History Main / MistakenForRacist

Compare DiscriminateAndSwitch, StereotypeReactionGag, CallingMeALogarithm. SisterTrope to EverythingIsRacist. May overlap with OneDialogueTwoConversations, SustainedMisunderstanding, PoorCommunicationKills, OpenMouthInsertFoot, ThatCameOutWrong, and other miscommunication tropes. See also InnocentBigot.

** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E8IAmPeterHearmeRoar I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar]]" has Peter sent to sensitivity training and coming back as a StrawFeminist. At one point he gets up in front of a gathering of men and rants that it's their fault that there's so much crime and violence in the world. Unfortunately, said gathering happened to be the Million Man March.

'''Peter:''' From blacks.\\

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* In the short story [[https://www.short-story.me/stories/horror-stories/335-a-hot-time-in-the-old-town "A Hot Time in the Old Town"]] by Desmond Warzel, the elderly gentleman telling the story to the narrator was a landlord, whose house was avoided by potential black tenants because of a hate crime homicide that had taken place there. As it turns out, this is a wise decision on their part, because [[spoiler:it's not the landlord who's racist, but [[GeniusLoci the house itself that has been poisoned by the original crime.]].]]

** ''ComicBook/UltimateFF'': Van Damme gets into the interrogation cell, grabs Miles Horhames (an AnthropomorphicAnimalAdaptation of ComicBook/MilesMorales as a pig) and says "tell the truth or die, swine". Miles thought that was racist.

* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern''

** When John Stewart was first chosen as a backup for Hal Jordan, Hal Jordan had misgivings on Stewart for being temperamental. The Guardian appointing Jordan assumes he's taking issue with Stewart being a black man and calls him out on his seeming prejudice.

** During Ben Reilly's tenure as Spider-Man during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', he was acting on information from his boss about her ex-husband when he decided to keep tabs on her son for her after she said she was concerned for her son's well-being around him and that he wasn't reliable, thus was hostile towards the man. The man in question was an African-American undercover cop who thought Ben was a racist because he wasn't aware that Ben worked for his ex-wife and Ben was acting on she said.
* In an infamous ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'' comic from the 1970s, Hal Jordan enters a neighborhood full of African-American families to deal with a mugging, and is quickly accused of racism by everyone. An elderly black man points out that Hal patrols the galaxy helping and protecting aliens, but hardly ever helps the black people. Hal is very shaken up by this, apparently forgetting that when he saves the world as part of the Corps or the Justice League, he saves it for, you know, every single race and ethnicity, not just light-skinned people. Then again, a recurring Inuit member of his support characters was "lovingly" referred to as Pieface (which all modern incarnations establish said character only being called that by actual racists).

* In the 1955 film ''Blackboard Jungle'' the protagonist gets mistaken for a racist when he uses racial slurs in class. One of his students told the principal about it without context to get him into trouble.

* Happens with the fame-hungry villain Screwball in ''[[Comicbook/SuperiorSpiderMan Superior Spider-Man]]''. She refuses to attack a woman she deems to be "too ethnic" because she's worried that it would make her seem like a racist.
* In an infamous ''Franchise/GreenLantern'' comic from the 1970s, Hal Jordan enters a neighborhood full of African-American families to deal with a mugging, and is quickly accused of racism by everyone. An elderly black man points out that Hal patrols the galaxy helping and protecting aliens, but hardly ever helps the black people. Hal is very shaken up by this, apparently forgetting that when he saves the world as part of the Corps or the Justice League, he saves it for, you know, every single race and ethnicity, not just light-skinned people. Then again, a recurring Inuit member of his support characters was "lovingly" referred to as Pieface (which all modern incarnations establish said character only being called that by actual racists).

** At one point in ''Comicbook/SpiderVerse'', [[Comicbook/UltimateSpiderMan Miles Morales]] and the Spider-Man from the ''[[WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan2012 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' TV show team up with the Spider-Man from the [[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 '60s animated series]]. When Miles unmasks, the '60s Spider-Man is visibly shocked, causing the animated Ultimate Spidey to think he's a racist. Instead, it turns out that '60s Spidey is proud to learn that the Spider-Man legacy has lived on, and was actually expressing shock at the fact that the new Spider-Man is so young.

