Token Characters

[Rydia]

How do you feel about token characters? You know, where you have the main cast being predominantly white, but they include one african american and/or someone of another race within the main cast to not look racist.

It seems that if they do not include a cast member of another race, people complain that the show is racist. But if they do include a member of another race, then people complain that so-and-so is just a token whatever.

So how do you feel about these characters?

 

[Æon Flux]

For me it realy depends on how the charecter comes across to me,if they can pull me in emotionally.
Example:FFXIII

Spoiler

(even though I detest the game)

Sahz and Fang are realy the only ones who come across with anything remotelly emotional,they pull me in...whereass the rest make me want to hit them for being.....stupid and unemotional.

I think in shows/anime/vidiogames the people/beings should be different....If everything was the same how fun would that be?,

Spoiler

I must add in DBZ my fave charecter was Piccolo I realy only wach anime or overseas flicks so I cant overly comment on TV shows since most overseas flicks have people who are not white,and RuPauls Drag Race and thats a mix of well...everything!

But I dont think they should be considerd "Token" either,when it comes down to it shouldnt it be how one FEELS about the charecter/s and not what they look like? (mini rant under spoiler feel free to avoid)

Spoiler

I hate vidiogames making charecters look the same!!!!!!!! whats wrong with veriety? Must they look imbred?

I honestly feel like ethnisity shouldnt play a factor if its a compelling story what does it matter what the person might look like? shouldnt it be good none the less?

I think my veiws on this are entirely different than what was asked to comment about I dont see why a charecter would be "token" mainly if its a good charecter and compells emotion from me.
I also dont understand why people wouldnt put charecters other than "white" in something it just seems stupid to me to have the same type of everything even if it is something thets considerd the "norm".
To that i'd have to say open your eyes its a big world and "white" isnt the only epidermis colour~time for some change eh?

Spoiler

I should also state here as a child I only wanted "ethnic" barbies because they where prettier to me~ive always hated the same looking type of thing.

Uhm I dont think I gave a valid answer to this but realy what does it matter what a charecter may look like? Its emotion and a good story thet pulls you well me in to it.

Perhaps the "Token/Dont complain im racist" thing should ...just be done with already look at the year man and hop with the times already, colour shouldnt play a factor anymore I believe it simply should be based on the overall abilities of believability and relatability
sorry but I simply dont understand why things like this become issues for others...perhaps people just like to complain over anything

 

[Martel]

I find it quite ironic that, a lot of the time, those token characters turn out to be the ones with the most personality, or are the only ones that aren't intolerable. I usually quite like them.

Its such an obvious ploy to avoid racism that it is almost racist in itself, though. xD

 

[Valvalis]

Its such an obvious ploy to avoid racism that it is almost racist in itself, though. xD

I agree, that's how it seems a lot of times to me Or like, if you have a small group of characters, and each one is a different ethnicity and there's no defined reason for it in the story, it's kind of obvious that they're just trying to look more politically correct. I really don't care what ethnicity the characters are myself, I just think of all the characters based on their personalities anyway and don't really care what they look like or where they're from.

 

[Rydia]

The only one that really bothers me is the token Jewish character. Basically, this is one of the main characters, and the only time we are given any indication that the character is Jewish is during a Christmas special when the character casually mentions that they celebrate Chanuka. The character does not do anything else during the series, unless it's a kids show, where they might have a barmitzva, that would indicate that they are Jewish. they may even be seen eating pork on occasion. I am not annoyed by any character celebrating Christmas because it has become a more secular holiday where everyone celebrates it.

Oh and we never see this character actually celebrate Chanuka or do anything Chanuka related.

I acutally liked it in Rugrats when the characters were mentioned to be Jewish and as well as celebrating Chanuka they also celebrated Passover. And in the All Grown Up series, Tommy attends Hewbrew school.

 

[coffeecup]

Token characters...like Barrett in FFVII. The only black guy (his daughter's not even black :/) whose also huge and muscular, swears all the time, and lives in the ghetto. I wonder where they came up with that idea?

But I don't really mind. Token characters do spice up the game somewhat by introducing a new personality dynamic to the group. I'm sure the producers could've hit the goal by making that character the predominate race (prolly caucasion), but sometimes stereotypes do help make the personality "fit" the character (yeah yeah....perpetuating insulting stereotypes is bad... but just stating the obvious perception). For example, I'm pretty sure Barrett wouldn't have had the same impact if he was just some big white dude.

 

[Rydia]

But I don't really mind. Token characters do spice up the game somewhat by introducing a new personality dynamic to the group. I'm sure the producers could've hit the goal by making that character the predominate race (prolly caucasion), but sometimes stereotypes do help make the personality "fit" the character (yeah yeah....perpetuating insulting stereotypes is bad... but just stating the obvious perception). For example, I'm pretty sure Barrett wouldn't have had the same impact if he was just some big white dude.

The thought of Barret being white is kind of amusing. Probably because I think of him looking like that actor guy from the simpsons.

I know that a lot of people don't like it when the minority is the ideal version of a person. Like a black person or hispanic who is the smartest and kindest in the class. I never understood that because isn't it a good thing? And can't a black or hispanic person in real life be the smartest and kindest person in school?

At my high school there was only one Asian family. One of the girls was in my group of friends. She always reffered to her self as the token asian of our group.

 

[coffeecup]

Naw, Barret needs to be black. For some reason there's a (positive) stigma of being cooler or more hip just by being black. Probably has to do with the fact that most top athletes and good number of hip-hop/r&b/pop (or jazz for back in the day) artists are black. I'm guessing this stigma migrated overseas when Square developers were trying to create a Barret-like character.

At my hs, stereotypes were living strong. Asian kids had riced up civics and had subwoofers in the trunks. Hispanics always spoke spanish and like 3 of 'em would ride in the back of one guys truck. The black guys wore their jeans off their asses and the black girls were louder than all the other girls. The white kids were...well white? Predominatly caucasion, so there was the emo group, the kids who smoked pot, the skaters, etc...

But once I came to college, all stereotypes went down the drain. Or maybe I just entered a new stereotype that isn't discriminatory based upon race but just on the type of kids who go to college. :/ Who knows? Race, race, race...always a touchy subject.

If you want to rile up the thread into a heated debate, you can open up a can of worms by talking about Affirmative Action and how that's like a "token effect" of getting universities more diversified. But I'm just going to keep my mouth shut on this one, because I can see how such a sensitive subject could cause...extreme derailing and massive chaos on all fronts.