Tokenism

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This article is about the practice of including racial minorities to show the producer as equal-opportunities friendly. For the South Park character, see Token Black

Tokenism refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or vice versa) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters, and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Instead, their difference may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous.

[edit] Tokenism in fiction

A token character is a character in a story, myth, or legend, who only exists to achieve the minimum compliance with assumed normality for the environment described in the story. For example, a token wife is a wife who has no depth of character, or identity of her own; she only exists because the character that she is married to is expected to have a wife.

A token character can also be used by writers to pay lip service to rules or standards, when they otherwise have no intention of doing so, such as by obeying anti-racism policies by including a token black character, who, despite being present often, nevertheless does nothing, and has no function in the plot, and oftentimes is even stereotyped.

Token characters may represent various groups, which vary from the norm (usually white/heterosexual/physically attractive, frequently male), and are otherwise excluded from the story. They can be based on ethnicity (black, as well as Hispanic, Asian or Jewish), or be overweight or otherwise conventionally unattractive, non-heterosexual or a female character in a male-dominated cast. Token characters will usually be relegated to the background and generally refrain from exhibiting stereotypical behavior, usually to render them inoffensive to readers or viewers. Such a character may also be disposed of relatively early in the story (either by being killed or voted off in a reality TV show) in order to enhance the drama while "conserving" the normal characters.

[edit] Examples

The title character of Rebecca in the Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca is the only significant Jew in the story, but nethertheless, despite being a title character, has very little to do, briefly appearing and just as quickly disappearing from the tale.
The character Debbie Love on Sealab 2021 is the only prominent female character on that series (and one of only two women, period) and is a parody of tokenism with her portrayal of a semi-stereotypical female science fiction scientist: intelligent, but also vain, vindictive, condescending and histrionic when under stress. Since both female characters on the show are named Debbie, she is often referred to by other characters as "Black Debbie," in fact, the Sealab bathrooms are labeled "Men" and "Debbie."
The character Franklin in the Peanuts (who is black, while most of the characters are presumably white) is sometimes considered to be an example of tokenism among newer fans, although Charles Schulz, responding to controversy early in Franklin's appearances, insisted he had no political message and treated the character no different than the rest of the cast.
The character Diana in the Dungeons & Dragons TV series. The only black member of the cast, and one of the only two females.
The self-referential character Token Black on South Park, the only black friend of the main cast except the adult Chef. He was originally named Token Williams, though his first name still makes his role fairly clear.
The multi-continental cast of Captain Planet is sometimes seen as consisting of token characters. However, as all the major characters are meant to represent diversity none can truly be called token characters.
The cast of Ghostwriter (TV series) has been called into question as an example of tokenism.
The African-American character "A.J." on Fairly Oddparents is the only prominent black character on the show. He is portrayed as being the smartest kid in school and more affluent than most of the main characters, which may be an example of using token characters to offset traditional stereotypes.
Juba on the Academy awarded film Gladiator is sometimes regarded as an example of token character, because he is the only black character in the entire film, but also as an example of Afrocentrism. The character has a North African (Mauretanian) name and, according to other character, he is from Carthage, but he is black instead of the expectable North-African caucasoid. Something strange given that the only well known black population in the ancient Roman Empire was made on Nubians and other East-African slaves.
The character Azeem from the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, played by Morgan Freeman. He can be considered also a "magic negro", because the character's aim is only to help Robin Hood (Kevin Costner) using two unique habilities: combat with saracen sword and gunpowder.
The "token black" character is ridiculed in the movie Not Another Teen Movie. In the movie, one character, when asked a question, answered: "I'm just the token black guy! I'm just supposed to stand here, stay out of the conversation, and say things like 'damn!', 'shit!' and 'that is whack!'". Later, he does just that.