token candidate

Status
Not open for further replies.

anhnha

Senior Member
Joined
May 5, 2012
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Vietnamese
Home Country
Vietnam
Current Location
Vietnam
Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbott has denied that she is a token candidate.

What does "token candidate" mean?
Is it mean that the candidate is not very important.
 

Gillnetter

Key Member
Joined
Jan 16, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
The candidate may or may not be important. The phrase means that the person is the only one, or a few of, a certain group. For example, it may be that Abbott is the only woman candidate or that Abbott is the only candidate from a certain religious persuasion.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
In Diane Abbot's case, there are two obvious possibilities - she is black and female. Those are two groups which have in the past suffered discrimination and, more recently, have been the subject of positive discrimination. However, when "token" is used, it's in a negative or derogatory sense.

A political party may be criticised for only choosing white candidates to stand in a local election. Political parties don't like criticism so sometimes they will add an extra candidate who is of an ethnic minority, in order to placate those criticising them. When a person has been included simply because they are a particular gender, religion, sexual orientation or colour, rather than on merit, then they are frequently considered to be the "token" ... (woman, Hindu, homosexual, black person etc etc).

Of course, generally it is not the case that they have been selected as the token anything, but selected on merit. However, an accusation of tokenism is frequently thrown at companies, political parties, schools, and many more.
 

SoothingDave

VIP Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
A politician may be offered up by a party as "token opposition" when they do not expect to have any chance to win the election.

But I agree that the "token woman" or "token black" is the meaning meant here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top