User:Zhoulez/Tokenism

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Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to be inclusive to members of minority groups, especially by recruiting people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of racial or gender equality within a workplace or educational context. The effort of including a token individual in work or school is usually intended to create the impression of social inclusiveness and diversity (racial, religious, sexual, etc.) in order to deflect accusations of discrimination. Would delete this part because token individuals may also be included to boost the image of diversity without deflecting accusations of discrimination.

In television
Tokenism, in a television setting, can be any act of putting a minority into the mix to create some sort of publicly viewed diversity. A racial divide in TV has been present since the first television show that hired minorities, Amos 'n' Andy (1928–1960) in 1943. Regardless of whether a token character may be stereotypical or not, tokenism can initiate a whole biased perceived sense of thought that may conflict with how people see a specific race, culture, gender, or ethnicity. From the Huffington Post, America Ferrera states, “Tokenism is about inserting diverse characters because you feel you have to; true diversity means writing characters that aren’t just defined by the color of their skin, and casting the right actor for the role."

Ethnic and racial representation in television has been proven as an educational basis to inform mass audiences. However, tokenism leads to a narrow representation of minority groups, and this trend often leads to minority characters being exposed in negative or stereotypical fashions. Research done as early as the 1970s suggests an early recognition and disapproval of tokenism and its effects on perceptions of minority groups—specifically, perceptions of African Americans. Tokenism seemed to be used as a quick fix for the complete void of major/recurring minority roles in television, but its skewed representation lacked room for thoroughly independent and positive roles. Throughout that decade, major broadcast networks including NBC and ABC held a collective 10:1 ratio of white characters to black characters, a much smaller margin of which had recurring African American characters. At that, the representation of African American women was much slimmer. The use of these token characters often portrayed African American people to stand in sidekick positions to their white counterparts. Research completed on token ethnic characters into the new millennium has found that the representation of males has grown in numbers, but has not improved in negative portrayal. Statistics on token ethnic characters still suggest toxic masculinity in African American males; threateningly powerful stereotypes of African American women; hyper-sexuality of African American and Asian women; and effeminate characteristics in Asian men and men of other racial minorities.

Tokenism in television has been spoken about under a different umbrella in recent decades. For example, tokenism was analyzed in an article that examined actions in the television show Scandal (2012–2018). Though today there are many black main characters in many popular television shows, Stephanie L. Gomez's article speaks about Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope. Gomez compares the character of Olivia Pope to three tropes of black women, "the slave mistress," "the help," and "the jezebel." (Would remove this because (1) we do not know who Stephanie L. Gomez is and (2) think this theory is a complete reach. The example is not evident enough that it is a demonstration of tokenism. Olivia Pope seems like an empowering female to me (minus her affair) and the showrunner, Shonda Grimes, does not like the word "diversity" according to Scandal star Kerry Washington. Rhimes would rather we normalize more POC in television. Rhimes told the Los Angeles LGBT Center 48th Gala Vanguard Awards that POC characters are often marginalized and stereotyped but they deserve realistic portrayals. By inserting the line that Olivia Pope is comparable to the three tropes of black women, it is neglecting the idea that black women can also have realistic portrayals. I think that it is actually harmful to suggest Olivia Pope is limited to these three negative stereotypes. I think this reinforces the idea that POC have to be portrayed as perfect on television?

In 2012, Acura put out a casting call for their commercial where they stated that the main actor must be a “nice looking, friendly, not too dark” African American. Would delete this because it is too short and does not analyze tokenism.

In film
Since the release of the original six Star Wars films, there has been much discussion, on Twitter and Reddit especially, of this use of tokenism. The character of Lando Calrissian (portrayed by Billy Dee Williams) and Mace Windu (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson) have been cited as two human characters of racial minority that appear on screen. Lando was one of the first developed black characters in a science-fiction film at the time. Loyola Marymount University Professor of African American Studies, Adilifu Nama, has stated that this character is "a form of tokenism that placed one of the most optimistic faces on racial inclusion in a genre that had historically excluded Black representation."

