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tokenismthe practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality

Part of speech: NOUN

Definition: the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality

Pronunciation (IPA): /ˈtoʊkəˌnɪzəm/

Example Sentences

  • Having just one woman on a board of twelve men might be seen as tokenism.
  • The movie's single diverse character felt like tokenism rather than genuine representation.
  • My boss hired me for 'diversity' but gave me no real responsibilities - classic tokenism!

tokenism

NOUN

[/ˈtoʊkəˌnɪzəm/]

the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality

the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality
💡 Concept

the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality

Their mechanism faces criticism - tokenism exposed!
🎵 Rhyme

Their mechanism faces criticism - tokenism exposed!

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🎤Pronunciation

🇺🇸 US/ˈtoʊkəˌnɪzəm/
🇬🇧 UK/ˈtəʊkənɪzəm/

🌳Etymology

Roottoken
Suffix--ism

🎵Rhyme

mechanismorganismcriticism
mechanism
organism
criticism

🔗Collocations

mere tokenism
tokenism in hiring
accused of tokenism
avoid tokenism
tokenism policies
tokenism approach

📝Examples

Having just one woman on a board of twelve men might be seen as tokenism.

The movie's single diverse character felt like tokenism rather than genuine representation.

😄 Fun example

My boss hired me for 'diversity' but gave me no real responsibilities - classic tokenism!

😄 Fun example

The restaurant added one vegan dish and called it inclusivity - pure tokenism.

📚Related Words

Synonyms

superficialitysymbolismlip servicewindow dressing

Antonyms

genuine inclusionauthentic diversitymeaningful representation

Related

discriminationdiversityinclusionrepresentationequality

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