* During Ben Reilly's tenure as Franchise/SpiderMan during ''ComicBook/TheCloneSaga'', he was acting on information from his boss about her ex-husband when he decided to keep tabs on her son for her after she said she was concerned for her son's well-being around him and that he wasn't reliable, thus was hostile towards the man. The man in question was an African-American undercover cop who thought Ben was a racist because he wasn't aware that Ben worked for his ex-wife and Ben was acting on she said.

* In ''ComicBook/AstroCity'', a comic book publisher writes a comic where real-life supervillain Glow Worm, an enemy of the African-American hero Jack In The Box, is depicted as a white racist. Glow Worm, a mutant half-human[=/=]half-worm with blue skin, attacks the publisher in a rage and reveals that he is also black.

* ''ComicStrip/MadamAndeve'': Happens to the titular characters when they [[http://www.madamandeve.co.za/cartoons/me002575.gif argue]] over which [[EasternZodiac Chinese New Year animal]] is in effect.

* In Creator/RickRiordan's [[TheVerse verse]], [[DivineParentage demigods]] are often called "half-bloods." This causes issues sometimes.

* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': One factor in the PoorCommunicationKills between Dys and Tang is that twins started drifting apart right around the time Tang got gene therapy to get a body of the right sex, and everyone assumed that Dys had a problem with it. In reality, as Dys himself puts it, he knew Tang was a girl "five minutes after she knew" and considered her his sister long before anyone else did. What really happened is that Tang's already prolific intelligence latched onto the science behind her transition and gave her a newfound motivation to excel academically, with the nasty side effect of truning her into an InsufferableGenius. This interacted badly with their family's history of chronic depression, worsening a bad patch Dys was having independently. By the game's beginning, Tang is genuinely worried about Dys but expresses it in a way that is easy to read as her only pretending to worry because she's expected to do so as his sister, while a BookDumb Dys is living on the fringes of the colony's society with a severe case of SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome.

** A later episode had Dermott helping Dean seduce Trianna. He tells Dean to put on a ghost costume (actually a KKK outfit) because goths love ghosts, and write "TRIANNA" on her lawn with wooden boards. When the T is accidentally set aflame, her stepfather comes out with a shotgun, accusing him of being a racist bastard. The stepfather himself is AmbiguouslyBrown.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', while the Weasleys are picking up Harry from the Dursleys, Fred and George decide to have some fun by "accidentally" dropping a toffee in the living room to tempt Dudley into eating it, knowing he's on a diet. Said toffee is actually an invention of theirs that causes people's tongues to turn purple and grow as large as four feet long when they eat one. Arthur chastises them for using magic to mistreat a Muggle for their own amusement. Fred and George indignantly tell him they didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle, they gave it to him because he's "[[FatBastard a great]] [[TheBully bullying]] [[{{Jerkass}} git]]".

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Steve had his black lab partner over at the house and Francine made her leave, explaining that she didn't feel comfortable with "her kind" in the house. It turns out that she actually noticed that the girl in question was left-handed, [[spoiler:which turns out be a case of {{Boomerang Bigot}}ry]].

** Another one has Peter sent to sensitivity training and coming back as a StrawFeminist. At one point he gets up in front of a gathering of men and rants that it's their fault that there's so much crime and violence in the world. Unfortunately, said gathering happened to be the Million Man March.
** And when Peter tries smoking crack:

** In "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", Peter thinks that being Jewish automatically makes you intelligent (after befriending a stereotypically savvy Jewish financial planner) and takes Chris to get bar mitzvah'ed. When Lois goes to stop them, she talks about how wrong it is, but the people in the synagogue mistakenly think she's a self-hating Jew and chase the Griffins out.
** In "Deep Throats", Brian gets a job as a cab driver. When he sees Cleveland, he decides against picking him up to buy some milk, causing Cleveland to assume Brian didn't pick him up because he's black. At the end of the episode, Cleveland retaliates by smashing Brian's cab with a golf club.
** In "A Shot in the Dark", Peter unwittingly shoots Cleveland Jr. at night after mistaking him for a burglar, but people assume it was a hate crime.

** A sketch has Franchise/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/{{Robin}} playing checkers, with the latter stating his distaste for playing the black side. Unfortunately, ComicBook/TheFalcon walks by just as Robin yells out "I hate black!", leading to some [[AngryBlackManStereotype awkwardness, to put it mildly]].

