Tokenism

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American HeritageĀ® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
  • n. The policy of making only a perfunctory effort or symbolic gesture toward the accomplishment of a goal, such as racial integration.
  • n. The practice of hiring or appointing a token number of people from underrepresented groups in order to deflect criticism or comply with affirmative action rules: "Tokenism does not change stereotypes of social systems but works to preserve them, since it dulls the revolutionary impulseā€ ( Mary Daly).
  • Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
  • n. A policy of formally complying with efforts to achieve a goal by making small, token gestures; especially to hire a minimal number of ethnically diverse or disadvantaged people
  • Word Usage
    "Among other things, it limits (obviously) SNL's ability to successfully represent public figures, and this tokenism is a perennial problem at SNL, which has six different faces to match to white male public figures, but must force black characters into the oeuvre of a single actor."