Editing Tokenism (section)

== In the media ==
Just like television, tokenism in the media has changed over time to coincide with real-life events. During the years of 1946–87, ''[[New Yorker (magazine)|The New Yorker]]'' was analyzed to determine how often and in what situations black people were being portrayed in the magazine's cartoon section. Over the 42 years of research, there was only one U.S. black main character in a cartoon where race was not the main theme, race was actually completely irrelevant. All cartoons from the earliest times depicted black people in the U.S. in stereotypical roles. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, cartoons were mostly racially themed, and depicted black people in "token" roles where they are only there to create a sense of inclusion.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thibodeau|first=Ruth|date=1989-01-01|title=From Racism to Tokenism: The Changing Face of Blacks in New Yorker Cartoons|journal=Public Opinion Quarterly|language=en|volume=53|issue=4|pages=482|doi=10.1086/269168|issn=0033-362X}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=Charles R.|last2=Stern|first2=Barbara B.|date=1997|title=Asian-Americans: Television Advertising and the 'Model Minority' Stereotype|journal=Journal of Advertising|volume=26|issue=2|pages=47–61|doi=10.1080/00913367.1997.10673522|jstor=4189033}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|last1=Link to external site|first1=this link will open in a new window|last2=Link to external site|first2=this link will open in a new window|date=September 28, 2020|title=Learning an Inclusive Blue Humanities: Oceania and Academia through the Lens of Cinema|journal=Humanities|volume=9|issue=3|pages=67|doi=10.3390/h9030067|id={{ProQuest|2427371686}}|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Black characters being the first characters to die was first identified in Hollywood horror movies of the 1930s, notes writer Renee Cozier. The Oscars ceremonies have received criticism over a lack of representation of people of color, as critics have pointed towards a lack of minorities nominated for awards, particularly in 2015 and 2016, when not a single actor of color was nominated. Around this time, minorities accounted for 12.9% of lead roles in 163 films surveyed in 2014, according to the 2016 Hollywood Diversity Report.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Greene|first=Eric|title=Hollywood Diversity Report: Mounting evidence that more diverse casts help the bottom line|url=http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/hollywood-diversity-report:-mounting-evidence-that-more-diverse-casts-help-the-bottom-line|access-date=2018-11-26|website=UCLA Newsroom|language=en}}</ref>

=== Film examples ===
Since the release of the original three ''[[Star Wars]]'' films and the later three prequels, there has been much discussion, on Twitter and Reddit especially, of this use of tokenism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Neighbors|first1=R. C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=krFSDwAAQBAJ&q=tokenism&pg=PA117|title=The Galaxy Is Rated G: Essays on Children's Science Fiction Film and Television|last2=Rankin|first2=Sandy|year=2011|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5875-2|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Nama|first=Adilifu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHKzYBfEuSwC&q=tokenism&pg=PT45|title=Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film|date=2010|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-77876-4|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last1=Brode|first1=Douglas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHgKDWAZ0SIC&q=star+wars+racism&pg=PA11|title=Sex, Politics, and Religion in Star Wars: An Anthology|last2=Deyneka|first2=Leah|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8514-1|language=en}}</ref> 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 a 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."<ref name=":2" />

When the first film of the newest installment of the franchise, ''The Force Awakens'', was released in 2015, the conversation shifted.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Harrison|first=Rebecca|date=June 2019|title=Gender, Race and Representation in the Star Wars franchise: an Introduction|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333951714|journal=University of Glasgow: Media Education Journal|issue=65|pages=16–19|via=AMES GoogleScholar}}</ref> 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]]).<ref name=":4" />

Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film ''[[Black Panther (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.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Dark of the World, Shine on Us: The Redemption of Blackness in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther|first=George|last=Faithful|journal=Religions|date=October 28, 2018|volume=9|issue=10|page=304|doi=10.3390/rel9100304|id={{ProQuest|2125033129}}|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In [[G.B.F. (film)|''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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Staples|first=Louis|date=August 7, 2021|title=The 'gay best friend': has TV's laziest cliche finally fallen out of fashion|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/aug/07/the-gay-best-friend-has-tvs-laziest-cliche-finally-fallen-out-of-fashion|access-date=November 21, 2021|website=The Guardian}}</ref> 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 how harmful it can be to associate gay stereotypes with gay characters.

Film critic [[Armond White]] cited the [[The Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022|''Sight and Sound'' Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022]] as an example of tokenism.<ref name=whitesightsound>{{cite news|last=White|first=Armond|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/12/sight-sound-poll-results-the-end-of-popular-cinema/|title=Sight & Sound Poll Results: The End of Popular Cinema|work=National Review|date=7 December 2022|quote=Non-white directors infiltrate the poll: Two by Edward Yang, plus Spike Lee, Ousmane Sembène, Jordan Peele, Djibiril Diop Mambéty, and Julie Dash, adding tokenism more than originality.}}</ref> He wrote that the poll had become "a referendum on political correctness" which "prefers feminist, black, queer politics—not cinephilia.<ref name=whitesightsound />