According to the Urban Dictionary, a Token Black Guy is "Any fictional character of African-American descent that has been inconsequently inserted into the plot of a movie or TV show for the express purposes of creating an image of commercially safe, politically correct, and insipid racial harmony." To some, representation in any arena, whether it's the White House, the Marvel Universe, the NHL, ESPN, or FSI, is viewed as progress. While others see "Tokeinism" as nothing more than a "clean-cut" marketing ploy and/or a means to exploit an under-represented community.
On a recent episode of It Is What It Is, Cam'ron and Ma$e reacted to Skip Bayless' recent revelation that Lil Wayne and Young Money would be heavily involved in the Undisputed reboot this August, following Shannon Sharpe's departure last month. During the segment, Ma$e joked that the idea of Skip implementing Lil Wayne into the fold reminded him of people who he considers to be "Token Black Guys," such as Michael Strahan, Sammy Davis Jr., O.J. Simpson. From there, he said that Skip "Always tries to bring somebody [that] he thinks will bring the culture to him, where he can pay them less and benefit off the culture. It's an old tactic. I don't think anybody should go on there, I want to see him [co-host] with Todd McShay."
Elsewhere in the episode, Cam'ron and Ma$e circled back around to the topic. This time around, Ma$e removed Michael Strahan from the "Token Black Guy" list. When Treasure "Stat Baby" Wilson read Cam'ron and Ma$e the list of on-air employees that ESPN recently laid off, Cam'ron replied by asking if Jay Williams kept his job. "Stat Baby" informed him that Jay's job was safe, prompting Cam'ron to ask Ma$e if he considered JWill to be a "Token Black Guy." Ma$e reacted by calling JWill "Intelligent" with a smirk on his face.
Scroll up and skip ahead to the 9:55 mark to listen to Ma$e's list. After that, skip ahead to the 22:00 mark to hear Ma$e dive deeper into his thoughts about Michael Stahan and Jay Williams.
Source: YouTube
