Tokenism

🗓️ Idiom: Tokenism(n)

💬 Meaning

• When a company or group makes a small public effort to look responsible or caring.
• It shows a symbolic action that is not backed by real change or serious commitment.

🧠 Example Sentences

• The company added a green logo, but without real action, it felt like tokenism.
• Some businesses make a donation once a year as tokenism, but they do not engage with the community long-term.
• Tokenism can happen when an organisation tries to look fair, but does not support real change in its policies.

🏛️ Origin

“Tokenism” comes from the word “token,” meaning a symbol or small sign. It began to be used in the mid-1900s to criticise organisations that made small, public actions to appear fair, caring, or responsible, without real effort behind them.

📝 Practice Exercises

1. Fill in the blank:
Adding a few eco-words to a product without changing how it is made may be seen as ________.

2. Multiple choice:
What does “tokenism” mean?
a) Making deep and lasting changes
b) Doing nothing at all
c) Making a small or symbolic effort to appear responsible

3. Rewrite the sentence:
“The company was guilty of trying to look caring without any real action.”

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