tokenism

From token + -ism.

tokenism (countable and uncountable, plural tokenisms)

1. 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.
   • 2004 April 27, Matthew Tempest, quoting Norman Baker, “Green groups dismiss climate change 'tokenism'”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 18 January 2022:

     We know the prime minister regards environmental matters as mere tokenism. But we at least expected his ritual once-a-year speech on the issue.

   • 2020 July 9, Mark Brown, quoting Anish Kapoor, “Anish Kapoor says art gallery 'tokenism' with diversity must end”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 14 February 2024:

     Contemporary museums, they need to stop tokenism. Collect an Iranian artist here, a South African artist there or whatever. They need to really begin to try to properly take on … what is contemporary culture today?

   • 2023 February 2, Patrick Noack, “Humans are terrible at planning for the future: Here's how we can change that”, in CNN‎^[3], archived from the original on 3 March 2023:

     This has to be meaningful contribution and participation – tokenism will only come to bite us in the future.

• tokenise
• tokenist
• tokenistic

• tokenism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• kenotism