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*** Plus, Setsuna doesn't look all that Middle Eastern, his character design is the same features as the other characters only with slightly darker skin, and he looks so different from all the Middle Eastern background characters seen in the show. The same goes for Marina Ismail, who has blue eyes- a rarity for anyone of Middle Eastern origin.
* ''[[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 (Mangamanga)|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 (Animeanime)|2003 anime version]] has Rose (who originally was white) and Noah.
 
 
== Comics ==
* 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]]:
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** 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 (Comic Bookcomics)|Young Justice]]'' team, and was added relatively late into the run.
 
== Film ==
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* ''[[Star Wars]]''
** After Episode IV became a blockbuster, numerous people noticed that an entire galaxy of humans were all white. (Which was not ''entirely'' true; it was just that the main characters were all white.) Episode V introduced Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the [[Token Minority]] Black.
** [[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.
* While the 2006 historical film ''[[Flyboys]]'' was already heavily criticised for its historical inaccuracies relating to its World War I setting, one of the more amusing ones came from the film's fictional [[Token Minority]], Eugene Skinner, a black boxer who joined the squadron to 'pay back' his adopted homeland. Mainly because the end of the movie showed a picture of the real-life squadron which was composed of exactly zero minorities. A rare moment where a film actually seems proud to reveal when it [[Did Not Do the Research]]. [[The Other Wiki]]'s [[wikipedia:Flyboys chr(28)filmchr(29)|entry on the film]] points out that the film confuses the Lafayette Escadrille with the Lafayette Flying Corps with whom Eugene Bullard (the real person Skinner was based on) actually flew.
* Harvey Weinstein loved using this trope for his productions back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Starting with ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|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).
 
 
== Literature ==
* 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 (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' and Cassie
* Lord Wulfston in ''The Savage Empire'' books by Jean Lorrah is the only black person we see in the first five books or so. On the other hand, nobody makes a big deal about it; he just has a hard time being anonymous.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'''s school Hogwarts has a few, including the very Irish Seamus Finnegan (although there may be others who are less obvious), the Indian Patil twins, the Chinese Cho Chang, and the black Dean Thomas and Blaise Zabini. To Mrs. Rowling's credit, no ado is made of any of these characters' ethnicities, nor are they ever described as such. In fact, [[Word of God]] has been needed to identify some of the black characters in the series.
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[30 Rock (TV)|Thirty Rock]]''
** Lampshaded when, to call attention during a GE exclusive lunch, Jack calls out, "Gentlemen... token ladies."
** 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.
* Averted in ''[[GreysGrey's Anatomy]]'', in which almost half the regular cast is non-Caucasian. The production team is, however, very aware and tellingly proud of the fact.
** The GA staff used racial-blindcasting, when you start auditions without picking the ethnic background of the characters.
** However as the show continued and a load of new cast members were added, the majority of them were white.
* Subverted on ''[[The Red Green Show]]'', with the character of Edgar K.B. Montrose, played by First Nations actor Graham Greene. Greene himself approached producer Steve Smith, asking to be on the show after enjoying it on TV. The role they gave him was essentially colour-blind - that of an explosives "enthusiast" who can't really call himself an expert, since experts have the proper license and permits, and more training in handling dynamite than just watching a lot of [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner (Animation)|Road Runner]] cartoons. Edgar was [[Too Dumb to Live]], but that also described everybody else on the show. The only reference to Greene's ethnicity in his time on the show was a humorous [[Shout-Out]] in his first appearance, when Edgar commented about the film ''Dances With Wolves'', and stated that the "Native guy" (Greene himself), should have gotten the Oscar.
* Similarly, the only non-white main character on ''[[Corner Gas (TV)|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."
** Back in [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|the original series]], the creators had to fight [[Executive Meddling]] to get two [[Token Minority|Token Minorities]], Sulu and Uhura, on the bridge, and ''some'' nonwhites among the extras. The original pilot pushed further with a female second in command, and Spock was considered to be radical at the time as an Alien, especially with the original plans being for Spock to be either Green or Red Skinned. Also notable that both lead characters of Spock and Kirk were played by Jews. Then there's the gutsy move of creating a Russian main character at the height of the Cold War.
