Tropes That Annoy Me: Black Dude Dies First

For those who haven't realised the predominance of dead Tokens, read here first in which the token black guy [and sometimes black gal] gets a target drawn on them the instant the Big Bad is out to get the good guys.

Running along side Bury Your Gays, the audience is pretty much trained to expect anyone not cis, het, and white to bite the big one when the stakes are raised. They apparently deserve it for not being cishet white people.

It's not shocking any more, so there's no real element of "anyone can die". For that, you need to kill the straight white guy. Which hardly anyone does.

It's not even dramatic. It's BORING. Oh, hey, here's some nice non-stereotyped representation of a nonwhite/noncishet in a drama/horror genre. I bet money that they're going to get killed off. Oh look, they got killed off. Yawn, snore. Can you please try something interesting next time? No? Sigh.

I guess the white people just have to save the day. After the stakes are raised by getting their one black friend killed.

Second to actually killing off the Token Black is having them Have A Brush With [INSERT STEREOTYPE PROBLEM]. They run up against drug lords, gangs, or pushers way more than the white protagonists. They get beaten up more often than the white protagonists. They get shot more often than the white protagonists.

And we only feel sympathy for prisoner type characters if they're pale enough. The sympathetic character is the one white/latin@ in a sea of very dark-skinned fellow prisoners. The sympathetic friend is also paler than the surrounding cohort. If said friend is also black, then they're going to get shanked for the drama. In fact, the only time you see very dark-skinned people on the screen is when they're portraying prisoners, or criminals.

That is very much not fair. Excuse the pun.

Plus, the endless stereotyping of black people as violent and dangerous adds to the endless tragedies caused by racist police shooting first and getting paid holidays later.

In personal news, today's story is going to be delayed because banking nonse and sorting out a massive fuckup that wasn't announced by anyone else until weeks after the fact. And yes, I plan on being salty about this for quite some time.

Next on the trope chopping block: Surprise Sex