Talk:Tokenism/Archives/2017

Examples

I have moved the examples section here to await attribution and replacement on the page. - Freechild 21:43, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

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 tolkenism 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 Tolken Black on South Park, the only black friend of the main cast except the adult Chef. He was originally named Tolken Williams, though his first name still makes his role fairly clear.
• The cast of Ghostwriter has been called into question as an example of tolkenism.
• 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 tolken characters to offset traditional stereotypes.
• The character of Zoey from The Proud Family can be considered to be the tolken 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 tolken 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 "tolken 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 tolken 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 tolken 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 Tolken character he is the only black character to be spotlighted and is also the only one without any powers
• A 1970 soviet video of children singing "Пусть всегда будет сонце", including a black boy wearing a sombrero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MpvSQKSvI4 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lipedia (talk • contribs) 06:47, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Bennett in the movie Think Like A Man is an example of someone set apart because of his personality that is derived from his identity as a white male. Kville23 (talk) 01:56, 24 July 2017 (UTC)

Include critique and opposing view of Kanter's work?

A number of other research following Kanters work shows there may be other reasons for why Tokens she identifies experience heightened pressure in their work environments. As Kanter focused on women, Yoder (1991) mentions that sexism may have been the root for any isolating circumstances, and not the due to Token identity. In addition, when focusing males, Williams (1992) makes mention of the fact that they are given opportunity due to their token status and not impeded by it. Kville23 (talk) 02:24, 24 July 2017 (UTC)