in Disney Channel show ''The Jersey'', where Coleman (who's black) and Theo (who's white) date a white girl and a black girl, respectively.

* Subverted in ''Cyril's Woodland Quest''. The protagonist Cyril is a red squirrel looking for a mate. At the end of his quest to find one, he comes across three daughters - one of whom is a red squirrel like him, the second is blonde and the third is grey. The red squirrel refuses to get married, and Cyril finds the blonde unpleasant. He makes a connection with the grey and chooses her - which is a big deal, as there is FantasticRacism between red and grey squirrels in this universe.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* A fantasy universe example: In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Fynn, the [[{{Hobbits}} Prum]] captain of the Loki Familia, is a person who works to restore his race's pride. Because of this he naturally prefers dating another Prum instead of Tiona, an {{Amazon|ianBeauty}} who is utterly smitten with him. [[spoiler: [[HopelessSuitor He eventually decides to propose to Lilly, the only other Prum in the cast, who rejects him in favor of Bell, a human. He then tries to have a duel with Bell (who is badly outmatched) to settle it, but is forced to flee from Tiona's advances before he can do so.]]]]
[[/folder]]

* {{Played for laughs}} on the (unsanctioned)''Wrestling/RingOfHonor A Night Of Hoopla'' where [[Wrestling/RandySavage Machismo]] [[RaceLift King]] Wrestling/JayLethal proposed to [[strike:Wrestling/MissElizabeth]]Wrestling/MariaKanellis, who accepted once he did it "[[WholePlotReference right]]" only to be [[OverTheShoulderCarry carried off]] by Mike Bennett.

[[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt White women always like black men]] and [[MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow white men want Asian women]] but some times couples are just happier with someone who's the same race, nationality, or even religion. It might be a conscious choice of the characters saying that they feel [[TokenMinorityCouple obligated to be together]] because they're both the same. They might feel [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled to be together]] but a white person tries to keep them apart but fails and so we see the strength of their relationship. To emphasis the difference between the white person trying to keep them apart and the black people, the white one is probably blonde. It might be done as a black on black TokenMinorityCouple as the TokenBlackFriend making a BetaCouple with another black person.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]

* ''Film/{{Obsessed}}'' tells the story of Lisa, an office temp, who falls in love with her boss, Derek Charles (a black man) and attempts to seduce him and break up him and his wife Sharon (also black), by claiming that she had an affair with him.

* In ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'' Chon Wang ends up with Princess Pei-Pei, who are both from China, while Roy O'Bannon ends up with Falling Leaves, who are both from... America (although he's white and she's Native). Averted in ''Shanghai Knights'', where Roy and Falling Leaves have broken up, and he develops an attraction to Wang's sister Lin.
* Deconstructed in ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong''. The WhiteMaleLead falls for a Hong Kong prostitute, but also gets courted by a wealthy English banker's daughter. The latter is shocked when she finds out about the other pairing and believes she is the 'right' one for him. She even gets her father to blackmail him into dating her. But at the end of the day, Robert loves Suzie and no one else.
* Inverted in ''{{Film/Sayonara}}'' (in contrast to the book, which played it straight). Lloyd Gruver is an American AcePilot with an all-American fiance Eileen. But he falls in love with a Japanese theatre performer called Hana-ogi and, despite several hardships, TheyDo. Eileen meanwhile has MaybeEverAfter with a male Japanese performer. Creator/MarlonBrando in fact refused to do the film unless the ending was changed to have Gruver and Hana-ogi end up together. It was also the first Hollywood film to have a kiss between a white man and Asian woman.

* ''Film/JavaHead'' is about a white British merchant in the 1800s showing up after a year abroad with a Chinese princess as his wife. He also has an UnluckyChildhoodFriend who's white, and becomes significantly less unlucky [[spoiler: when the Chinese wife kills herself to allow the two to be together]].

[[folder: Literature ]]

** Played straight with Harry and Ginny. Neither his relationship with Cho (Chinese) or her relationship with Dean (Black) work out and they marry each other.

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Season 8 of ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' has an episode where Connor, who's black, helps get KC and Clare, who are white, together. In gratitude, the writers give him a black girl as admirer. It's like when Liberty (black) is rejected by Sean, but in the end she finds out that his black friend likes her.

* Subverted in Disney Channel show ''The Jersey'', where Coleman (who's black) and Theo (who's white) date a white girl and black girl, respectively.

** Subverted when it comes to the JD/Molly/Kylie love triangle (JD and Molly are white, Kylie is black). JD is sort-of seeing Kylie but the old flame Molly comes back into town, and he's very tempted to make a pass at her. He chooses not to and goes to Kylie. But of course when she finds out he blew her off to hang out with Molly, they split up.

