Tokenism

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Tokenism

The practice of including only a certain number or percentage of a minority group in a business or other organization. Tokenism may or may not be deliberate. For example, a company, intentionally or not, may hire one and only one member of a minority race to its executive team. It could be an attempt to avoid a discrimination lawsuit, but some believe it is itself a form of discrimination.

References in periodicals archive ?

Throw in some bitchy cheerleaders, a sexy foreign exchange student and a token black guy and a familiar pattern starts to emerge.

Teen thrills are scarily funny; NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE (15) HHHII

Thus, the slow-motion pretty-girl entrance, the wild party scene, the father-daughter heart to heart, the 'perfect girl', obsessive weirdo, bitchy cheerleader (Jamie Pressley), lovestruck best friend (Eric Jungmann in the Jon Cryer role), the stupid fat guy, the boys who've vowed to lose their virginity before graduation and, a relatively recent addition to the canon, the token black guy who's just there to act amazed by proceedings.

Culture: Bruce plays his trump card; Mike Davies reviews the latest releases on the big screen

There was, inevitably, a token black guy and two token "sexy" female firefighters - only one of whom was mad (the lobsters gave it away), although both were pregnant.