** White-on-white example: In a "future" episode, Homer and Bart horrify Lisa's British fiancé by accidentally setting the Union Jack on fire.
** Another white-on-white example (actually a subversion, in that the victim really does have negative attitudes):
--->''[Krusty the Clown has just learned that he never had his bar mitzvah]''\\
'''Krusty:''' I thought I was a self-hating Jew, but it turns out I'm just a plain anti-Semite.\\

** In one episode, Krusty hosts -- at the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Theater Apollo Theater]] in Harlem -- a show called [[XtremeKoolLetterz "Krusty's Komedy Klassics"]] which has [[FunWithAcronyms the show's initials in large white letters in the background]]. Cue ProducePelting from the offended crowd.

* Let's just note up front that comic book heroes in the 1940s and 1950s were almost exclusively either Caucasian (or at least ''looked'' Caucasian, e.g. Superman) or their ethnicity was their defining characteristic, and usually not in a good way (Whitewash Jones). Sometime in the 1960s, the comic book companies discovered there was an ethnic market out there they could skim more dimes from. The first batch of non-white heroes that were more than simply stereotypes tended to have names that let you know right off the bat what you were dealing with ("ComicBook/BlackLightning"). Then someone with slightly more of a clue realized that just shading someone darker and putting "black" (or "El" for Hispanic heroes) in front of their names was maybe not all that much ''better''. Cue stories with all the subtlety of a chainsaw about how racism is ''bad'', kids! And expect heroes who are and have always been very level-headed suddenly realizing in an anvilicious manner just how '''racist''' they've been for all these years. A lot of the stories below hail from this time period.

* There are several rap songs that contain The N-Word in the title, and [[NWordPrivileges if you're not black]], saying that you like the song could get you dirty looks.
* There was a rumor in the 90s that [[Music/ThreeEleven 311]]'s name was related to the KKK (K is the eleventh letter of the alphabet, 3 K, get it?). They actually named themselves after Omaha police code for indecent exposure (a friend of the band's was arrested for skinny dipping). People who bought into this rumor were either unaware of or just flat-out ignored the fact that one of the band members is Mexican (which the Klan probably wouldn't take kindly to), not to mention all of the black artists they've worked with.
* Country artist Brad Paisley and LL Cool J wrote the song "Accidental Racist" centrally about this phenomenon, using the image of Paisley being mistaken for a racist by a black man while wearing a t-shirt with a Confederate flag emblazoned on it, and attempting to collaboratively overcome the US's race problems. Of course, irony of ironies, upon release the song was attacked by numerous critics for its pronounced UnfortunateImplications and extremely naive, misguided treatment of its subject matter.
** Many critics seemed to think the UnfortunateImplications were entirely intentional when it is very apparent to most people that [[HanlonsRazor it was just an awkward fumble]], at worst an example of [[InnocentBigot innocent bigotry]] and more likely just naive oversimplification.
* The refrain of La Marseillaise ends with a line that can be roughly translated as "so that our fields can be watered with the blood of the impure!" Yeah... In context, "impure" means the {{Evil Reactionar|y}}ies who ruled France at the time, ''not'' those of mixed race.
* The German metal band Music/{{Rammstein}} has, throughout their career, had to fight off accusations that they are Nazis. The accusation seems to stem from the fact that [[AllGermansAreNazis they're German]] and sound angry, as opposed to anything more substantive.
** The original cover of Herzeleid featured the band (all Caucasians) standing shirtless in a row - this was taken by critics to be a "poster for the master race." The band eventually changed the North American version of the cover to show just their faces.
** Added {{Irony}}: Some of the band members support communism and the hammer and sickle has shown up more than once in their music videos.
** The band got so fed up with these accusations, they eventually wrote a song - Links-2-3-4 - in response. The lyrics of the chorus, in part, translate to "My heart beats on the left."
* An odd case is the Danish children's song "Jeg har set en rigtig negermand", where only the first verse is commonly known (It essentially goes: "I have seen a real negro man / His head is as black as a bucket of tar / He said a lot of strange things / And in his nose he had a great big ring"). However, after several more verses in the same vein on the various races, the final verse of the song sees the protagonist call for everyone to be painted blue so that we can all live in a world of harmony and togetherness. ''Film/TheCelebration'' saw the first verse being sung, with a party guest telling her (black) partner that it's a racist song. ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool'' saw a cult called the One World Church to take this premise to its logical conclusion.