[[folder: Music ]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]

* A non romantic example in the 2015 Divas Revolution storyline. Three stables were formed in the women's division. Team Bella's formation made sense, since the Wrestling/BellaTwins were sisters and Alicia Fox had joined them out of pragmatism. Wrestling/SashaBanks joined Wrestling/{{Naomi}} and Wrestling/TaminaSnuka to form Team BAD - rather than the other stable of Wrestling/CharlotteFlair, {{Wrestling/Paige}} and Wrestling/BeckyLynch in Team PCB. Notably Sasha had no kayfabe connection to Naomi or Tamina, but she was black and so was Naomi (Tamina also being Samoan and related to Naomi by marriage), while PCB were all white.

[[folder: Theatre]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

** [[ReallyGetsAround Joe]] tries to hook his friend [[ButtMonkey Danny]] (white) with [[JadeColoredGlasses Sarah]] (black), whom he essentially picked arbitrarily from a crowd. Danny declines interest, since he hadn't gotten over his recent break-up. Joe claims that Danny's just racist. Shortly thereafter, Danny meets [[GamerChick Amber]] (white), and has a thought-bubble vision of Joe calling him a racist again. When Joe actually meets Amber, he's more concerned with the fact that she just happens to look uncannily similar to Danny's ex.

[[folder: Web Videos ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Mack and Jodie, who are two of the few African American students at Lawndale High, are dating each other. While they do like each other, they also feel the social pressure to be good role models for the local black community. It is not clear how much of their relationship is due to one and how much to the other.

* On ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', [[TheHero Danny]] (white) has a longstanding infatuation on [[AlphaBitch Paulina]] (Hispanic) and a brief relationship with [[DatingCatwoman Valerie]] (black), but ultimately winds up with his white friend, [[PerkyGoth Sam]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigMouth'', Missy Foreman-Greenwald, (black)[[note]]Technically, she's mulatto, but she was still black-passing.[[/note]] dated Nick, Andrew, and Lars, (all white), throughout the first three seasons of the series. She also had a poster of [[Creator/NathanFillion Nathan Fillion]] on her wall, whom she had a [[CelebCrush celeb crush]] on. In Season 4, she had an arc, where she started to [[JourneyToFindOneself explore her racial identity as an African-American woman]], where she [[RediscoveringRootsTrip learned how to get more in touch with her cultural roots]]. During this time, she found a new infatuation for [=DeVon=] (black), and started going out with him, as [[UnfortunateImplications this felt more fitting for her]]. [=DeVon=] had also broken up with Devin (white) around this time in the season too so that he could go out with Missy and at the end of the episode where they got together, Missy locked her Nathan Fillion poster away in the closet, signifying that both of them had ditched their white love interests permanently.

* This is thoroughly explored on ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' when a new girl comes to the school and is the only black female student (in the same year as the main characters anyway). She and Kyle share a mutual crush but Cartman insists on pushing her together with Token since Token and the black girl, Nichole, are the only ones at the school of their race and gender. At the end of the episode, Kyle ends up alone since Nichole is with Token. Cartman even points out that the only two Latino students in the school are dating as proof, but it turns out that Cartman had been responsible for them getting together as well.

* Inverted in ''{{Film/Sayonara}}'' (in contrast to the book, which played it straight). Lloyd Gruver is an American AcePilot with an all-American fiance Eileen. But he falls in love with a Japanese theatre performer called Hana-ogi and, despite several hardships, TheyDo. Eileen meanwhile has MaybeEverAfter with a male Japanese performer.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/token_nichole.png]]]]

[[quoteright:200:[[WesternAnimation/SouthPark https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/token_nichole.png]]]]

[[quoteright:200:[[WesternAnimation/{{Daria}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joma-iicy_1409.gif]]]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}}'s two most persistent [[DatingCatwoman villainous]] {{Love Interest}}s are [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Talia al Ghul]] ([[AmbiguouslyBrown East Asian and/or Arab]]) and Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} (white). The former eventually becomes DaddysLittleVillain after [[spoiler:his death,]] while the latter remains in the game.

* ''Film/MargaritaWithAStraw'': Laila and Khumar are both disabled women from South Asia. It turns out they also have a mutual attraction (however this [[ClosetKey was a surprise]] for Laila), starting a relationship.

* In ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'' Chon Wang ends up with Princess Pei-Pei, who are both from China, while Roy O'Bannon ends up with Falling Leaves, who are both from... America (although he's white and she's Native).
** Averted in ''Shanghai Knights'', where Roy and Falling Leaves have broken up, and he develops an attraction to Wang's sister Lin.

* In ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', black Tiana gets together with dark-skinned Prince Naveen, even though her friend Charlotte, who is white, was interested in him.

-->-- BlackBestFriend '''John Hamilton''', ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', to his white roommate

[[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt White women always like black men]] and [[MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow white men want Asian women]] but some times couples are just happier with someone who's the same race, nationality, or even religion. It might be a conscious choice of the characters saying that they feel [[TokenMinorityCouple obligated to be together]] because they're both the same. They might feel [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled to be together]] but a white person tries to keep them apart but fails and so we see the strength of their relationship. To emphasis the difference between the white person trying to keep them apart and the black people, the white one is probably blonde. It might be done as a black on black TokenMinorityCouple as the BlackBestFriend making a BetaCouple with another black person.

