Week 9: Difference

(Although the article was written in the 1980s, tokenism is still a huge problem. How can white-dominated institutions and groups, exhibitions, conversations include and amplify the voices of others without falling into tokenism? What are some pitfalls and solutions? Is this even possible? Is it what we should be attempting to do? Is this the question we should be asking or is there a better question?)

    The most insidious thing about tokenism is how easy it is to fall into. When an author or film writer has a single character of nebulous race and ethnicity, it's easy to stack a bunch of stereotypes and call it a character. Mostly these problematic origins are restricted to background characters in books and media. Here are four characters that are often considered token minorities.


Cho Chang, Played by Katie Leung, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling, 2005. 

    First up, we have Cho Chang from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series. 

    Cho could have been a much more interesting character had Rowling not been a racist. Unfortunately, Rowling chose the most stereotypical name. Cho isn't given a kanji to back up the name. It can't even be part of a longer, more common name. All it brings to mind is the horrible "Wok falling down the stairs," joke. Even her characterization is flat, she's just meant to be a potential love interest and fall back into the background when she wasn't needed any longer. All in all, a very token character, whose author very much wanted to use her as false diversity.

Short Round, Played by Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, George Lucas, 1984.

    Next, we will look at Short Round from Indiana Jones. 

    Short Round is another stereotypical character, playing the 'Happy Asian Sidekick,' trope. Again, more of a plot device than a character, despite being on screen most of the movie. He exists to contrast Indiana Jones's more realistic attitude with his more naive, optimistic worldview, as well as add some humor to the various scenes to contrast the serious tone of the adventure.

Hikaru Sulu, Played by George Takei, Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, 1966.

    Next, we look at Hikaru Sulu of the original Star Trek TV Series.  

    Sulu is probably the least problematic character of the bunch because the intent of the cast was to make it clear that everyone should represent Earth. Yet, a lot of people claim that this is inherently tokenism because he is only one character representing a large number of vastly different cultures and ethnicities. This is both a fair and unfair claim because he is the only Asian character that is a part of the main cast. However, the fact that the rest of the cast is made of the only representation of their people, weakens that claim.

Christopher 'Chowder' Chow, Check Please!, Ngozi Ukazu, 2017-2020

    Finally, we will look at Christopher 'Chowder' Chow from Check Please! webcomic and book. 

    Chowder is one of my favorite characters of his webcomic. His biggest problem is how he's treated by the fan following of the book, as opposed to how he's written. A lot of people take his interactions with his hockey team as them infantalising him, treating him like a child instead of a college aged adult. Funny enough, he has the least amount of background. He's Chinese American, but we don't get any further info than that. 

    Truthfully, I think that as long as you have multiple characters of a specific geography who happen to be of similar race or ethnicity, it's hard to fall into tokenism. This is mostly because you have multiple characters to split characterization and negative traits between them, rounding them out. When you have more characters of the same race, it's easier to compare them to each other without the issue of having too stereotypical a character. These characters that I just went over have the misfortune of being the only Asian characters in their stories and that makes it easier to mark them as token characters.


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https://magazine.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/styles/wysiwyg_full_width_image/public/2022-05/2.22_TAKEI_sulu.jpg?itok=DrOWk5fd

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