* One viral [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG4iTGjuoKw Chinese song]] is overflowing with sugary imagery and rife with [[PepTalkSong positive messages]] in the lyrics... except that the main reason it went viral is the unfortunately-sounding (to anglophone ears, at least) chorus. How unfortunately, you ask? To those without grasp of Mandarin, it sounds like constant repetition of the N-word. One professor was even [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sunshine-rainbow-white-pony-nae-nigga-nae-nae fired]] after using that particular Mandarin word.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The [[NoodleIncident so-called]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_buffalo_incident Water Buffalo Incident]], in which Pennsylvania University student Eden Jacobowitz was charged with violating the school's racial harassment policy when he yelled "[[InformedObscenity Shut up, you water buffalo]]!" out the window of his dorm to a noisy, mostly black crowd of students. Ironic in the fact that Jacobowitz was Jewish, and his usage of "water buffalo" was a rough translation of the Hebrew "''behema''", referring to a noisy, rowdy person. The school's official complaint referring to water buffalo as large, black animals that dwell in Africa also hit a major snag when it was pointed out that water buffalo are, in fact, ''Asian''. Nevertheless, other commentators noted that the act of associating Black Americans with animals itself is often used as a racist trope.
* Australian entertainer Bert Newton once famously said [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKyDGGptA4 "I like the boy!"]] when referring to UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, who didn't take it that well. Bert was making a CallBack to a recurring comedy routine in which he [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbEPpdtz9b8 impersonated Colonel Sanders]] -- unfortunately in America, ''boy'' can be considered a racist insult ("No matter how old he is, a black man is always 'boy'"). Luckily, Muhammad Ali did quickly get over it.
%%* The term "black hole" has been mistaken for racist [[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/11/naacp-urges-hallmark-pull-racist-card-shelves/ at least]] [[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380143,00.html twice]].
* In 1999 Washington, D.C. ombudsman David Howard, a white man, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_%22niggardly%22 used the word "niggardly"]] (which means "miserly", and has a completely different etymology from that ''other'' N-word) when talking about the budget, which was interpreted by a black man as being the other word [[note]]Leading to Website/{{Cracked}} [[https://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/3-racist-incidents-that-werent-actually-racist/ joking]] that the "real crime was trying to shoehorn a ten-dollar word into a two-dollar conversation"[[/note]]. Howard resigned from his job because of this but later took another job in the administration. The incident led to something of a clash of beleaguered minorities, as Howard happened to be gay and his resignation (widely believed to be forced) was roundly protested by gay-rights activists. Howard's boss, then-mayor Anthony Williams, later conceded that he'd "acted too hastily" in accepting Howard's resignation.
* The (African-American) chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, was being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-BzecyLGdU&feature=player_detailpage#t=34 interviewed on a news show]] when this exchange occurred:
-->'''Reporter:''' What is it that you people want?\\
'''Steele:''' "You people"?!\\
'''Reporter:''' Yeah, [[DiscriminateAndSwitch Republicans]].\\
'''Steele:''' Oh! [chuckles] I thought you meant ...
* Due to the popularity of neopaganism among white supremacists, bands like Týr and Moonsorrow have had to release video statements in order to convince the public that they were in fact ''not'' neo-Nazis.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheApprentice'', one of the contestants used the phrase "The pot calling the kettle black" when referring to one of the other contestants, who then took it to be a racist comment.
* AV Club [[https://tv.avclub.com/south-park-black-friday-1798178674 criticized]] the 2013 WesternAnimation/SouthPark episode "Black Friday" for "having the mangled pronunciation of the 'Black Friday Bundle' repeated over and over" by Japanese characters, the article author citing it as an "unfortunate" example of how the show "mocked foreign cultures in un-PC ways." However, the phrase, "burakkufuraidē bandoru" is in fact correct Japanese ("ブラックフライデーバンドル") for "Black Friday Bundle." If anything, the way it's pronounced in the episode is due to Americans mangling the pronunciation of a Japanese phrase, not vice versa. Series co-creator is actually fluent in Japanese (his college major) and has been to Japan over 50 times.
* On the reality web series ''WebVideo/StripSearch'', Alex designed a T-shirt with a crest featuring the initials of the show. The judges cautioned him on this subject, noting that there were inherent problems with [[ThoseWackyNazis a military-esque symbol with "SS" in the middle]] and that even if he didn't think of that, "someone will".
