Towards the end of the TV Tokenism presentation Mr. Bolos raised the intriguing point that in some regards Barack Obama could be viewed as a different kind of token. I think this argument definitely has some validity. When I think about the presidency of Barack Obama I think about a lack of action. Obama offered his ability to compromise as one of his most valuable characteristics during the 2008 campaign and he has shown this to true beyond perhaps even his own knowledge. Obama has seemed unable to satisfy the Democrats or Republicans, the Liberals or Conservatives, and seemingly the entire public, from the poverty stricken to the wealthy elite. Obama compromising role has meant that he hasn't had the kind of dramatic effect on the direction of our country that his campaign of hope and change promised. In this way Obama has been made a token. He is a black man put in an authority position on to have the main story and the main events be lead by his fairer skinned counterparts.
Max- Interesting post. Although there is some truth to your blog post, I still can't seem to "buy it" 100%. I think there is a big difference between Television Tokenism, and Tokenism of the president of our United States. Although we can draw some similar parallels, I feel it is just impossible to assume that 130 million voters selected Obama subconsiously on the fact that he is a "Token-African-American." It just doesn't seem plausible.
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