** [[Deep Space Nine]], with a somewhat varied cast itself, has an odd ''class'' example. Miles O'Brien is heavily played up as a [[Closer to Earth]] blue-collar NCO in a staff of implicitly elite [[Officer and Aa Gentleman]] types, complete with a labour-movement martyr in his ancestry. (Granted, one can call Captain Sisko upwardly-mobile, as the son of a restaurateur, but this was revealed much later and never emphasised.)
* In ''[[The Class (TV series)|The Class]]'' Kyle's boyfriend Aaron is introduced as a secondary character to counteract the [[Monochrome Casting]].
* Averted in the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'', especially in the episode "Fire In Space" which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Boomer and Tigh's extensive roles.
* Pete Ross from ''[[Smallville]]'' is an especially funny example, as his comic book counterpart is white.
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* A sketch on ''[[Dead Ringers]]'' lampshaded this with the Schwarzenegger film ''Shooting Lots and Lots of Bad Guys with my [[BFG|Very Big Gun]]''- Arnie shouts "Noooooo! Token Black Buddy!" after his sidekick is killed by [[Evil Brit|Token British Bad Guy]].
* Dreama (black) in ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|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.
** Season 3 had the [[Genre Savvy]] (and sadly under-used) villain Mr. Trick, a modern black vampire who [[Lampshade Hanging|commented]] on the fact that there were very few people of colour in Sunnydale.
* The U.S. black music program ''[[Soul Train (TV)|Soul Train]]'' had some token white dancers in the audience.
* The character of Charlie Young was added to ''[[The West Wing]]'' just because the NAACP was criticizing the show for ''not'' having a [[Token Minority]]. Charlie's "token minority" status is particularly interesting in this case, as the only two of the shows main characters are white and Protestant (and that is if one guesses on Sam, whose religion is not mentioned but can be presumed not to be Catholic or Jewish). Two of the main characters are Jewish, four are Catholic, making the show's main cast far more diverse than the actual US population, even without Charlie in the mix.
* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'', unlike the previous shows (which were such aversions of [[Humans Are White]] they were often accused of being [[Five-Token Band|Five Token Bands]] by some), has a black guy, a Asian woman, and ''everyone else'' is white. And also note that, in order to make it obvious to the audience he was only on the show so they could say they had a [[Token Minority]], the black guy was a glorified extra...
* Subverted on ''Sue Thomas F. B. Eye" where the main character is a deaf female FBI agent.
* ''[[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...
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::: 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.
* On ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', Omar Epps was the only series regular of color for three seasons, until House hired three new underlings, at which point Kal Penn became the token South Asian guy. Having said that, Wilson, Cuddy and Taub are all Jewish [[Informed Judaism|to varying degrees of obviousness]]. And Thirteen is bisexual, and House is an atheist. And his atheism is portrayed... well, not ''negatively'', at any rate. They do okay.
* ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' has David Harewood as a black Friar Tuck in 12th century England.
* ''[[Vanpires]]'' had Snap, who is really blatantly this [[Totally Radical|(just look at that nickname!)]]
* 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 (TV)|Firefly]]''
** Zoe, the second in command on board Serenity, is both black and a female in a position of authority. And she's badass!
** Shepherd Book is black, [[Cool Old Guy|old]], [[Badass Preacher|religious and badass!]] There are, however, no Chinese people.
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* 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.
{{quote| '''Captain Matthews''': (referring to [[La Guerta]]'s replacement) Turns out she's an ''actual'' hero.}}
* Khaleel "Kenny" Al-Bahir is the Token Middle Eastern in ''[[The War Atat Home]]''.
* In ''[[Flashpoint (TV series)|Flashpoint]]'', we have Lewis Young, Winnie the dispatcher and {{spoiler|after Lewis's death}} Leah Kerns as the [[Token Minority|Token Minorities.]]
* ''[[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 (TV)|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]]''.
* ''[[Earth 2]]'' had a token black character who was [[Unfortunate Implications|a violent criminal]] whose "reform" consisted of a chip in his brain-- when the chip malfunctioned, he tries to kill everybody.
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* ''[[Modern Family]]'' has Sophia and her son Manny, who are the only racial minorities and who fit Hispanic stereotypes perfectly. They are also used as an excuse to use Hispanic jokes shamelessly.
