Token Minority: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* Allows the producers of the show to broaden the appeal of the show by giving more viewers protagonists they can identify with.

* Is useful for bringing in discussions of racial issues, gender issues or homophobia into the plot.

* Depending on the setting, it can merely be an accurate representation of demographics in that region or industry.

 

 

Compare [[Captain Ethnic]], [[Token Non-Human]], [[Token Human]], [[Token Minority Couple]], [[Token White]], [[Twofer Token Minority]], [[Five-Token Band]], [[Informed Judaism]], [[Black Vikings]], [[Black Best Friend]], and [[The Smurfette Principle]].

 

{{examples}}

* TV Ads in Australia are notorious for this (especially in "hip" young thing products like Coke), and usually include at least one minority for every white person they show. This shows up the most when they have African descent people, despite them being a very very small minority and only a very recent one at that. Usually mixed in as 1 Asian Woman, 1 African Woman, 1 White Girl, 2 White Guys and 1 Aboriginal or Middle Eastern Male.

** Target ads are particularly well-known for this. There will ''always'' be one blonde white girl, one brunette white girl, one Asian girl and one black girl. ''Always''.

 

 

* Poor Hans, in ''[[The Daughter of Twenty Faces]]'', is seemingly the only non-Japanese member of a group of burglars led by [[Gentleman Thief]] "Twenty-Faces" that is ostensibly a globe-trotting organization. He often uses [[Gratuitous German]], to boot.

* ''[[Macross]]''/''[[Robotech]]'' had Claudia Grant/Claudia LaSalle, apparently the only black woman on the entire ship. ''Southern Cross'' had Bowie Emerson, seemingly the only black man on the entire planet Glorie. In ''Robotech'', he was re-written to be Claudia's nephew.

* In the first season of ''Gundam00'', Daryl Dodge has the honor of being the only black person at all. He's also killed off in episode 23.

** Season 2 does introduce another black man as president of the Earth Sphere Federation, although that might be more to reflect [[Barack Obama|the real world]] than tokenism. However, he has little impact on the plot.

* ''[[Beyblade]]''. There are only 13 females in a cast of... what, fifty? More? A couple of mothers, one evil scientist and the blading girls are strictly rationed to one per team.

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has this. The main cast is European, typically German or British. There are a few [[Ambiguously Brown]] people in there like Roy and Izumi (Asian), a few black people like Paninya and a librarian who served as an extra, the Ishvalans (Middle Eastern), and the Chinese-surrogates, the Xingese, Ling, Lan Fan, Fu, and May Chang. The [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|2003 anime version]] has Rose (who originally was white) and Noah.

 

 

* Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel who featured in the eponymous mini series of 2009, represents a rather awkward representation of this trope. He is for all intents and purposes (in the context of the story) a Black Superman from a time when the adjective was quite emphatically capitalized. And applied as a noun. It doesn't help that even without his powers, Brashear is a super-man - an athlete, military hero and scientific genius who gained ultra-super-powers when the experimental anti-matter reactor he was creating exploded. For about a year, he was the primary hero of the Marvel Universe (perhaps coincidentally around the same time the Sentry was supposedly very successful), but then it was discovered he was Black, which immediately led to outrage and uproar among both Black and White communities, until the President (JFK) gave the Blue Marvel the Congressional Medal of Honor and told him to quit being a superhero. Which he did until the present day. After his mini-series, he has made only cameo appearances.

* Under the "women as minorities" category (which, in superhero comics, they definitely were until relatively recently and in many books still are) every superhero team used to have [[The Smurfette Principle|exactly one female member]]. [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]] had [[The Wasp]] (later replaced by the Scarlet Witch), the [[Fantastic Four]] had the Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman), the [[Justice League]] had [[Wonder Woman]] (or the Black Canary, [[Retcon|depending on when you asked]]), the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]] had Wonder Girl, the original [[X-Men]] had Marvel Girl, and the second team of X-Men had Storm (who was also, for quite a while, the only Black X-Man. She joined the team along with Sunfire, a Japanese man who left almost immediately, and Thunderbird, a Native American man who died almost immediately, making her also the only active non-Caucasian X-Man for a good while). All those teams except the FF tend to have more female members these days (though the JLA goes through periods of focusing on [[DC Comics|D.C.'s]] "Big 7" wherein Wonder Woman is the only female member) and some have gone through stretches where the women outnumbered the men.

