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Token Minority: Difference between revisions
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=== Anime and Manga ===
* 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.
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* 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: The Original Series|the original series]], the creators had to fight [[Executive Meddling]] to get two 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.
** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|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 a 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
* In ''[[The Class (TV series)|The Class]]'' Kyle's boyfriend Aaron is introduced as a secondary character to counteract the [[Monochrome Casting]].
* Averted in [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|the original ''
* 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.
** Sgt. Kinchloe (played by Ivan Dixon) was more than the radio expert - he was second-in-command. He also had at least three episodes showcasing him. And his role was prominent enough that the practice of cutting out the black characters for the "Southern Version" (practiced up to the late
** 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.)
** In the early 90s, the show for a change had multiple blacks in the cast. However, when ''SNL'' turned over most of its cast in 1995, they kept Tim Meadows on primarily to avoid giving the impression that the show was trying to rid itself of all its black performers.
** For the past few years{{when}} it's been just Kenan Thompson.
** This current{{when}} season (Season 35?) introduces Jay Pharoah alongside Kenan. As a matter of fact, he's beginning to take some precedence over Kenan, especially to play the skinnier, more handsome African-American celebrities such as Denzel Washington. But it helps that his impressions are spot-on for nearly anyone. However there's also the non-black but non-white characters, like Nasim Pedrad, who is Iranian, or Fred Armisen who is part German, Japanese and Venezuelan. He is both the second Asian and second Hispanic cast member of SNL.
* 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.
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* ''[[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
* The U.S. black music program ''[[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.
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===
* In ''[[Paperinik New Adventures]]'', Angus is clearly meant to be a [[Funny Animal]] kiwi bird, the only one in Duckburg. He is not only explicitly said to be from New Zealand but also a Maori.
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