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' had two separate token blacks a different points: Eli Williams in season 3 and Angela in seasons 5-7. Angela lampshades this a few times: "Gosh I got to get some black friends."
* The current ''[[CharliesCharlie's Angels]]'' revamp adds one in order to appeal to modern audiences.
* ''Stockinger'', the spinoff of the Austrian show ''[[Inspector Rex]]'', has Antonella Simoni, a cheerful Italian-Austrian cop and the first female cop to appear in the ''Inspector Rex'' franchise.
* A few Australian cop shows have had a single token Polynesian cop - ''Water Rats'', ''[[Rush (TV Seriesseries)|Rush]]'', and ''East West 101'' are good examples, although ''East West 101'' had a Muslim Arab-Australian cop as the main character, so in that case 'token' would be stretching it. Regardless, whether this represents a trend in the [[Real Life]] Aussie police force, or just actor availability, is unknown.
* All 3 ''[[CSI]]'' series had one black character each. ''[[CSI]]'' had Warrick first and then Ray Langston, though with his departure, there aren't any. ''[[CSI: NY]]'' has Sheldon Hawkes. ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' had Alexx until she left.
* There are quite a few black characters on [[Supernatural]], but somehow none of them come even as close to being core cast as the women. In fact, the only one who managed to be seriously recurring was the psychotic [[Vampire Hunter]] who eventually became a vampire. His [[Scary Black Man]] traits were played with initially in that Dean thought he and his [[Badass]] attitude toward decapitation was ''awesome'', and then the guy turned out to be a hateful extremist who'd offed his own little sister after she was vamped, which pushed Dean's [[Berserk Button]], and who didn't make any distinction between [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires]] and the dangerous kind.
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** 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]].)
* Played painfully straight in ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'' with T-Dog, who is the only major character in the series not to have any sub-plots and little dialog. Extremely apparent in Season 2 episode "Judge, Jury, Executioner" in which the group deliberates whether or not to {{spoiler|kill Randall}}, the episode focuses on the opinions of every member of the group except T-Dog whose one line of dialog is cut off by Dale.
* ''[[Angel]]'' had Charles Gunn as the only black guy, though Doyle and Lorne might count as token demons.
 
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* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] IV'' had an ad for Weazel News, an [[Expy]] of the [[Fox News Channel]], that parodied the use of token minorities on TV news programs. The voiceover for the ad explicitly mentioned the "diverse" news team as proof that they weren't racist, and when the Asian reporter was listed, an ''[[Refuge in Audacity|oriental gong sound]]'' was clearly audible.
* Louis in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' is considered the game's token black guy. Veteran Bill is the token old guy, and Zoey is the token girl. Young white male biker Francis is the least mentally stable of the four, and some [[Fanon]] says he's [[Ho Yay|gay]].
* In ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'', several of the classes are represented as clearly being of a certain nationality. The Demoman represents Scotland, however he is also the only black man in the game. He is also a drunk and a "cyclops", making him a "Threefer."
** The Team Fortress 2 team stated in their blog (providing some early concept art) that the Demoman was going to be a redheaded white guy, making him look more like the stereotypical Scot. Instead, they decided that he looked too much like Groundskeeper Willie, so they made him black. So this probably isn't a case of tokenism, but an attempt to break a stereotype. A better example might be the continuous hints of Pyro being the lone female class.
** 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:
{{quote| '''Demoman:''' I'm a black Scottish cyclops! They've got more f-[extended censorship bleep] than thy do the likes of me!}}
*** Ironically, it appears that in the world of [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'', Dr. Ragland is the only black character of plot significance. Particularly [[Egregious]] considering the game takes place in ''[[New York City]]''.
* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' has Devdan, a rather simple halberdier that is ripe with some [[Unfortunate Implications]]. The next game does have Fiona, but she has about as much character as an old boot.
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series has two examples. General Leo Christophe from [[Final Fantasy VI]] and Barret Wallace from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. The latter was played perfectly straight amongst the heroes. Paradoxically, it wasn't done for the feelings of the fans, or for racial diversit. General Leo, however, is a slight inversion because the sprite has the same skin tone as the rest of the characters, while his art has a notably darker skin tone.
