A token fail is when an attempt at inclusive representation backfires so obviously it becomes its own cringe. The casting, hire, or storyline was clearly meant to show diversity but it's so shallow, so poorly executed, or so clearly performative that it draws more attention to the problem it was supposed to fix. Think: one line of dialogue about a character's culture, delivered once, never mentioned again. Token fail is the social autopsy people perform when the optics move backfires in real time.
They cast a Deaf actress and then dubbed over all her scenes — absolute token fail.
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