Tokenism vs Representation, and Why You May Not Want Either!

“Now I've been the token., so I can wholeheartedly speak from experience of how being the one representative made me feel both a kind of responsibility, and a specialness, but also a visibility that perpetuated my marginalisation. That visibility, that responsibility and visibility also meant that it was impossible to genuinely include me, because I was never just like everybody else, I was always just the voice over there, that might have a really different way of viewing things. And so although I applaud any organisation for wanting to have people in the organisation, who come from a whole range of different backgrounds, experiences, hold a whole range of identities,. I think that without the proper procedures, processes and culture in place, you are at risk of making things worse.” 

In this solo episode, Angie explores the dangers of tokenism, both to the individual and to organisations. She invites you to ask why you want representation, and to consider how to ensure that true representation avoids tokenism.

Connect with Angie on her website - www.angelabrowne.co.uk

A full transcript of this episode can be found at https://being-luminary.simplecast.com/episodes/tokenism-vs-representation-and-why-you-may-not-want-either

This podcast was written and presented by Angie Browne. Original music was by Martin Austwick. The series is edited and produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media.