* In ''Film/ShanghaiNoon'' Chon Wang ends up with Princess Pei-Pei, who are both from China, while Roy O'Bannon ends up with Falling Leaves, who are both from... America.

* Deconstructed in ''Film/TheWorldOfSuzieWong''. The WhiteMaleLead falls for a Hong Kong prostitute, but also gets courted by a wealthy English banker's daughter. The latter is shocked when she finds out about the other pairing and believes she is the 'right' one for him. She even gets her father to blackmail him into dating her. But at the end of the day Robert loves Suzie and no one else.

* The ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Snitch" has an African man married to a couple of African women and a white one. In the end of the episode it's just him and his black wife.

* Season 8 of ''Series/{{Degrassi}}'' has an episode where Connor, who's black, helps get KC and Clare, who are white, together. In gratitude the writers give him a black girl as admirer. It's like when Liberty (black) is rejected by Sean but in the end she finds out that his black friend likes her.

** [[ReallyGetsAround Joe]] tries to hook his friend [[ButtMonkey Danny]] (white) with [[JadeColoredGlasses Sarah]] (black), whom he essentially picked arbitrarily from a crowd. Danny declines interest, since he hadn't gotten over his recent break-up. Joe claims that Danny's just racist. Shortly thereafter Danny meets [[GamerChick Amber]] (white), and has a thought-bubble vision of Joe calling him a racist again. When Joe actually meets Amber, he's more concerned with the fact that she just happens to look uncannily similar to Danny's ex.

* In WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick's "Fifty Shades of Green/Booze Your Own Adventure" series, they note that their two main sources for this project, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' and ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey,'' have a white couple in a LoveTriangle with an "Ethnic Third Wheel." For [[Literature/ViridianSaga their own book]], they make this character Indian, partly because they're Indophiles and also because [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Necronomicon could have conceivably ended up in India]].

* This is thoroughly explored on ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' when a new girl comes to the school and is the only black female student (in the same year as the main characters anyway). She and Kyle share a mutual crush but Cartman insists on pushing her together with Token since Token and the black girl, Nichole, are the only ones at the school of their race and gender. At the end of the episode Kyle ends up alone since Nichole is with Token. Cartman even points out that the only two Latino students in the school are dating as proof, but it turns out that Cartman had been responsible for them getting together as well.
** Then it was played for laughs when Cartman's cupid set him up with someone "like" him, an [[AbhorrentAdmirer ugly and fat girl with halitosis]].

* On ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', [[TroubledButCute Duncan]] (white) was with [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] (Hispanic) but cheats on her with [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] (also white), with whom he ends up when Courtney finds out and dumps him. Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} because Courtney then falls for Alejandro, the only other Hispanic character on the show. (Though to be fair, he's only interested in Asian [[AlphaBitch Heather]], [[spoiler:who ultimately rejects him]]).

* A fantasy universe example: In ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'', Fynn, the [[{{Hobbits}} Prum]] captain of the Loki Familia, is a person who works to restore his race's pride. Because of this he naturally prefers dating another Prum instead of Tiona, an {{Amazon|ianBeauty}} who is utterly smitten with him. [[spoiler: [[HopelessSuitor He eventually decides to propose to Lilly, the only other Prum in the cast, who rejects him in favor of Bell, a human. He then tries to have a duel with Bell (who is badly outmatched) to settle it, but is forced to flee from Tione's advances before he could do so.]]]]

* Franchise/{{Batman}}'s two most persistent [[DatingCatwoman villainous]] {{Love Interest}}s are [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Talia al Ghul]] ([[AmbiguouslyBrown East Asian and/or Arab]]) and Comicbook/{{Catwoman}} (white). The former eventually becomes DaddysLittleVillain after [[spoiler:his death]] while the latter remains in the game.

->''"And they are a perfect match for us... Okay what I mean is one woman is white and the other just happens to be of the African-American persuasion."''

* {{Played for laughs}} on the (unsanctioned)''Wrestling/{{ROH}} A Night Of Hoopla'' where [[Wrestling/RandySavage Machismo]] [[RaceLift King]] Wrestling/JayLethal proposed to [[strike:Wrestling/MissElizabeth]]Wrestling/MariaKanellis, who accepted once he did it "[[WholePlotReference right]]" only to be [[OverTheShoulderCarry carried off]] by Mike Bennett.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'', [[TroubledButCute Duncan]] (white) was with [[WellExcuseMePrincess Courtney]] (Hispanic) but cheats on her with [[PerkyGoth Gwen]] (also white), with whom he ends up when Courtney finds out and dumps him. Particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}} because Courtney then falls for [[VillainSue Alejandro]], the only other Hispanic character on the show. (Though to be fair, he's only interested in Asian [[AlphaBitch Heather]], [[spoiler:who ultimately rejects him]]).