What Is Tokenism ?
“The Wolf and the Shepherds” Aesop, Fable 465 (Chambry) A Wolf, peering from afar, saw some shepherds in a hut quietly eating a meal of lamb. He drew nearer and muttered to himself: “If I had done the same, what an uproar they would have raised!” So it is with tokenism. When the powerful invite one of us to the table, carve a small portion, and call it justice, they applaud themselves as enlightened. Were the rest of us to demand the whole table, the very same voices would howl about ingratitude, disruption, and the collapse of civility. Tokenism is not loud. It does not march with dogs or swing batons. It smiles. It says “diversity hire” with pride. It puts one Black face on a board of twelve and calls the photograph proof that the work is finished. It is the velvet glove over the iron fist of systemic exclusion, and it has been refined over centuries into an art form that white institutions wield with devastating precision. Historical Roots: Token...