* There's a hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts called Cooley-Dickinson, but locals tend to abbreviate it to "Cooley-Dick" and on at least one occasion this has been mistaken for a racial slur when referring to the interns at the hospital, many of whom are Asian-American.
* More than one prominent politician, including former presidential candidates John Kerry, John [=McCain=], and Mitt Romney, has been accused of racism for using the phrase "tar baby". Many assumed it was a racist slur; in actuality, it refers to a problem that only gets worse the more heavily you get involved in it (for the record, the original reference came from the Uncle Remus stories, which are African-American folktales). Most politicians now use the less-charged terms "quagmire" or "the third rail", depending on the context of the issue.
* The 2010 South African [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]] starting 11 had 10 black players and 1 white. The white player's name was Matthew Booth. Cue horrified, mostly foreign MoralGuardians who had watched the overwhelmingly black South African crowd yelling "Boooooooooo(th)" every time Booth had the ball.
* A potential problem for equestrians talking about Arab horses as seen by [[https://forum.chronofhorse.com/t/you-know-you-really-are-a-horse-obsessed-whack-job/325082/57 this]] post on an equestrian forum. Turns out, "Normally, I'm not a fan of Arabs...", sounds ''really'' bad when taken out of context.
* A local TV news program once investigated an Australian man who'd apparently called a real estate ad that said "No Asians" into a local newspaper. In his interview the man appeared to be [[DiggingYourselfDeeper digging himself deeper]] by explaining he meant he didn't like any of them and didn't want them in his house because they were all crooks. Fortunately, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YM9Ereg2Zo it turned out]] to be a case of OneDialogueTwoConversations: [[spoiler:he was opposed to dealing with real estate ''agents'']].
* A few people protested (and still joke) about the fact that ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''[='=] Yellow Ranger Trini and Black Ranger Zack were played by a Vietnamese-American actress and an African-American actor respectively. According to Zack's actor Walter Jones, he was originally going to be the Blue Ranger but the producers decided to shift him to Black for continuity with the original Franchise/SuperSentai footage[[note]]Zack was supposed to be Red Ranger Jason's best friend, and in ''Series/KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' the Red and Black Rangers were the closest members of the team[[/note]], which Jones okayed because he thought the Black costume looked cooler. As for Trini, she was played by a Hispanic actress in the pilot episode, but was recast after demanding more money. Nobody on the staff realized the implications of the casting until after several episodes had been filmed, at which point it was too late to do anything about it.
** And irony of ironies, this uproar has since lead to a greater case of racism: a male Native American can never lead a Power Ranger team because he would be a "red man" because the Red Ranger generally leads the team and the one exception was a ''White'' Ranger which would be worse. The White Ranger (who was also the Red Ranger for two later power sets) was a Native American character played by [[Creator/JasonDavidFrank a white actor]]; oddly enough, this went largely unremarked at the time.
* The undercut, a hairstyle that has the hair buzzed on the sides but left long on top, became popular among young men in TheNewTens. It also became popular among white nationalists, most notably by Richard Spencer, because it looked less threatening than the "skinhead" look. In response to this, users on dating apps like Tinder began [[https://horace.co/en/howtos/why-undercut-alt-right rejecting any guy who had this hairstyle]]. The hairstyle started to fall out of favor as men who weren't white nationalists tried to avoid this trope. (Only applies in America and England though. It does not seem to carry any political implications in Francophone countries.)
** This trope can apply to skinheads themselves. Although the skinhead subculture arose from the mingling between Jamaican immigrants and British-born youth, many outside the subculture today associate skinheads with the violent, fascist, racist strand that emerged in the 80s. Even as fascists today have begun to abandon the subculture due to the violent connotations, and as anarchists, socialists and antifascists have begun to reclaim aspects of the culture, many average people will associate skinheads with racism.
* In November 2018, a white general manager of a St. Paul, Minnesota, Chipotle restaurant was recorded by a group of several young African American people saying that the group needed to pay for their food before ordering it claiming that they never have any money on them. The group posted the video on social media, accusing her of racial discrimination, and led to her getting fired by Chipotle, and the company issued an apology to the group. Sympathizers, wanting to support the group, combed over the leader's Twitter feed and discovered that he and his [[https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/chipotle-rehired-fired-manager-customers-accused-racism friends had been bragging about how they managed to pull a number of "dine dashes" across the city,]] and surmised that the manager meant that she was preventing them from pulling another DineAndDash on her restaurant.