* The [[Justice League of America|Justice League]] goes back in forth on this, with some eras (such as the Meltzer and [[Dwayne McDuffie|McDuffie]] years) had very diverse casts, others like the James Robinson run were criticized for having no minority members whatsoever. During the ''[[New 52]]'' relaunch, Cyborg was retconned into being the sole non-white founding member of the original team, presumably to make up for the extended periods of whiteness. It looks as though Element Woman is soon being added to the team to try and keep Cyborg from becoming the token minority of the current line-up.

* [[Archie Comics]]:

** Recent Archie comics have also introduced some other minority characters, including Ginger Lopez (who works for a teen fashion magazine) and Raj Patel (an Indian student interested in film). Ginger shows up fairly regularly (moreso than Maria).

* Debuting in ''52'', Batwoman managed to provoke a [[Broken Base]] even before this due to press releases touting her as DC's lesbian hero, who would be receiving DC's full support. Then DC promptly didn't do anything with her outside the series for over a year (and even in the series, she received little attention, as she was more supporting cast for her girlfriend, Renee Montoya). In all that time, she had very little storyline, so her characterization was mostly as a closeted lesbian and a Jew. When she did finally get her own series, she abandoned her [[Lipstick Lesbian]] lifestyle for tattoos and apparently coming out off-camera.

** This seems to be the product of a retcon though, that established that Kate had tattoos and her alternative fashion sense YEARS before ''52'' took place. It also established that she had come out as a teenager, and that Renee was the closeted one in their relationship. So it seems the closeted lipstick lesbian phase more or less never happened in the current continuity.

** Years later, Triathlon served the exact same role (again, in-universe) during [[Kurt Busiek]]'s run. Later iterations of the team were thankfully more diverse.

** According to Christopher Priest, Falcon's nickname in the Marvel offices throughout the 70s and early 80s was "Fal-coon". No, Priest wasn't alright with it, though being a lowly intern at the time, he didn't raise a big stink. In his blog, he refuses to name the co-workers who used it for fear of burning his bridges.

* Empress was the sole minority member of the original ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'' team, and was added relatively late into the run.

 

** [[Samuel L. Jackson]] in the prequels may also be a example of this, as his character serves as little more than a background character until Revenge of the Sith (excluding his excellent use in the Clone Wars shorts).

** One might argue that casting Temuera Morrison, who is a Maori, as Jango Fett and by retroactive consequence, his clone Boba Fett and ''every single clonetrooper'' reduces all other characters in the series (black, white or green) to token minorities by sheer weight of numbers.

* Harvey Weinstein loved using this trope for his productions back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Starting with ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]] 2'', nearly all of his teen-aimed productions had at least one token black character (often played by a rapper) solely to bump up the box office. He seemed to stop this after ''Shall We Dance?'', which had an [[Advertised Extra]] in the form of Ja Rule (who appeared in one concert scene and had no purpose to the plot).

 

* Invoked in a short story "Papanin's Mauser" by Michael Veller. It depicts a drift-ice research unit of four people. Three of them are Russians and Communists and the last one is a nonpartisan German. According to the Soviet laws three Communists is enough to constitute a Party cell, so every day they have to conduct a Party meeting, for members only. During these meetings the German has to leave the "meeting room", that is the tent where they all live and spend time tramping around it in the bone-chilling cold. Eventually he applies for membership in the Party to end this nightmare but is rejected on the following ground: as he is he symbolizes the international nature of the Soviet people and the unbreakable ties between partisans and nonpartisans.

* ''[[Animorphs]]'' and Cassie

 

 

** The character Toofer is named for the [[Twofer Token Minority]] trope.

* In a transparent attempt to say "we had a gay regular on the show," ''[[Law and Order]]'' had Serena Southerlyn come out as lesbian to the audience [[Suddenly Sexuality|in the last minute]] of her final episode.

** Worth noting that actress attended the same school of Mona Lisa Smile as listed above.

** The GA staff used racial-blindcasting, when you start auditions without picking the ethnic background of the characters.

