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Tokenism refers to a policy or practice of limited inclusion of members of a minority group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices, intentional or not. Typical examples in real life and fiction include purposely including a member of a minority race (such as a black character in a mainly white cast, or vice versa) into a group. Classically, token characters have some reduced capacity compared to the other characters, and may have bland or inoffensive personalities so as to not be accused of stereotyping negative traits. Instead, their difference may be overemphasized or made "exotic" and glamorous.

A token character is a character in a story, myth, or legend, who only exists to achieve the minimum compliance with assumed normality for the environment described in the story. For example, a token wife is a wife who has no depth of character, or identity of her own; she only exists because the character to whom she is married is expected to have a wife.

A token character can also be used by writers to pay lip service to rules or standards, when they otherwise have no intention of doing so, such as by obeying anti-racism policies by including a token black character who -- despite being present often -- has no function in the overall plot, does little or nothing, and is often a stereotyped character.

In fiction, token characters may represent various groups, which vary from the norm (usually white/heterosexual/physically attractive, frequently male), and are otherwise excluded from the story. They can be based on ethnicity (black, as well as Hispanic, Asian or Jewish), or be overweight or otherwise conventionally unattractive, non-heterosexual or a (usually good looking) female character in a male-dominated cast. Token characters will usually be relegated to the background and generally refrain from exhibiting stereotypical behaviour, usually to render them inoffensive to readers or viewers. Such a character may also be disposed of relatively early in the story in order to enhance the drama while "conserving" the normal characters.

On the show South Park, one of the characters is named Token Black, which parodies the stereotypes of blacks and other races portrayed on television. Token's family is possibly the wealthiest family in South Park.

In the movie Not Another Teen Movie the character Malik satirizes tokenism. He responds to a question by saying "Sure, why not? I am the token black guy. I'm just supposed to smile and stay out of the conversation and say things like: 'Damn,' 'Shit,' and 'That is whack.'" When he shows up at a party later in the film and finds another black man already there, he asks, "What are you doing here? I am supposed to be the only black guy at this party," at which point the other character apologizes and leaves.

• Discrimination
• Representation
• Identity
• Culture
• Empowerment