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Token Black token-black (Token Black, Previously Token Williams, is South…
Token Black 
"the policy or practice of making only a symbolic effort (as to desegregate)" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tokenism
With racial segregation still going strong, Tokenism acted as a way in order to acknowledge the issue without actually solving it.
“What gains? All you have gotten is tokenism — one or two Negroes in a job, or at a lunch counter, so the rest of you will be quiet.” Malcom X when asked about the gains of the civil right movement [A]
Even in our modern day we see Tokenism take form in Businesses giving a false image of diversity in their work spaces.
The Danger of tokenism, is that the numbers can show high diversity numbers such as "When 20% of the board is female or 15% of leadership is Hispanic, the numbers are motivational. But the telltale sign of success is what these hires contribute." [C]
Companies are adding minorities to do minimal jobs maybe making copies or presentations while the people whom have been in positions of power countinue to do the meaningful work [C]
"After all, diversity was never meant to focus only on numbers and skin tone or gender. The diversity movement was meant to pull ideas and strengths from a wide variety of workers. Together, these people from different backgrounds could innovate and dream up truly astonishing solutions" [C]
This means that the diverse cultures in a workspace are supposed to help cultivate new ideas and create new solutions. However, if the diversity is used to just show numbers not actually give opportunities to minorities, then we are still nnot giving fair opprotunity to everyone. Just as Malcom X said. [C]
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In other words, it is placing one or minimal amounts of minorities in a situation giving them minimal jobs in order to create a false sense of diversity.
Tokenism became regularly understood by Popular Culture, when it began to make its regular appearance in media during the 1950's. [A]
One of the first instances of this was on the show "Amos and Andy" [A]
In the early days of television, these token Characters were often shows as very stereotypical.
Tokenism in media today does not limit its self to Gender or Race, but also sexual orientation. For example in the CW's Show Riverdale, a show based on the Archie comics. Onne character Kevin Keller was the only LGBTQ character in the show and would have very little significance in the show besides occasionnally coming on and acting flamboyantly Gay. [A]
This emphasizes the Tokenism as he is added inn order to show diversity in the show without giving him any real work or inhibiting from allowing him to make significant actions during the show. He is there solely to create a false aura of Diversity.
For many people, these token characters on television were the first minorities they had really seen. By making these characters stereotypical it rooted these ideas into the brains of many Americans
As this was the first time many people saw these Minorities, seeing them with the hyper stereotypes would cultivate an idea of these people being less than whom they truly are.
Tokenism doesn't hold itself only to television shows, but also other media such as commercials.
In the middle of 2012 Acura put out a casting call for a super bowl add looking for a "Black car sales rep" whom would "work with a MAJOR COMEDIAN" aka, be the supportman to the main actor Jerry Seinfeld. [B]
The biggest issue with this post is that in their post they were looking for a "Nice looking, friendly. Not too dark" This separates Light-skins from Darkskins and shows that the industry looks at different skin tones differently still. Although they want an African American to create an image of diversity, they are giving them a small role next to Jerry Sienfield a white man, while picking the "lightest skinned" black man possible. [B]
This reemphasizes the idea of Tokenism, which minorities will play backups to the main white participants in order to create a false sense of diversity [B]
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Token Black, Previously Token Williams, is South Park creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parkers play on the history of Tokenism.
Token was introduced in the very first episode and was the only Black student in South Park until Season
16 [E]
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Tokens family previously were known as the Williams, however, the name was changed early in the show to the Blacks in order to emphasize this satirical joke they made.
In history, as stated in the history branch, the Token characters were often shown as very stereotypical to their race and the Characters Struggle to fit in due to their stereotypes. In history some of these included being referred to as animals or other racist remarks
In South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker take their satirical character to the next level, as they make the Blacks the wealthiest family in South Park. [E]
Token, does not act wealthy or self-obsessed and just wants to fit in with the other kids, something many people could peg on his race. [E]
Matt Stone and Trey Parker emphasize his lack of fitting in is due to his money. They show this in the Episode "Here comes the Neighborhood". In this episode, Token is made fun of by his peers for being wealthy, specifically owning a DVD player, not knowing what a VHS was and for Wearing nice clothing. [E]
Stone and Parker's take on this pushes the satirical comedy as in the past, Minorities have been made fun of for a lack of wealth of education. Not knowing what the new things are or for owning not nice clothing.
Stone and Parker use Token as a integral part of the show which is another difference from the "Tokenism" we have seen in history.
Although he is used as an integral part of the show, he is also often used as the "Token Black", the only black kid in south park, to allow Matt Stone and Trey parker to bring in black jokes they wouldn't be able to otherwise.
One instance of this is in the Episode "Christian Rock Hard" in which Cartman goes to Tokens house and tells him to get his bass guitar out of his basement to join his band. When Token responds that he doesn't have a bass guitar, Cartman responds with "You're family is black Token, theres bound to be a bass guitar in your basement somewhere". To Tokens distain there is a bass guitar in his basement. [E]
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