** Sazh Katzroy from ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''.
* In ''[[Romancing Sa gaSaGa 3]]'', Harid "El Nool" Tornado is the lone black character you can choose. He's a mercenary
* Averted in the PC FPS ''Ethnic Cleansing'', where almost all characters are of non-Caucasian race, save for the protagonist and few NPCs.
** The reason for this, as the name implies, is quite nefarious.
* Of the four player characters in the Konami arcade shoot-'em-up [[Sunset Riders]], Cormano is the only Mexican. The other three are blond white cowboys.
* [[Badass Normal|Sig]] in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' is apparently the only black guy on ''the entire freakin' planet'', including the NPCs that just wander around.
* ''[[Bully (Videovideo Gamegame)|Bully]]'' each clique will have a girl, a black boy and a bisexual boy. The nerds clique have a [[Twofer Minority]] Black Bisexual Nerdy boy.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' has an interesting take on this. While the crew of the Normandy consists mainly of humans with only one member of various other species present (one asari, one turian, etc.), those species are so common throughout the galaxy that most of your NPC interactions involve them. Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya, on the other hand, is the only quarian in the entire game, making her your token minority team member.
** She's also a [[Space Jews|Space Gipsy]], making her and anyone of her race a barely tolerated outcast everywhere outside their fleet.
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* Alice in the ''[[Loserz]]'' strip. As she says in one strip, one of the few black kids in school.
* The character of [[Straight Gay|Kay Wheeler]] in ''[[Misfile]]'' exists solely to try and crack open Emily's [[Transparent Closet]]. [[Genki Girl|Missi Fuller's]] [[Chinese Girl|ethnicity]], while [http://www.misfile.com/index.php?page=824 lampshaded in her intro comic], serves no plot purpose other than to bring a bit of variety to the cast and the sole black character who's particularly recurring, Eponine, has only recently been getting attention.
* Grace and Nanase in ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|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.
* Clark is probably this in ''[http://www.shapequest.net Shape Quest]''.
* Lets not forget to always give them One [http://www.viruscomix.com/page482.html Award]
* The [[Web Comic]] [[Show Within a Show|within the]] [[MS Paint Adventures|MS Paint Adventure]] ''[[Homestuck]]'', ''[[Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff]]'' has the most pointless of [[Token Minority]] characters with Geromy. Introduced as "The new friend", he has never moved, spoken, or been aknowledged by another character. He's even called the token black friend in the theme song!
** Interestingly, in ''[[Homestuck]]'' itself, [[Word of God]] has given a similar, though less cynical, rationale for having [[Strange Girl|Jade]], [[Catgirl|Nepeta]], and [[ItsIt's Not Porn, ItsIt'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]].
* Hilariously subverted in ''[[Errant Story]]'' by Bani, who's [http://www.errantstory.com/2011-02-17/5157 well aware of her status] and doesn't want to become the [[Black Dude Dies First|black dude who dies first]].
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== Web Original ==
* [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 (Creator)|Anton Chekhov]], [[Noel Coward]], and ''For Colored Girls'' author Ntozake Shange. Celebrity judge [[Oscar Wilde (Creator)|Oscar Wilde]] implies that Shange is only there because she is a black female, which Shange doesn't take kindly to. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* Krissy Diggs, aka [[That Chick With The Goggles]], was the only black person on any of Channel Awesome's sites (doesn't help that her video postings are extremely sporadic). That is until The Rap Critic was added recently! Krissy is now (as of January 2011) off the site, leaving Rap Critic as the [[Token Black]].
** [[The Angry Joe Show (Web Video)|Angry Joe]] was the only Hispanic member as well, and [[Benzaie]] is the only open bisexual. He's now joined in the Hispanic representation by [[The Blockbuster Buster]].
** Ma-Ti, the only non-white hero in [[Suburban Knights]].
* [[The Gaming Pixie]] and [[Mike Maverick]] are the only two black people on [[Reviewers Unknown]].
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== Western Animation ==
* Parodied in Token Black (formerly named Token Williams), the only black kid in ''[[South Park (Animation)|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.
* ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' 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 (Animationanimation)|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.
