History Main / MagicalNegro

** ''DumaKey'' is about a man who loses an arm and gets serious brain damage in a construction accident. He also gets mysterious painting powers along with it. He's not the sidekick; [[AvertedTrope he's the main character]].

* Political satirist Paul Shanklin made a song called "Barack the Magic Negro." The song was, naturally, [[EverythingIsRacist called racist]]. However, it was really poking fun at the media for helping to create Obama's image, which can be called reminiscent of this trope.

[[folder: Music Videos]]

* Yinsen from IronMan's origin, who exists only to be very wise and honorable and then die so Iron Man [[StuffedInTheFridge can get motivated to kick evil ass]], is an Asian version of this. (He has since been retconned to Afghan rather than East Asian, and was played by Shuan Toub in the 2008 film.)

* The premise of ''NewAmsterdam'' is that a MightyWhitey saves the life of a MagicalNativeAmerican and in return they use their magic to make him immortal. Naturally, it never occurs to them to make the members of their own tribe immortal, perhaps because the immortal magic only works on superior white genes. However, they only made him immortal until he found his true happiness (BlessedWithSuck?), at which point he'd become mortal again. Since they're not around anymore, the implication is that they were already quite happy the way they were, making it less MagicalNegro and more NobleSavage (recovering MagicalNativeAmerican).

* ''The Defiant Ones'': Sydney

'''NOTE ON WRITING EXAMPLES FOR THIS PAGE:''' Merely having supernatural powers is neither necessary nor sufficient to make a minority character an example of this trope. Simply being a minority character who plays a mentor role is also not sufficient. Think carefully before you add a character to this list just because they're black and serve as a mentor and/or use magic.

Stan: "Chef, Chef! What would a priest wanna stick up my butt?"\\

* Cho Chang in ''HarryPotter''. J.K. Rowling has admitted that the only reason Cho Chang exists is as a plot device to allow Harry to realize how much better Ginny Weasley is. Judging from the fanbase, it worked.

* From ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Zecora the zebra has a vaguely Nigerian accent, lives in a stereotypical witch doctor hut in the middle of the forest, has vaguely defined magic powers and herbal knowledge, and speaks in rhymed couplets. Given that every other character has explicit or implicit magical powers combined with weird cultural habits and houses that range from a tree-library to a floating cloud-castle, this isn't too out of the ordinary. Her first appearance actually was officially about not jumping to conclusions about people and subliminally anti-racism.

->''"Friendly black optimistic advice"''

* In the story "{{Batman}} R.I.P.", Bruce Wayne is found lost on the street with no memory of who he is, when he comes across a black homeless man named Honor Jackson. Honor helps Bruce start his path to recovery, but then disappears and is revealed to have already been dead. However, while it looks like this trope at first, it's actually a subversion - it's eventually revealed that Honor is looking for his own personal redemption, saying that he'd never done anything he could be proud of, but was now happy to save one man's life.

** In BatmanBegins, he plays Lucius Fox, a GadgeteerGenius who has hit a career dead-end in Wayne Enterprises' Applied Science Department, the resting place for advanced products that never made it into production. Nevertheless, he still happily agrees to give Bruce Wayne the gear he needs to become Batman, no questions asked. [[spoiler: Subverted at the end when Bruce repays him by promoting him to CEO of Wayne Enterprises.]]

* Cho Chang in ''HarryPotter''. J.K. Rowling has admitted that the only reason Cho Chang exists is as a plot device to allow Harry to realize how much better Ginny Weasley is. Judging from the fanbase, it worked.

* Discussed in ''30Rock'' regarding the ShowWithinAShow ''God Cop'': "God can't just ''tell'' him who did it. Watch the pilot, Lemon, it's all explained at the end by the wise black man played by Karl Malone".

This can work somewhat as AnAesop about tolerance and not dismissing individuals from underprivileged groups, and it's certainly an improvement on earlier tendencies to either never depict minority characters at all or make them all villains. However, ultimately it's usually a moral and artistic shortcut, replacing a genuine moral message with a well-intentioned but patronizing homage to the special gifts of the meek. Minority characters still all too often aren't portrayed as the heroes of their own stories, but as helpers of standard white, able-bodied, middle-class heroes, and they aren't depicted as, you know, actual ''people'' with their own desires, flaws and character arcs, but as mystical, CloserToEarth plot devices. If taken far enough, [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop it send the message that minorities don't have any problems of own]], nor get frustrated in times of trouble.

This can work somewhat as AnAesop about tolerance and not dismissing individuals from underprivileged groups, and it's certainly an improvement on earlier tendencies to either never depict minority characters at all or make them all villains. However, ultimately it's usually a moral and artistic shortcut, replacing a genuine moral message with a well-intentioned but patronizing homage to the special gifts of the meek. Minority characters still all too often aren't portrayed as the heroes of their own stories, but as helpers of standard white, able-bodied, middle-class heroes, and they aren't depicted as, you know, actual ''people'' with their own desires, flaws and character arcs, but as mystical, CloserToEarth plot devices.

The term "Magical Negro" was popularized by SpikeLee during a lecture denouncing this trope.

* ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'': Nelson

** In ''AshesToAshes'' [[spoiler: he turns out to be an angel]].

* The sketch comedy series ''[[KeyAndPeele Key & Peele]]'' has two such magical African-Americans fighting to the [[spoiler: mutual]] death over who would get to enlighten a success-weary white man.

-->-- ''ATrailerForEveryAcademyAwardWinningMovieEver''