The Dangers of Tokenism

How often are people of color the primary focus of media?

While American media may be improving on inclusivity, the spotlight continues to settle on white actors, talk show hosts and journalists. Next to (or behind) these main characters we see token characters, written in under the guise of diversity so the media conglomerates can look “woke”.

A token character appears only for symbolic effect and very often is written to propagate stereotypes.

This is not the case in all media and it has been on the decline in recent years. However, we are not about to pretend like it doesn’t still happen.

The Rise of Racially Specific Media

In 1951 the show Amos ‘n’ Andy premiered with the first majority black cast. While the show did provide jobs to black actors and appear as representation, it was problematic at best. The show perpetuated stereotypes and did not discuss the real struggles that black people endured at that time.

Since then, several more racially specific movies and TV shows have aired, and improved each time. Now we see productions like Black-ish, Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther that cater specifically to to their respective racial experiences, but are widely enjoyed by different audiences.

These productions are a fantastic celebration of specific cultures and experiences, and very important to our media climate.

However, I am looking for media that is not racially specific and still inclusive. It’s an intersection that is most main stream and requires story makers to explore that element of social interaction.

White Stars

 Diverse movies are increasing, but let’s be honest, usually the main character is still white. The first thing that comes to my mind is the movie musical Mean Girls (2024). The original film (in 2004) was made with a starkly white cast that included only two named people of color. The 2024 remake was vastly more inclusive, but we still see two white women as the primary characters.

Conclusively, we’re making progress, but we’re not done until there’s an equal distribution of racial representation for all roles especially primary characters. White shouldn’t be the default— there shouldn’t be a default.

Why does this matter?

Representation in media is, through analysis, a reflection of our social distance and racial tolerance as a society. The more readily diverse a program that is made to please the masses is, the more likely it is that diversity doesn’t bother the masses.

The symbolic annihilation of minority groups decreases our perception of their struggles. That being said, having integrated characters that never address how their life experiences are different from the white characters promotes the myth of assimilation. Contemporary media should, at least in part, address important real world conflicts.

Media Recommendation

These are a few pieces of modern media that give me hope for a future of integrated mainstream media. They all feature main characters that are people of color who discuss how race effects their lives, but has a fully fleshed character outside of their race.

Television: Jane the Virgin, Abbot Elementary, Super Store

Movies: To All the Boys I Loved Before, Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse, The LoveBirds