Basic Trope: Someone doesn't realize that they're saying something offensive to a certain group of people.
- Straight: Alice meets Jamal, a black character. She at one point says something that Jamal interprets as "You Are a Credit to Your Race", but Alice didn't actually mean to say anything offensive and ends up apologizing to him.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice calls Jamal by numerous blatantly racist/offensive terms and doesn't realize why he's mad at her.
- Alice calls Jamal something offensive by accident, and Jamal gives her a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Alice is constantly calling people of minority groups rather offensive terms without knowing what they mean.
- Downplayed:
- Alice didn't necessarily say the offensive thing to Jamal himself, but to her friend Bob. Bob informs her that she shouldn't be saying things like that.
- Alice uses a rather outdated term, such as calling a Native American person an Indian, and is gently corrected.
- Jamal is a fictional race/species, but the same idea occurs.
- Justified:
- Alice has a tendency to be Innocently Insensitive as is.
- Jamal has encountered some people in the past who treated him in racist ways, so it's understandable that he'd be rather offended by Alice saying things like that, especially if he didn't know she was unaware that it was offensive in the first place.
- Alice is too young to know much about discrimination and heard a rather racist joke from somewhere, and repeated it without understanding that such things aren't appropriate to say.
- Alternatively, Alice comes from a time period where such views were more acceptable, either because she's older or was somehow brought to the present day after being displaced from her regular time period.
- Alice has never met a black person before.
- Alice grew up in a racist family and some of the beliefs she grew up with are unfortunately still with her, even if she's trying to un-learn them.
- Inverted:
- Alice is trying to be racist for some reason, but accidentally compliments Jamal.
- Jamal finds a racist joke Actually Pretty Funny.
- Subverted:
- Alice uses the "Just Joking" Justification. It turns out that she really intended to be racist.
- Alice realizes That Came Out Wrong, but Jamal isn't offended.
- Double Subverted:
- For some reason, Alice was lying about being racist.
- Jamal's friend doesn't find it so funny, though.
- Parodied: Alice outright uses such offensive dialogue towards Jamal that even the most racist 1800s southerner would think she's being too harsh, and still doesn't understand why Jamal is offended.
- Zig-Zagged: Jamal repeatedly goes back and forth between finding Alice's comments to him Actually Pretty Funny or legitimately offensive.
- Averted: Nobody says any accidentally offensive things.
- Enforced:
- Can sometimes be An Aesop on acceptance.
- To set up conflict.
- Lampshaded: "Did she just call him what I think she did?"
- Invoked: Someone tells Alice a racist joke without telling her the true context, and says it'll be funny if she tells it to her new friend Jamal.
- Exploited: Alice actually did mean to call Jamal something offensive, but uses the "Just Joking" Justification to get out of it.
- Defied:
- "Alice, just because you didn't know it was offensive doesn't mean it's okay to call me things like that."
- Alice's friend Bob says that he wants to introduce her to his friend Jamal, but tells Alice things that she shouldn't say to him to avoid being offensive.
- Discussed: "Alice, you don't have N-Word Privileges, you shouldn't be saying things like that!"
- Conversed: "I wonder why so many plots involve characters accidentally being bigoted."
- Implied: It's not specified what Alice said to Jamal, but he looks rather offended while Alice looks confused.
- Deconstructed: Alice ends up alienating Jamal and some of her other friends for her comment.
- Reconstructed: After Alice apologizes and makes it clear to Jamal that she didn't intend to offend him, though, they forgive her.
- Played for Laughs: Alice's favorite animals are monkeys and apes. She sees Jamal and is convinced he's a gorilla. Cringe Comedy ensues.
- Played for Drama:
- Jamal feels upset about Alice's comment, while Alice is unsure of how to tell him that she didn't mean to offend him.
- Alice remembers the time she accidentally told a racist joke to someone without understanding what it meant and feels guilty over it.
- Played for Horror: Alice accidentally insults an alien, which triggers an alien invasion.
Back to Innocent Bigot. I'd like to apologize for accidentally saying that to you, by the way.