* Similarly, the only non-white main character on ''[[Corner Gas]]'' is Davis Quinton, the Sergeant of Dog River's two-member police force. He (and the actor who plays him, Lorne Cardinal) is a member of the Cree Nation, hardly a rarity in Rural Saskatchewan. However, this is incidental to his character; it's only brought up once, at the end of the first season, when Karen suggests going to a ticket scalper and he acts offended. Also, both bartenders (Phil and Paul) appear Cree. One of them speaks some Cree, enough to know the original name of Dog River.

* Referenced in ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' (itself a very racially diverse show) where Janeway and Chakotay discuss the issues involved in a ship crewed by both Federation members and Maquis separatists. Janeway notes that by making the Maquis Chakotay her second in command she hopes she has already shown that she can be tolerant of them, and Chokatay responds "I have no intention of being your token Maquis."

* Pete Ross from ''[[Smallville]]'' is an especially funny example, as his comic book counterpart is white.

* Both radio experts on ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' were token black characters. Which was awkward, as the armed forces were still segregated in WWII.

** Given that they were all prisoners and obviously not all from the same unit, the segregation wasn't really an issue.

** It is still notable that most of Kinchloe's spotlight episodes were the only ones to feature a black [[Girl of the Week]] (an African princess and an old high school girlfriend respectively).

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' has been guilty of this at multiple points in its run.

** Garrett Morris in the 70s.

** [[Eddie Murphy]] in the early 80s. While certainly nobody would question Murphy's right to be there, the fact remained that the show felt no obligation to have another black in the cast as long as Murphy was there. (In fact, Robert Townsend, who was originally hired to be the token black guy, was let go once Murphy showed up.)

* Benson from ''[[Soap]]'' (made in the 70s, mind) was the only black character in the show for the first three seasons and he was the butler. He was never used to put across any racial message and if anything he was the [[Only Sane Man]] in the entire show.

** When Benson got replaced in season three, there was Saunders the [[Expy]], also black.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

** Both subverted and played straight. Instead of bringing a token gay character onto the show, the writers had one of the three central characters turn out to be a lesbian. On the other hand, it wasn't until the seventh season that there was an important character who was black, and when he did show up he was the token black guy.

* The U.S. black music program ''[[Soul Train]]'' had some token white dancers in the audience.

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' had the great feature of JD and Turk's College Brochure. Turk is photoshopped in twice to make it appear more diverse. [[Lampshaded]] in the episode ''My Long Goodbye'' when Turk struggles to think of other black members of staff. He gets himself and Nurse Roberts (whom he is speaking to), Snoop Dog Attending, and Leonard the Security Guard...

::: He then adds that if this were a horror movie, [[Black Dude Dies First|he'd be getting nervous]].

* Venus Flytrap on ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'', although the show made a strong effort to depict him as a well-rounded individual.

* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' has David Harewood as a black Friar Tuck in 12th century England.

* Arguably, Bonnie Bennett in ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' TV show. She has her own storyline for a bit, but it turns out to exist only to facilitate the (white, male) lead vampire's storyline. She was white in the books - but they completely erased the existence another extremely prominent female character who was Latina and definitely minimized Bonnie's personality and agency.

* Joss Whedon's ''[[Firefly]]''

** Zoe, the second in command on board Serenity, is both black and a female in a position of authority. And she's badass!

** The villain from the [[Big Damn Movie]], a [[Wicked Cultured]] black [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] with a [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana]] who avoids every [[Scary Black Man]] trope apart from being both black and fucking terrifying.

* Showtime's ''[[Dexter]]'' manages to avert this. In adapting from the book, the producers were given the liberty to change the ethnicity of any character based on the actors they wanted to hire. Instead, they hired a genuinely racially diverse cast and nobody got a [[Race Lift]]. However, [[Discussed Trope|the issue of tokenism is addressed]]; [[La Guerta]] got her position based on her ability to spin things to her advantage and her [[Twofer Token Minority]] status (black Hispanic woman), and when she pisses off her boss, he very carefully replaces her with a second [[Twofer Token Minority]] (a black, Haitian woman) who got her rank as an officer the ''hard'' way.

* Khaleel "Kenny" Al-Bahir is the Token Middle Eastern in ''[[The War at Home]]''.

