tokenistically

English

Etymology

tokenistic +‎ -ally

Adverb

tokenistically (comparative more tokenistically, superlative most tokenistically)

1. In a tokenistic way, in a manner that exhibits tokenism.
   • 1974, Anna Nieto-Gómez, “La Femenista,” cited in Alfredo Mirandé and Evangelina Enríquez, La Chicana: The Mexican-American Woman, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981, Chapter 5, p. 140,^[1]

     More often than not, indigenous women of the Americas are either ignored or tokenistically offered a sentence or two.

   • 1992, Jagdish Gundara and Crispin Jones, “Nation States, Diversity and Interculturalism: Issues for British Education” in Kogila A. Moodley (ed.), Beyond Multicultural Education: International Perspectives, Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, pp. 26-27,^[2]

     […] within metropolitan democratic societies like Britain, peripheral groups, however defined, seldom have access to significant institutions in a manner sufficient to bring about a reallocation of power and resources. Such groups consequently remain unrepresented, under represented or tokenistically represented in the dominant social institutions.

   • 2019, Stephen Lepitak, quoted in “Why culture’s ‘queerbaiting’ leaves me cold” by Amelia Abraham, The Guardian, 29 June, 2019,^[3]

     Brands are always looking for ways to engage new audiences in order to grow revenue. That’s marketing and that’s business. However when they decide to get on board ‘a purpose’ and align with an aspect of society, they must be careful not to do it tokenistically. There has to be a reason for them to align that makes sense, otherwise they risk alienating people as it will ring false.