When the first film of the newest instalment of the franchise, The Force Awakens, was released in 2015, the conversation shifted. Where in the past two trilogies the main three characters were two White men and a White woman, in the new trilogy the main trio consists of a black man (John Boyega), a Hispanic man (Oscar Isaac), and a white woman (Daisy Ridley). Although the canon racial representation was more prominent, there was fan backlash at the cast of a main black storm-trooper.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film Black Panther portrays the heroes of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda as godlike. They possess otherworldly sophistication by virtue of their blackness, in contrast to longstanding tendencies in mainstream film toward tokenism, stereotyping, and victimhood in depictions of people of African descent. The superhero the Black Panther, a.k.a. King T’Challa, learns to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, even those in whose oppression he has been unwittingly complicit, such as the children of the African diaspora. As a result, the film can function as catalyst for reflection on the part of viewers in terms of how they might perceive more clearly the complexity, variety, and ambiguity represented by blackness, whether others’ or their own, and how they, too, might identify with the Other.

The Walt Disney Company has attempted to enlarge the diversity of the "Disney Princess" franchise through the inclusion of female characters with multiple ethnicities. At this time, there are five princesses representing different ethnicities. From Aladdin (1992), Princess Jasmine is Arabian; from Pocahontas (1995), Pocahontas is Native American; from Mulan (1998), Mulan is Chinese; from Princess and the Frog (2009), Princess Tiana is African-American; from Moana (2016), Moana is Polynesian. However, these characters are the sole providers for their representation, as opposed to the other nine caucasian princesses.

The Harry Potter series, written by author J.K. Rowling, has displayed tokenism through race and sexuality. Potter’s first love interest, Cho Chang, was named after two Asian surnames. NBC Asian America reporter Kimberly Yam tweeted that the one use of Asian representation in the series had a name equivalent to “ching chong”. Rowling also revealed Albus Dumbledore to be homosexual weeks after the final book was released, though his sexuality is not mentioned in the books or films. Fans displayed disappointment against this representation, as Dumbledore would be the only gay character in the series, and his supposed love interest was Gellert Grindelwald, an immoral teen fascist.

In G.B.F., directed by Darren Stein, the film tells the journey of two closeted gay teens, Tanner and Brent, on their quest to popularity in high school. The film explores the theme of tokenism through demonstrating the desire of a homosexual male best friend by typically heterosexual women. The three most popular girls in school: Fawcett Brooks, Caprice Winters, and 'Shley Osgood believe that the key to winning the prom queen title is through acquiring a gay best friend. In media, gay best friends are displayed as sassy, effeminate, fashionable, and flamboyant, making them act as a stock character accessory to the main character. While Tanner and Brent plan to become popular through exposing their sexuality, the girls are disappointed to find out that Tanner contradicts the stereotypical gay men they have seen in television. The film shows the ridiculousness behind the tokenism of gay men in media, where they are objectified and shows how harmful it can be to associate stereotypes with people.

In the workplace[edit]
A Harvard Business School professor, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, asserted back in 1977 that a token employee is usually part of a "socially-skewed group" of employees who belong to a minority group that constitutes less than 15% of the total employee population of the workplace.

By definition, token employees in a workplace are known to be few; hence, their alleged high visibility among the staff subjects them to greater pressure to perform their work at higher production standards of quality and volume and to behave in the expected, stereotypical manner. Given the smallness of the group of token employees in a workplace, the individual identity of each token person is usually disrespected by the dominant group, who apply a stereotype role to them as a means of social control in the workplace. In order to avoid tokenism within the work place, diversity and inclusion must be integrated to foster an environment where people feel connected and included. Employees must be hired on the basis of their capabilities rather than their gender, ethnicity, race, and sexuality.

Research comparing the effects of gender and race tokenism on individuals indicates that the practice of tokenism can accurately predict conditions in the workplace for members of racial minorities. Token racial minorities in the work place can be subject to micro-aggressions and experience isolations as the minority group.

Tokenism can also have impacts on mental health in the work place. According to one study, racial minorities also experience heightened performance pressures related to their race and gender; however, many reported that racial problems were more common than gender problems. Being a token makes one appear more visible within the workplace, placing more scrutiny and pressure for them to represent an entire group. Anxiety, stress, exhaustion, guilt, shame and burnout can arise from overworking in efforts to become a good representative of their identity group.

In her work on tokenism and gender, professor Kanter said that the problems experienced by women in a typically male-dominated occupations were due solely to the skewed proportions of men and women in these occupations. In particular, women are often underrepresented within the STEM field, where women also sometimes face more hostile working environments where discrimination and sexual harassment are more frequent. Women in STEM may experience greater performance pressure to work harder in a male-dominated field while also experiencing social isolation from the males within their workplace. The pressure to perform better can be influenced from the stereotype of women being less competent in mathematics and science. These non-inclusive measures contribute to the lack of women in STEM.