* ''[[Spin City]]'' had Carter Heywood, a [[Twofer Token Minority]] who averted both [[Positive Discrimination]] and plain old discrimination by being a well-rounded character. Michael Boatman was the only regular black cast member; arguably this is justified in that, in-universe, the Mayoral staff's lack of diversity is mentioned explicitly (if only in the pilot episode) and Carter was hired cynically for his homosexuality, his race being a bonus.

* ''[[Lost]]'', despite having a huge cast from a diverse range of backgrounds, only ever had one gay character, Tom Friendly. And his sexuality wasn't even confirmed until after he'd been killed off.

* Some [[Disney Channel]] shows include a rich, intelligent, yet conniving and selfish Latino as a token minority character. Some examples: ''[[That's So Raven]]'', ''[[The Proud Family]]'' and ''[[Hannah Montana]]''.

* ''[[Carrusel]]'' has a few. Cirilo is Black. David is Ashkenazi Jewish. Kokimoto is Japanese. Bibi is North American of English Ancestry.

* [[Jim Carrey]] launched his career being the only white guy (most of the time) on the predominantly black ''[[In Living Color]]''.

** Minorities other than black generally don't even get token appearances, though there were some hot Asian [[Fan Service]] girls, at least one with a small speaking part.

** This is a show about two white guys, with the addition of up to two other white guys, where a supermajority of women with speaking roles are blondes. Everything but white males appear only as token, although a couple of white women have gotten to the level of supporting cast before dying. (Or, in one recent case, being given [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] so they wouldn't be traumatized by their kidnapping, or miss Dean after he left them [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies|for their own good]].)

* ''[[Angel]]'' had Charles Gunn as the only black guy, though Doyle and Lorne might count as token demons.

 

* Balthasar, one of the three<ref>Who, by the way, are neither named ''nor numbered'' in the Bible: it is only a mediaeval tradition that there were three or that their names were as here plus Caspar.</ref> Wise Men, has been depicted as black since [[Older Than Print|Medieval times]], possibly making him the original token black guy.

** Melchior is sometimes depicted as Asian as well, so the Wise Men represent the three continents of the Medieval world: Europe, Asia, and Africa.

 

 

* Even ''[[Peanuts]]'' wasn't immune. Franklin joined the cast in a nod to the court-ordered busing that was going on at the time. As [[Chris Rock]] points out, he was the only one in the cast without any distinct personality.

** In one interview, Schulz admitted that he really didn't know what to do with Franklin, since he had no experience with black children. Ironically, the producers of one of the ''Peanuts'' animated specials found a role for Franklin [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO6ccX90HNI&feature=related here].

 

 

 

 

* Currently the WWE Divas are sadly falling into this. Each brand has one (and in many cases, ONLY one) member of each minority group amidst the sea of blond hair on the rest of the roster.

** On Raw, as seen by the [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_74DOUg2qS3k/TB38mp8S4AI/AAAAAAAADHM/A0auqaG47rA/s1600/Divas+Championship+Fatal+4-Way+Match.jpg Fatal 4-Way Divas match,] there was the white Maryse, black [[Alicia Fox]], Asian Gail Kim, and Latina [[Eve Torres]] (although the recently-returning Melina shook that up, and with the Bella Twins, it appears that Latinas have become something of the majority on ''Raw''.)

* As it stands, here are is the list of divas and their ethnicities:

** Black - [[Alicia Fox]], Kharma

** Latina - Melina, [[Eve Torres]], the Bella Twins, Rosa Mendes

 

 

 

 

* In Privateer Press' tabletop war game ''[[War Machine]]'', Major Markus 'Siege' Brisbane is the game's only black warcaster.

** Before the release of the expansion book ''Pirates of the Broken Coast'', he was the only black model in the game.

 

 

* You know how long it took ''[[Pokémon]]'' to include a character with black skin? Or for that matter, a character of any non-Japanese, non-White descent? In any shape, form, or continuity? ''12 years''. And no, Jynx doesn't count. Yes, it's a Japanese-produced series set in (Before Black and White) thinly veiled copies of the relatively un-diverse Japan, but they have international characters and travel as the focus on the franchise. He's the boss of the main character in [[Pokémon Ranger]] 2, and a [[Boisterous Bruiser]] as well as [[Da Chief]].