** In addition, the second season of ''Unlimited'' featured the Ultimen, straight (and far better done) versions of many of the ''Superfriends'' token characters.
** Shayera Hol (Hawkgirl), from the planet Thanagar, was deliberately given a Hispanic voice actor as well.
** Out of the Original Seven, [[Badass Normal|Batman]] is the only one without super powers. But who needs that when he's Batman?
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series (Animation)|Superman the Animated Series]]'' had Angela Chen, who was essentily a [[Race Lift|race-swapped]] version of Cat Grant from the comics, right down to being a catty gossip columnist and [[Lois Lane]]'s rival at the Daily Planet.
* ''Beware The Batman'' looks to be doing this by using a teen version of [[Birds of Prey|Katana]] as Batman's sidekick instead of Robin or [[Batgirl (Comic Book)|Batgirl]]. Noticeable in that she was explicitly touted as "the new Robin" in press releases.
* ''[[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 (Animation)|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.
* Also parodied in ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]],'' in which the TV newscast's (a [[Show Within a Show]]) on-site reporter is consistently referred to by the anchors as "Asian Reporter Trisha Takanawa."
** A similarly named Asian TV reporter in a recent episode of ''[[Lost]]'' was named Tricia Tanaka.
*** Both Asian Reporter Tricia Takanawa and Tricia Tanaka are based on real-life local Los Angeles TV reporter Tricia Toyota and/or Tricia Takasugi.
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*** Which was actually a double joke: it was a parody of ''The Wiz'' (a Wizard of Oz) musical as well as referencing the harassment.
*** One example when Cleveland is in the gold course the second time with a Richard Nixon mask.
* Another parody in ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'', where the characters sometimes watch the soap "All My Circuits", which features a cast of robots and a single token human.
{{quote| '''Fry:''' What's he do?<br />
'''Bender:''' Eh, the usual human stuff. He laughs, he learns, he loves.<br />
'''Fry:''' Boring! }}
* In ''[[Daria (Animation)|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.
* Spyke in ''[[X-Men: Evolution (Animation)|X-Men Evolution]]'' is not only the token black of the team, he's related to the only other black in the cast. Spyke was [[The Scrappy|so unpopular]] that he was written out of the series and made to [[Put Onon a Bus|live in the sewer]] (no, really). His eventual guest-star role as a vigilante was more well-received by the show's fans than his entire run as a cast member.
* ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' had token Hispanic Carlos. The fact that his catchphrase was "holy frijoles" should tell you how badly that turned out.
** Alexis was also supposedly Vietnamese, according to [[Word of God]]. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/transformers/images/1/1c/Alexis.jpg Uh huh.]
* Mostly subverted in ''[[Transformers Animated (Animation)|Transformers Animated]]'', where the main character is of Indian heritage along with her father) and there are a number of nonwhite villains and background characters. However, it's notable that when {{spoiler|the Autobots turn human}}, {{spoiler|there's only one black Automan, Bumblebee.}} This is because of the voice actors--{{spoiler|Bumblebee is the only main-cast Autobot with a black voice actor (Bumper Robinson), so he's the only one with a black human form}}.
* The children's television series ''[[Dragon Tales]]'' has a dragon in a wheelchair. All the other dragons can fly, but apparently just having a dragon that couldn't fly wasn't enough; they had to get all [[Anvilicious]] and make it a ''Dragon in a wheelchair''.
** 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 (Animation)|Centurions]] . Maybe one of the best out there.
* The Holograms of ''[[Jem]]'' has three [[Token Minority]]: Aja Leith (Chinese Ethnicity), Shana Elmsford (African Ethnicity), & Raya "Carmen' Alsono (Mexican Ethnicity).
* 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]]''.
* ''Doozy Bots'', the attempt to adapt ''[[Gundam]]'' to American audiences in the early 90s (That thankfully never got past a short 5 minute preview video) featured the Black Kid of the gang who also happened to be in a wheelchair. To make matters worse (or funnier, depending on how you see it) when the main characters all transform into the eponymous super-deformed chibi Gundams/Mobile Suits, he gets stuck being the Guntank - which is the top half of a Mobile Suit attached to a set of tank treads.