* Actor Creator/TyreseGibson (who is black) was once asked by a Creator/{{BET}} reporter whether his ongoing -- and rather angry -- feud with Creator/JamesFranco (who is white) had anything to do with the fact that he (Gibson) was black and Franco was white. The way the question was phrased made it clear that the reporter believed that the argument was somehow based in racism on Franco's part. Gibson quickly ended that assumption by saying, "My beef with him has absolutely nothing to do racism, because he's absolutely not a racist. But it does have everything to do with his being an gigantic asshole. 'Cause that's what he is, a gigantic asshole."
%%* The use of [[UsefulNotes/NonNaziSwastika non-nazi swastikas]] can cause this.
* [[https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3314663/american-basketball-star-trent-lockett-confused-ku-klux-klan-for-easter-religious-festival-in-spain/ In 2017]] Trent Lockett, an American basketball player who went to play for a team in Spain, encountered a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Week_in_Spain Semana Santa parade]], a religious festival where people wear outfits that strongly resemble those worn by the Ku Klux Klan in America (although it actually predates the Klan by centuries).
* In Latin America the word "negro" does not have negative connotations (it's simply the Spanish word for "black") - of course, it all depends on the context in which it is used - and calling someone "mi negro" or "negrito" is often an affectionate nickname among friends or romantic partners. However, when the Uruguayan soccer player Edinson Cavani in a conversation in Spanish called one of his friends "mi negrito” on social media, [[https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/31/manchester-united-edinson-cavani-gets-three-game-ban-over-instagram-post-fa he was accused of racism, and heavily fined.]] This in turn led many Uruguayans to accuse the English authorities of being racist for imposing their own cultural parameters on a conversation in another language.
* A notable incident that contributed to the great Prince Philip Mountbatten-Windsor's public image as "Gaff Man" was his interaction with neighboring Aborigine tribes in Australia in 2002. One tribe admitted they and the other tribe used to exchange spears in the martial sense, and the Duke of Edinburgh had one question for the leader of said other tribe as a result: "Do you still chuck spears at each other?" The whole tribe thought that one was ActuallyPrettyFunny, but it subsequently ended up being one of many Duke of Edinburgh quips the Daily Mail and similar tabloids took out of context.
* [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/language-miscomprehension-of-ngga In 2021]], many Indonesian Twitter users were accused by their English-speaking counterparts of saying the n-word under the guise of "ngga". Little did they know, "ngga" is an actual word in Indonesian (well, technically a slang word) meaning "no", but this fact did little to stop English-speaking Twitter users of accusing Indonesians of racism anyways.
* The Ying Tong Song from Radio/TheGoonShow is often regarded as Sinophobic, mocking the Chinese language. In fact, "Ying Tong" is based on a mangled pronunciation of the English name Edgington, and has nothing to do with the Chinese language, or mockery thereof.
* In Atlanta, Georgia, there was a much-discussed incident in which a man shot up several massage parlors, killing many of the employees. After he was apprehended, he admitted to being a sex addict [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny lashing out]] against those who had provided him services. But because the majority of women in such places (and thus nearly all of his victims) happen to be of Asian descent, the media quickly grabbed the "Asian hate crime" ball and ran wild with it.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist'': One factor in the PoorCommunicationKills between Dys and Tang is that twins started drifting apart right around the time Tang got gene therapy to get a body of the right sex, and everyone assumed that Dys had a problem with it. In reality, as Dys himself puts it, he knew Tang was a girl "five minutes after she knew" and considered her his sister long before anyone else did. What really happened is that Tang's already prolific intelligence latched onto the science behind her transition and gave her a newfound motivation to excel academically, with the nasty side effect of truning her into an InsufferableGenius. This interacted badly with their family's history of chronic depression, worsening a bad patch Dys was having independently. By the game's beginning, Tang is genuinely worried about Dys but hides in a way that is easy to read as her only pretending to worry because she's expected to do so as his sister, while a BookDumb Dys is living on the fringes of the colony's society due to feeling that he'll never be as liked by the rest of the colony as his ChildProdigy sister is.