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Tokenism Study

Decent Essays

This was a presentation done by professor Bateza focusing on Tokenism. Tokenism is the practice or policy of admitting a small number of members of different races to give the impression they’re genuinely putting in effort. You then proceed to show a few funny images that depict people of color photoshopped in a picture or a staged photo with all white people and one person of color. Next, you listed a few people who have studied a vast amount in tokenism studies and taken action. My favorite part was when you brought up Kanter’s three groups theory. Performance pressure, is often thought as to be always under the microscope. Next, Social isolation is where a few people are mixed with a vast majority of white people. Last, role entrapment is …show more content…

Both of these statements stunned me and made me question the systematic world of business. Another important note I had was the Malcolm X quote which stated, “Tokenism only benefits the few, not the masses. Distancing oneself from the community they exclude” (Malcolm X). Another important part was tokenism and diversity efforts. These are the four I picked up on. First, racists are the problem and we tend to make them out to have a particular face. Second, diversity as a debt. Third, Racism as paranoia. Fourth, minorities have an advantage. Seeing these things from time to time in my every day. I think the four are great because they are noticeable to people, affect themselves, and have well researched theories. You are my teacher and you were the speaker, so there were many similarities. One part in particular was when you mentioned the MTV video of colored people and saying microaggressions towards white people to show them what they’re experiencing. The clip was funny and it did prove some valuable points. Your mentioning of it fit in nicely with the conversation. Something I found intriguing were the students responses to if they feel tokened at St. Olaf. In their responses, many felt tokened. I had not put that much thought on if Tokenism exists at St. Olaf so I had never thought about it from that

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