* In ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|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 (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]''. There are loads of non-caucasian people in-universe but only Karl and Apu are focused on.
** The episode "A Streetcar Named Marge": "Token black panelist, Drederick Tatum!"
** ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' has undergone quite a bit of [[Flanderization]] in this regard. In the early episodes, race was never much of an issue even when a character was visibly nonwhite. The show pushed the envelope in terms of content, but the jokes usually took aim at sex, rude behavior, juvenile delinquency, and working-class caricatures instead of political correctness ''per se''. The writers were also more sparing with their political and topical humor in the earlier episodes, too - which is ironic, considering that both the show itself and its many imitators (''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'', etc.) now have contemporary sociopolitical humor as their bread and butter.
** Waylon Smithers was originally black with blue hair, but the creators felt that him being a obsessive servant to a old rich white man with outdated ways of thinking had [[Unfortunate Implications]].
*** According to David Silverman he was always intended as Mr. Burns' ''white'' sycophant but the show's color stylist Gyorgi Peluci mistakenly animated Smithers as an African American for his first appearance. The [[Unfortunate Implications]] were the reason why they chose to change him to the originally intended color instead of just going with it.
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* The [[Enid Blyton|Famous Five]] were reimagined for a [[Disney]] cartoon series, starring the children of the original Five. George's daughter Jo (Jyoti) is half-Indian. Compare the [http://blog.thepastoralcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/famous-five.jpg extremely white] originals with the [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mlURBYuHJQ8/R-I0NQdtQAI/AAAAAAAAAkI/jQ1x5fvj0fk/s1600-h/famous+five.jpg next generation].
* 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.
* Spoofed in the ''[[Robot Chicken (Animation)|Robot Chicken]]'' sketch [[Twelve12 Angry Men|12 Angry Little People]], when the lone black juror points out that not every black person needs to be a positive role model.
* 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 (Animationanimation)|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.
* Valerie from ''[[Josie and Thethe PussycatsPussy Cats]]''.
* ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Animation)|The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' has [[Black Panther]], an African king who's proven himself a very competent fighter and quite knowledgeable about science and magic. However, sometimes he goes whole episodes without saying anything. Some might argue that his stunts feel more badass when he doesn't talk.
* The short-lived ''[[The Avengers: United They Stand]]'' had Falcon as the sole minority member of the team. Somewhat funny since in the comics, Falcon was added to the team to fill a diversity quota and quit when he decided he didn't want to be included simply for being black.
* Apparently Kimono from ''[[My Little Pony G 3 (Animation)|My Little Pony G 3]]'' is Japanese, as shown by her name and occasional kimono wearing.
 
 
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== Animated Film ==
* Jiminy Cricket and Cleo the goldfish from Disney's ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]''
* Abigail, Amelia, and their uncle Waldo (three geese) from ''[[The Aristocats (Disney)|The Aristocats]]''
* Verne the turtle on ''[[Over the Hedge (Filmanimation)|Over the Hedge]]''.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* From the core [[Looney Tunes]] cast, [[Daffy Duck]], [[Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird|Tweety]], [[Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner (Animation)|The Roadrunner]], [[Foghorn Leghorn]] and Henery Hawk.
* Inverted in ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]''. Sandy Cheeks (a squirrel) and Pearl Krabs (a sperm whale) are the token mammals among the main, major, and supporting characters.
* [[Donald Duck]] started out like this, though his love interest and many family members were introduced later on.
* Spike of the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' franchise: a dragon amongst ponies.
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== Animated Film ==
* Ratigan, Fidget the bat, Felicia the cat, Toby the dog, and a lizard from ''[[The Great Mouse Detective (Disney)|The Great Mouse Detective]]'' among a cast made mostly of mouse characters.
* [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[Donald Duck]] are this in ''[[A Goofy Movie]]''
 
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* [[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]].
* In [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]], the majority of the population as well as the main six characters seem to be evenly distributed among unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. However, there are several other intelligent species in the world. Cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, buffalo, zebra and possibly goats are all people just as much as ponies, and the same goes for some mythological beings like minotaurs and griffons. However, these beings only have short gag cameos or one-shot appearances. The only exception is Zecora the Zebra.
 
 
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Minerva Mink from ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|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]]''.
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