Talk:Tokenism
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[edit] Examples
I have moved the examples section here to await attribution and replacement on the page. - Freechild 21:43, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
[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 cast of Ghostwriter 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.
- The character of Zoey from The Proud Family can be considered to be the token white character, often appearing helpless and the "goodie goodie" white girl among more brash black and hispanic characters in the show.
- 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 of 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 abilities: 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: "Sure, I am the token black guy! I'm just supposed to smile, stay out of the conversation, and say things like 'damn!', 'shit!' and 'that is whack!'". Later, he does just that.
- In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Zack Taylor is the only black main character in Season 1 and Trini Kwan is the only Asian main character in Season 1. This changes in many seasons/incarnations of Power Rangers.
- Winston from Ghostbusters is the only member of the Ghostbusters who is black. While he is a member of the Ghostbusters, his character played a very small role in the plot. The actor who played him, Ernie Hudson isn't billed in most advertising for the movie.
- The character Chelsea from That's So Raven is believed to be a token white character.
- Ajihad from Eragon is also a token character. The author does not explain where black people came from, and Ajihad and his daughter are the only black people in the entire book. Ajihad is in about 1/6 of Eragon, and dies at the beginning of Eldest.
- David in the marvel series new Xmen may be considered a Token character he is the only black character to be spotlighted and is also the only one without any powers
[edit] Franklin from Peanuts
From the Franklin page: "At a time when segregation was an ongoing national debate, the introduction of Franklin proved somewhat controversial. Schulz, however, insisted that there was no political motivation in his introduction. No one in the strip ever mentioned the fact that Franklin was black, merely accepting him as part of the gang.
Franklin sits in front of Peppermint Patty in school, and is the center-fielder of her baseball team. Franklin acts as a thoughtful foil to Linus, and is as adept at quoting the Old Testament as Linus is. One connection that Franklin and Charlie Brown have is their mutual interest in their grandfathers. With few anxieties or obsessions, Franklin could be considered one of the less interesting of the characters in the Peanuts universe." I don't know if this would qualify as a token character, being that his color, not his personality, is what sets him apart as a character.
[edit] Tokenism in Early Modern Art
The following was recently added to the article. I believe it needs a lot of cleanup, NPOV and sourcing before getting placed into the article.
- Tokenism in Early Modern Art
- Tokenism is often employed by a majority in order to avoid the charge that a minority group has been excluded. Within art histories and biographies , women artists were often shown as examples who were exceptions to the rule and illustrated that it was possible for women to create art. Despite this, a women's education did not encourage the creation of fine art, but served rather as a token measure that allowed them to learn specific skills and subjects termed "accomplishments" that were useful for the running of a household and amusement of her husband. Reading was encouraged, particuarly of conduct books that would properly socialize an unruly woman; writing was not encouraged because self-expression was deemed dangerous and inappropriate. Training in the arts was structured in a similarly token way with arts such as embroidery and flower-painting encouraged for women yet belittled as lower arts, deemed “crafts”. Entry into more important arts such as historical portraiture was barred because drawing from the nude figure was not allowed.While these tokens tend toward an increase in women's education, it is possible that they had the opposite effect, allowing those in power to claim that a woman's education was already sufficient and that change was in no way necessary or desirable.
[edit] Don't merge--but needs more tokenism sections
Tokenism isn't just about token characters in casts of shows. It also exists in the workplace, where a member of a minority group is employed more for the sake of diversity than for his or her skills. It also exists in social situations, such as a black acquaintance being asked to a party primarily because of their skin color. For these reasons, this topic shouldn't be merged with "token character".
External references: Tokenism in the workplace, http://www.pineforge.com/newman4study/resources/token.htm
Satirical website on social tokenism, http://www.rent-a-negro.com/
For the same reasons as above I also oppose merger--LukeSurl 01:12, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm pritty sure that Tokenism and Token Character are not the same, but what if Token Character was changed from being an artical to being a sub-section in the Tokenism article?
Support merge into Tokenism: the 'tokenism' page should be sufficient to cover both real-world tokenism, and token characters in fiction. The word 'tokenism' can refer to either phenomenon. Terraxos 01:36, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
I did the merge, placing token character in its own section. Breed Zona 16:57, 18 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Definition is too narrow
Tokenism refers to making any type of symbolic effort, not just in regards to race. It could just as well be used to describe an ethnic female boss' response towards a white male employee, whose cause she sees as insignificant but requiring some type of action. Article as it stands should be merged with token character and a new article should be written using a broader definition.