** That is if you don't count the non jpn version of Pokemon Battle Revolution (and that came out only a few years earlier) where the player's avatar has a customizeable skin tone (again, added in international releases)

** There was a young dark-skinned girl standing in the player's hometown in Firered/Leafgreen. But the sprite for this girl doesn't appear anywhere else in the ''entire game''.

** One could also count Pheobe, who showed up earlier. But only in the games: she was [[Demoted to Extra]].

** In the fourth generation games, they did add another token minority, a Frontier Brain named Dahlia.

** Gen V, being set in Not!New York instead of Not!Various parts of Japan, averts this. Minor NPC of varying skin tone are common, and 2 <ref>Iris's skin tone is [[Ambiguously Brown]] in the games and anime, though Sugimori's original art is definitely black</ref> Gym Leaders are black.

** The 'aggressive black Scotsman' with an absurdly broad accent is a stereotype of its own in the UK.

*** Lampshaded in his intro video on the official site:

*** Ironically, it appears that in the world of [[Team Fortress 2]], there is in fact a clan of black Scottish demolitions experts... but the Demoman is unusual in that he still has an eye.

* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', Dr. Ragland is the only black character of plot significance. Particularly [[Egregious]] considering the game takes place in ''[[New York City]]''.

** She's also a [[Space Jews|Space Gipsy]], making her and anyone of her race a barely tolerated outcast everywhere outside their fleet.

* ''[[Mass Effect]] 2'' gives a double subversion, since Shepard's field mission squad consist of only three humans and seven aliens of different races, but when it comes to the human crew on Normandy SR-2, [[Only Sane Man|Jacob Taylor]] is the only black man on the whole ship.

* Anthony Higgs of ''[[Metroid|Metroid: Other M]]''; he's the first ''major'' black character; there were a few black people on the [[Metroid Prime|Valhalla]] (key word being "few"). {{spoiler|He's also the only supporting character who survives to the end of the game}}.

* In [[Night Trap]], SCAT has both a token black guy and a token woman (if you don't count Kelly).

 

 

* Alice in the ''[[Loserz]]'' strip. As she says in one strip, one of the few black kids in school.

* Grace and Nanase in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''. Sort of. Sensei Greg too, but he's become a [[Brother Chuck]]. And Nanase doesn't even look very Japanese.

** On Nanase: [[Word of God|Dan Shive has said]] that human hair colors in the comic's universe are just plain different from those in ours, for all races. The hair colors depicted are intended to be read literally, not as a stylistic effect.

* Lets not forget to always give them One [http://www.viruscomix.com/page482.html Award]

** Interestingly, in ''[[Homestuck]]'' itself, [[Word of God]] has given a similar, though less cynical, rationale for having [[Strange Girl|Jade]], [[Catgirl|Nepeta]], and [[It's Not Porn, It's Art|Equius]] be [[Furry Fandom|furries]].

** Slightly more cynical fans call shenanigans on there being only two canonically gay characters (Kanaya and {{spoiler|Dirk}}), though this is mitigated by the trolls [[Everyone Is Bi|being naturally bisexual as a species]].

 

 

* [http://www.theonion.com/articles/black-guy-photoshopped-in,1433/ Satirized] by [[The Onion]], after the embarrassing event of University of Wisconsin-Madison (see Advertising folder).

* Invoked/parodied in the third episode of ''[[Corrupting the Classics With Contemporary Crap]]''. "Project Playwright" has five contestants: [[David Mamet]], [[Harold Pinter]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[Noel Coward]], and ''For Colored Girls'' author Ntozake Shange. Celebrity judge [[Oscar Wilde]] implies that Shange is only there because she is a black female, which Shange doesn't take kindly to. [[Hilarity Ensues]].

 

 

* Parodied in Token Black (formerly named Token Williams), the only black kid in ''[[South Park]]'', who is actually considered the token ''rich'' kid in-universe. Natch, since his parents own the Hooters [[Expy]] restaurant Raisins. Which is done as a deliberate subversion of this trope.

* ''[[Superfriends]]'' was notorious for that kind of character, with a bunch of obviously non-white superheroes; Apache Chief (Native North America), Black Vulcan (Black), Samurai (Asian) and El Dorado (Latin American). The final season tried to address the black issue by replacing Black Vulcan with Cyborg of the [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]], a character that Marv Wolfman and George Perez worked hard to create as a legitimate original character.

