Tokenism

Tokenism is the practice of using a member of a minority group in order to "prove" how "progressive and forward-thinking" your organization is.
For instance, Alan Keyes was the Republican Party's "token black" and would still be if Alan Keyes weren't insufficiently crazy in the era of Ben Carson.Other former tokens, like and Michael Steele, have also been purged for excessive sanity. But they also have Dinesh D'Souza and Michelle Malkin if one needs non-black minority wingnuts. Some companies will hire one representative of a given group — for instance, one African American, one gay person, or one womanOr one black lesbian to include all three groups with one person. — to give the entire company the appearance of being inclusive. 
Similarly, traditionally exclusionary organizations such as private schools will go out of their way to put (stock) photos of minorities in their literature,multicultural Photos Pexels. creating a parallel Bizarro World of multiculturalism that does not exist in said organization's objective reality. It's why Bob Jones University has photos of black guys and Asians on the front page of its web site.Bob Jones University (archived from February 1, 2022).There are many, many more photos of white people, however.
In some cases tokenism is used in attempt to dilute a qualified candidate's votes with an opposing candidate in the same demographic without any pretense of progressivity, e.g. the totally unqualified but famous Herschel Walker (GOP) running against Senator Raphael Warnock in the 2022 Georgia Senate race. Both candidates are African American.Why we barely dodged the Herschel Walker bullet by Karen Attiah (December 9, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. EST) The Washington Post.Herschel Walker’s Loss In Georgia Senate Runoff Shows Why Tokenizing Black People Usually Fails by Shaun Harper (Dec 7, 2022, 12:59pm EST) Forbes. "As for Walker: This won’t be the last time the GOP raises up a Black man [Walker] who lies, says dumb things and has a history of sexual misconduct and violence when the candidate on the opposing side is a liberal Black man with a squeaky-clean public persona who generally projects preparedness, intelligence and savvy."
Tokenism is also used to give organizations the appearance of political balance. For instance, Alan Colmes was one of Fox News' "Token Liberals."Similarly, Pat Buchanan was one of MSNBC's "Token Racists."
==#NotYourShield==
Gamergate found a way to weaponize the friend argument with the #NotYourShield hashtag. It is ostensibly a group of women, non-white people, and people of varying sexualities who claim they are not a shield from criticism for the journalists who decried Gamergate as a hate movement focused on evicting women, feminist ideas, and liberalism from the video game industry and that they care about "ethics in video game journalism".#NotYourShield Hashtag Shows Multi-Cultural Support For GamerGate by William Usher (2014-09-06 20:35:46) Cinemablend (archived from September 7, 2014).
The primary victim of Gamergate, Zoe Quinn, later revealed they had evidence disproving everything about Gamergate up to that point, including evidence that the progenitors of #NotYourShield were sockpuppet accounts of straight white guys having stolen avatars from across the Internet of women and non-white people to use for making new Twitter accounts."Chat logs show how 4chan users created #GamerGate controversy" by Casey Johnston (9/9/2014, 4:20 PM) Ars Technica.
However, this did not stop Gamergate from actually recruiting the kinds of people they initially pretended were supporting them, setting up a culture-jamming campaign and ironically a shield from criticism for Gamergate itself. When anyone criticizes Gamergate for being a hate movement against women and ethnic and sexual minorities, Gamergate adherents cite #NotYourShield, believing that the presence of women, anyone who isn't white, and anyone who isn't straight who agree with them discredits the experiences of those who disagree.
==Example tokens==
* Greg Abbott — Received somewhere in the range of $9 million from a tort against a homeowner whose tree branch fell and permanently paralyzed him while was jogging.For the First Time, Abbott Discusses Details of His Lawsuit Settlement by Jay Root (Aug. 2, 2013) The Texas Tribune. As Texas attorney general he has supported tort reform that would substantially cap the amount of tort payments.Abbott Faces Questions on Settlement and His Advocacy of Tort Laws by Jay Root (Aug. 4, 2013) The Texas Tribune.
*'Tolkien Black,' a token black guy in South Park — his name is literally a play on words.
* 'Chef', The token Black in South Park
*Roy Cohn — Ruined the careers of Democrats, gays, Jews… and he himself was all of those things. "Not all Jews are Communists," he said, "but most Communists are Jews."King Cohn: Roy Cohn was one of the most loathsome characters in American history, so why did he have so many influential friends? by Robert Sherrill (August 12, 2009) The Nation.
*David Cole — A Jewish Holocaust denier.
*S. E. Cupp — Token atheist. Uses the same basic techniques (academia and the media hates Christians!) to deliver the conservative votes.
*Candace Owens — A token Black Hitler apologistOne of Trump's most vocal black supporters seemed to defend Hitler in a recent speech by Eugene Scott (February 8, 2019 at 4:22 PM) The Washington Post.
*Jordan Peterson — Token academic who is the "favourite figure of the alt-right"Who is Jordan Peterson, favorite figure of the alt-right (April 28, 2018) NBC News. believes that academia has been polluted by "postmodern neo-Marxists", and who is handsomely rewarded for it via his GoFundMe page, bringing in $50,000 a month.Is Jordan Peterson the stupid man’s smart person? by Tabatha Southey (November 17, 2017) Maclean's.
*Thomas Sowell — You mean the segregation-supporting Sowell?Dunbar High School After 100 Years by Thomas Sowell Oct 04, 2016 12:01 AM) Townhall.
*Christina Hoff Sommers — Insufferably smug,"Check your facts, not your privilege" meme via We Hunted the Mammoth. "factual feminist" and Gamergate shill
*Blaire White — That trans woman who tells the right-wing that it's OK to be transphobic. She holds views that are antithetical to those of the overwhelming majority of trans people, but still manages to claim the left is "fighting a fight transgender people don't want." Known for making extremely sensationalist claims like "trans children are child abuse"; welcome to clickbait culture.
*Milo Yiannopoulos — Alt-right figurehead (although he doesn't identify himself with the alt right)"I don't, in fact, describe myself as a member of the alt right." minute 1:41 who is (ex-?)gay. He has vaguely advocated fucking children. Well, he was molested as a kid, so he's pretty hard to top in the "token" category.
*Alice Weidel — leader of the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland, a lesbian and an opponent of same-sex marriages.
==See also==
*Friend argument
*Race card
*Uncle Tom
==External links==
*/r/AsABlackMan on Reddit.
*The Sociology of Tokenism
*Token Minority on TV Tropes
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Racism