Token Black
Encyclopedia : T : TO : TOK : Token Black
| |
| Token Black | |
|---|---|
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair: | Black |
| Age: | 9 |
| Job: | Student |
| Religion: | Catholic |
| First appearance: | "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" |
Token Black is a fictional character on the animated series South Park. He is voiced by Adrien Beard.
Originally known as Token Williams, he is the only African American in the main characters' class. His name comes from the phrase "token minority," typically used to describe non-white persons thrown into small roles in TV shows and movies for the sole purpose of character variety. In an intentional juxtaposition of racial stereotypes, Token and his parents are said to be the wealthiest family in South Park: his father is a lawyer and his mother is a chemist.
Token wears a light purple shirt with a letter "T" in light orange and a pair of dark gray pants. The only other classmate of minority racial origin is Kevin, who is Chinese and rarely speaks.
Appearances
Token's first major role came in episode 401, entitled "Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000," when the FBI considers Cartman's hitting Token with a rock a hate crime.
In the episode "Here Comes the Neighborhood," Token's last name is said to be "Williams," but in episodes "Quest for Ratings" and "Wing," his last name is said to be "Black." The South Park creators may have either forgotten or deliberately changed it, due to Token being the 'token black' child in South Park.
In episode 512, "Here Comes the Neighborhood," Token is being bullied by his classmates because his parents are rich; his dad makes at least US$200,000 per year, they live in a house four times as big as the other houses in South Park and he has lobster in his lunch box. Token tries to blend in by wearing cheap clothes bought at J-Mart (a parody of K-Mart), instead of Armani Exchange, but does not really succeed. Token then writes to a real estate developer so there will be more rich kids in South Park. Eventually Will Smith, Snoop Dogg, Oprah Winfrey, and P. Diddy all come to live in South Park, with their children (who play polo and speak with a British accent). Feeling he doesn't fit in with his poor friends or his new rich friends, Token decides to live with lions, however, he finds them annoying as they laugh at too many jokes that aren't even funny. (The chief of the lions is named Aslan, a reference to the godlike lion figure in The Chronicles of Narnia) He then finds his old friends in the street who ask him to play football. Token winds up finding acceptance with the other boys, though is picked on for being overly sensitive about being picked on for being rich. Mr. Garrison successfully incites the regular 'poor' people in South Park, to start to discriminate and protest against the inflow of rich people (who are all black), by burning large wooden "lowercase t's" (for 'time to leave') in the rich people's yards and scaring them by dressing up as ghosts (in white sheets that look like KKK outfits), since supposedly rich people are afraid of ghosts. Finally all the rich people move away and Mr. Garrison plots to sell all their houses to become rich. When others point out that would make him become what he himself hated, he replies, "Well, yeah, but at least I got rid of all those damn ni---", and is cut off by the credits before he can finish his final word.
In episode 709, "Christian Rock Hard," Token was the bass player for Cartman's Christian rock band, Faith + 1. Token didn't know his family even owned a bass guitar until Cartman told him to go check in his basement, because, "Every black family owns a bass guitar." When told to play the bass guitar Token replies that he doesn't know how. Cartman tells him "You're Black, you can play bass" - Token tries and discovers he plays flawlessly and is clearly irritated at having discovered this. He ends up beating up Cartman at the end of the episode.
In episode 714, "Raisins," he steals Wendy Testaburger from Stan, who flips him off because of it. However, it seems probable that their relationship was not as long-lived as Wendy's relationship with Stan, as they haven't been shown together again (he was also shown with other girls at the party in Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset).
In the episode, "Quest for Ratings," it is revealed that his name is in fact Token Black at this point.
In the episode "Free Willzyx", when the boys go to Sea park at night to rescue willzyx, all of the boys are seen to have on black face paint, but Token is wearing white paint. He has continued to have small but noteworthy roles in recent episodes, such as "Follow that Egg!" and "Good Times with Weapons".
In the episode "Tsst", when Eric Cartman showed a board depicting the steps to kill his suppressive mother, the bottom of the board indicated "Frame Token", reminiscent of the episode "The Jeffersons", where black men were constantly framed by the white police.
Talents
Music
Token can play bass guitar quite well (much to his own annoyance), as seen in the episode "Christian Rock Hard". He also has an excellent singing voice, as seen in the episode "Wing". Oddly enough, he also sang in "Here Comes the Neighborhood", but did not sound nearly as well as he did in "Wing". Cartman relates both his talents to the fact that he is black.
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