Talk:Tokenism/Archives/2021

Tokenism in Law Enforcement

I think it would be a good example and likely an area of interest for readers to discuss the influence of tokenism in police (particularly in the US) and the tactics used by those forces to appear more beneficial or kind by showing a more diverse public image via propaganda or spin tactics. -- 74.111.179.221 (talk) 20:09, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

Article Draft--Proposed Additions to "Tokenism in Television" and "Tokenism in Media"

Tokenism in Television:

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 1970’s 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 cable 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 Media:

Tokenism appears in advertising as well as other subdivisions of major media. Tokenism is interpreted as reinforcing subtle representations of minorities in commercials. Studies have shown that, among other racial minorities, Asian Americans are targeted by advertising companies to fulfill casting diversity, but are the most likely ethnic minority to be placed in the backgrounds of advertisements. Leslie boudreau (talk) 01:15, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

References

Tokenism in Film

The Disney's Star Wars universe is one franchise which has its fair share of raised eyebrows concerning tokenism. Even though the story takes place in a "galaxy far, far away," this cinematic universe can't avoid topics of racial representation. The only two human characters of racial minority who appear on screen in more than just a handful of scenes are Lando Calrissian (portrayed by Billy Dee Williams) and Mace Windu (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson). Though these two characters are recurring over several films, they are certainly not headliners; Star Wars is "utterly dominate[d]" by heterosexual White men. The character of Lando Calrissian is simultaneously one of Han Solo's best friends and most feared criminal adversaries. When fans talk about Lando, however, more often than not it is not about his developed character arc or his skill as a pilot, but his hyper-sexualization and scary "brand of masculinity." Though, some defense for Star Wars and LucasFilms with William's character is that Lando was one of the first developed Black characters in a si-fi film at the time. Though the introduction of this character was a quick way to get racial representation on the big screen, Lando's 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."

Since the release of the original six Star Wars movies, there was much talk of this use of tokenism. When the first film of the newest installment of the franchise, The Force Awakens, was released in 2015 the conversation shifted. In a series which has such a strong focus on white men, The Force Awakens flips the script. Where in the past the main three characters have consistently been 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). Though the canon representation was considerably better, there was fan backlash at the cast of a main Black storm-trooper.

((( please help me with any edits or suggestions, thank you! Amanda.vitello (talk) 18:17, 26 March 2020 (UTC) )))

References

Potential addition to the "in film" section

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. [1] Reporter Kimberly Yam tweeted that the one use of Asian representation in the series had a name equivalent to “ching chong”. [2] 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. [3] Fans displayed dismay 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 facist. [4]

• [1]“Cho Chang.” Harry Potter Wiki, https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Cho_Chang.
• [2] Yam, Kimberly [@KimmyThePooh] Twitter, 7 June 2020, https://twitter.com/kimmythepooh/status/1269428961391652864?lang=en
• [3] Elliott, Gina. “Rowling Reveals Harry Potter Secrets.” Time, Time Inc., 20 Oct. 2007, http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1674073,00.html.

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1675622,00.html

• [4] Carmody, Broede. “J.K. Rowling Says Dumbledore and Grindelwald Had 'Passionate' Sexual Relationship.” The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Mar. 2019, https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/jk-rowling-says-dumbledore-and-grindelwald-had-passionate-sexual-relationship-20190318-p5159p.html.

Jvanella23 (talk) 16:28, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Suggestions for Improvement

Hello!

My name is Jenna Vanella and I am a media and communications student at Salem State University. I am adding to the Talk Page because I want to discuss this article and make a few suggestions on things that can be improved. Overall, the article does a very good job of describing tokenism and giving clear examples.

Citations:

• Citation 4 references a book, but the link only takes you to a website in which you can purchase the book. Is there a link that can take you to the passage from the book, such as citation 5?
• Citation 7 and 26 link to another Wikipedia Article. Is there another link to a website that has better credibility?
• Citation 10 does not have a link, and it is a little confusing whether or not it’s a book or an article or something of the sort. I think I found the source in question under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24722926/. Even though it’s not the article itself, I feel as though the Abstract at the beginning could prove that the source is credible and talking about Tokenism.
• Citation 22 leads to a website with a paragraph that is patently copied and pasted into the last paragraph of the article. I was wondering how credible this source is considering they attributed Moana to be a Pixar film when it is from Disney Animation Studios. Maybe there is a way to reword the last paragraph of the article.
• Citations 31, 32, and 33 are all credible sources, but they’re all from articles on The Guardian. Is there another source from different origins that could help back up the information?
• Citation 34 leads to a 404 page not found, but Token from South Park is a good example of Tokenism. Using a simple source like https://southpark.cc.com/wiki/Token_Black or linking to an episode that shows Token being used facetiously as a token character would really help support this article. Citation 35 helps with this!

Edits:

• Under “in fiction” Eric July is noted to be a “social and media commentator”, which doesn’t exactly make sense. I think this should be changed to “social media commentator”.
• Under “in film”, as I had mentioned above in Citation 22, the movie Moana is attributed to be a Pixar movie, and this is untrue. Moana is a Disney Animation Studios movie. If you need a credible source to back this up, the Walt Disney Company has many websites that claim the movie, such as https://d23.com/a-to-z/moana-film/. Or, an easy way to check this fact is that on the image associated with the movie, there is no mention of Pixar, as opposed to Finding Nemo that is attributed to both film companies.

Suggestions:

• In “See Also”, the Smurfette Principle is mentioned, but I believe this could be an interesting subject to add to the article, especially since “in film” could use more representations of token women characters.
• In “See Also”, Michael the Black Man is mentioned, and I believe that referencing him in the “in politics” section would help to broaden that section.
• There are some people mentioned in the article that are just named, not attributed. I think it would help to make the article stronger by giving a brief statement about who they are and why they’re to be trusted. For example, Adilifu Nama is mentioned (and in a citation, it is asked who?), but he is only named. Nama is a Professor of African American Studies. That makes him really credible!

Thank you! Jvanella23 (talk) 15:00, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Jvanella23: I think your edits are fantastic, the only suggestions I have would be to seek out alternative sources for the suggested ones to fix and share those for review in the citation section and the suggestions section. Other than those, your suggestions are great!Emilylavacchia (talk) 00:25, 25 October 2021 (UTC)