* John Stewart, the black Green Lantern on ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]''. Less "token" because not only does he have the [[Legacy Character|same]] ''nom de guerre'' as a major member of the original team, but he has worked with the League in a number of stories in the comics when he was Hal Jordan's backup, thus giving the character's inclusion some credibility. Furthermore, in the ''Unlimited'' phase of the series, the producers strove to dilute the issue by bringing in many of DC's other minority superheroes like Mr. Terrific, Vixen, Steel and Doctor Light.

** It should be noted that, save for Batman and Superman, both of whom had a previous series unto themselves in the DCAU, John Stewart is the most featured character in the DCAU, having the most Limelight episodes on [[Justice League]] and getting a good amount of plot in [[Justice League Unlimited]]. Since his inclusion, other media featuring a member of the GL corp. have been criticized for not using a strong character like Stewart (who prior to this served as a secondary character in the comics) and he is generally the fan pick for the featured character in a potential Green Lantern movie. His original inclusion in the series was brought about more to avoid an [[Unpleasable Fanbase]] of Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan fans fighting. As Stewart had little fan base at the time and would be a nice compromise for GLC fans in general, he was given the role.

** Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl), from the planet Thanagar, was deliberately given a Hispanic voice actor as well.

* ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' also added a token minority, Lando (named for the only person of color in the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy), who rarely did anything other than show up to showcase his non-whiteness. This was expressly parodying this trope, however.

* The [[Extreme Ghostbusters]] team was compiled of all minorities. Roland a black man, Eduardo a Hispanic, Garrett a white guy in a wheel chair and Kylie a "[[Goth]]" chick. Egon was the only non-minority but he didn't always go out with the team, but held a figure head position. Their receptionist, Janine Melnitz is [[Ambiguously Jewish]] (considering her last name). The original animated series, ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'', had the movie version of the team so there is only a token black guy instead of a whole token team.

*** Both Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa and Tricia Tanaka are based on real-life local Los Angeles TV reporter Tricia Toyota and/or Tricia Takasugi.

** And then there's Cleveland Brown, the token black guy who in the later seasons becomes a pormanteau for black stereotypes that had nothing to do with his established personality. And you can't bring up minorities on the newscast team without talking about "Blackuweather forecaster Ollie Williams."

*** "How's the weather looking today, Ollie?" "IT GON' RAIN." "Thanks Ollie."

*** One example when Cleveland is in the gold course the second time with a Richard Nixon mask.

* Another parody in ''[[Futurama]]'', where the characters sometimes watch the soap "All My Circuits", which features a cast of robots and a single token human.

'''Fry:''' Boring! }}

* In ''[[Daria]]'', Jodie Landon and Mack Mackenzie seem to be the only black students at Lawndale High, and they are apparently the only people (other than possibly Andrea) who Daria and Jane respect in that school. Jodie and Mack are painfully aware of their status and are uncomfortable being effectively examples of their race; for instance, Jodie complains how she has to be "Queen of the Negroes" at school. This includes when they were dubbed school parade King and Queen consecutively over multiple years, which they suspect is possibly in part because it disguise how little real diversity there is at the school. However, Jodie notices a little black girl looking awestruck at her being so honored, and decides she can put up with it for the greater good of inspiring other minority kids to dream. On the other hand, Jodie's parents are a pair of jerks, Tiffany of the Fashion Club is an [[Asian Airhead]], and the school's principal, Angela Li (also Asian ethnicity) is a strutting self-important dictator.

** It's actually the other way around- making Lorca unable to walk necessitated that he can't fly either. Most of the plot of the episode where Lorca is introduced, "A New Friend", hinges on this.

* John Thunder, the Native American member of the [[Centurions]] . Maybe one of the best out there.

* Lieutenant Green- token black of [[Captain Scarlet]]. The original also counted a Japanese and a black amongst its minor characters.

* Orange Blossom and Ginger Snap of ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]''.

* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', Cyborg is the only African-American in the team. However, most of the team applies here also. Starfire is an alien. Raven is a demonic hybrid. Beast Boy was born in Africa, having genetically altered DNA. [[Badass Normal|Robin]] is the only one who doesn't apply here.

* Subverted on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''. There are loads of non-caucasian people in-universe but only Karl and Apu are focused on.

* Baljeet from ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' is Indian, the Fireside Girl Holly is African-American, Stacy and, by the looks of it, the Fireside Girl Ginger are Asian and Buford seems to have some kind of Dutch heritage. The show in general obviously tries to be very cosmopolitic.

** Isabella Garcia-Shapiro is half Mexican and half Jewish. Though one episode has the cast visiting the "Mexican Jewish Cultural Festival" so Danville might just have a particularly large population of Mexican-Jews...

* Mostly averted in ''[[Challenge of the Go Bots]],'' where A.J. and General Newcastle are both black, and Anya Turgonova is Russo-Chinese. Anya didn't show up as often after the [[Five Episode Pilot]], but A.J. was a main character and Newcastle was the most important human supporting character.

* The whole [[The Weekenders|Weekenders]] group fits all. Though Tino's race isn't mentioned, [[Word of God]] states hes Italian American. Lor's Scottish American, Carvers African American and Tish is an Eastern European Jew.

* Averted in ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]''. As of the end of season one, three of the core cast members are people of color (Aqualad and Rocket are both black while Artemis is half-white and half-Vietnamese). It has also been confirmed that [[Blue Beetle]] (Mexican American) will be joining the team in season two.

 

 

** Not just pictures; math textbooks are particularly egregious when the word problems require you to solve a teenager's problem for him. There's a 75% chance that the randomly selected name will be an ethnic one, especially Hispanic.

* This will show up in college recruitment material, since a lot of colleges like to play up the diversity of their campus.

* Invoked with the [[wikipedia:Burger King Kids Club#Kids Club|Burger King Kids Club Gang]], who were specifically [[Five-Token Band|a stylized group of kids most kids could identify with somehow]]. The [[White Male Lead|white kid]] is still the leader.

* Take any stock photo image used for marketing software or business applications. A group of racially diverse, smiling corporate types in a meeting, watching a presentation or poring over a report. Infamously led to backlash when Microsoft's Polish division [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/26/microsofts-ad-in-poland-p_n_269366.html whitewashed the black man in the original American ad].

 

* Jiminy Cricket and Cleo the goldfish from Disney's ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]''

* Abigail, Amelia, and their uncle Waldo (three geese) from ''[[The Aristocats]]''

 

 

 

 

* The ''[[Fabuland]]'' toy line by [[LEGO]] only had one crocodile and three birds among an otherwise all-mammal cast.

 

 

* Inverted in ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''. Sandy Cheeks (a squirrel) and Pearl Krabs (a sperm whale) are the token mammals among the main, major, and supporting characters.

* Spike of the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' franchise: a dragon amongst ponies.

* Inverted with Sleepy Bat in ''[[Birdz]]'', the only reoccuring non-avian.

 

 

* Ratigan, Fidget the bat, Felicia the cat, Toby the dog, and a lizard from ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' among a cast made mostly of mouse characters.

* [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Donald Duck]] are this in ''[[A Goofy Movie]]''

 

 

 

 

* [[Pete]] and P.J. are this in ''[[Goof Troop]]'', ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'', and ''An Extremely Goofy Movie'' are token cats, despite being treated like [[Dogfaces]] in those worlds.

** Also, Waffles and Chainsaw from ''[[Goof Troop]]'' are a token cat and dog in a world of [[Dogfaces]].

 

 

* Beans the lizard and Angelique the fox from ''[[Rango]]''

 

 

* [[Stuart Little]] is far more anthropomorphic than the other animals in all his book and movie appearances and in the TV series.

** Note that in the original book he's human by heritage; his parents are his actual parents. He just happens to have been born with the approximate form of a mouse. How anyone worked out he was a viable life-form, let alone that he had the potential to grow up intelligent, when he was born so mutated and looking like a miscarriage is left to the imagination, because it is a children's book.

 

 

* Rouge the Bat from the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series, as far as games are concerned.

 

 

* Minerva Mink from ''[[Animaniacs]]''. Also, Wilford B. Wolf is this when he transforms into a werewolf.

* Mousey Galore from ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''.

* Julie Bruin, Margot Mallard, Binky Bunny, and Bimbette the skunk from ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''.

* Ren's parents from ''[[Ren and Stimpy]] Adult Party Cartoon'' are far more human-shaped than either he or Stimpy are.

 

[[Category:Token Index]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]