Tropes and Cliches

Tokenism: Five Token Band

Oh you already know which shows I'm going to rag on. Also this may or may not toe the line of racism/ stereotyping and I would like to apologize ahead of time. 

I already covered ( sort of ) tokenism. So what does this have to do with the Five Man Band....Have any of you seen Captain Planet? The five main characters are: A white North American guy from New York, a kid from South America that is part of the Native People that Live in the Rain Forest, a guy from Africa( not specific) whose people live about a two day trip from a town, a girl from Asia (again, not specfic really) and a Eastern European ( Russian, she's Russian).  So what is the Five Token Band?
A Five-Token Band consists of characters from very obviously different backgrounds and ethnic groups, they're assembled disparately,they all happen to live in the same area, regardless of how diverse it should be. Depending on the show how it diversified will vary. Like with school-centered shows and media, the "different backgrounds" may also include different social groups, hobbies, or cliques (ex. nerds, artists, jocks). Typically, this is designed for one of two purposes:
1)To bring diversity to a cast for the sake of mass market appeal, visual distinction, complaining Media Watchdogs, to represent an area, field or organisation that genuinely is just that diverse, or just because. ( this was a thing before it was a thing)
2)To deliver "An Aesop" about accepting others' differences. This version was commonly used in The '90s when diversity was considered a big deal (especially following the 1992 Los Angeles riots).
So what does this have to do with anything? Let's go back to Capitan Planet. Each of them were kids from their respective continent, with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and ages. Ma-ti looked be 12ish while Kwame and Wheeler(yes) looked to be the oldest, possibly early 20s.
So the Five Token Band is made up of the : White guy, Black best friend, at least two Girls, that one Latino or Hispanic( pick one, as they are different. Like Hispanics are from Spanish speaking countries so it includes Spain, but excludes Brazil, while Latin refers to those from Latin American and some parts of the Carribean, but excludes Spain), someone who is a religious minority( bonus points if they're Jewish), someone who is handicapped in someway( again bonus points if they're in a wheelchair),someone who's LGBTQ+,and the team pet.
Now there are characters that will fill out more than one of these. Like they're black, gay, and Muslim or Latino and has autism, so on and so forth. And there are a lot of shows, movies, and other media that created these. Let's do a role call.
The X-men fits this to the t. This is mostly due to mutants come from all walks of life. And I mean to the t. Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler is German, Catholic and looks like a demon, Storms from Africa but no one can agree where, Jubilee is Chinese-American, a single mother, and suffers from a learning disability, both Warpaths were Native American, etc.

In. Atlantis: The Lost Empire: So we have the French geologist, the Italian demolitions expert, the Latina( possibly Afro-Latina it's hard to tell) mechanic, the half-black/half-Native American doctor — and the white American guy who is also near-sighted though — does that count? I think it counts.
And it doesn't even have to be all humans.

The Lord of the Rings has this with the Fellowship: four Hobbits, two Men, an Elf, and a Dwarf all to represent the Free People of Middle-earth. Leading them? A Wizard originally from the West.
We're not even going to touch on Rick Riordan's works because that roster is way to long to even start. I'm pretty sure there's like five people named that was part of the LGBTQ+ community, all riddled with ADHD, dyslexia, and descendants of gods.
In Teen Titans ( assuming he's Dick Grayson) a Romani human, a half demon girl, a cyborg, an orange alien, and I'm not sure about Beast Boy... but he's green and turn into animals.
Now you can write a Five Token Band without it being forced. Note that in real life, people often do have extremely diverse backgrounds. There really are Jewish Black Brits, half-Polish half-Palestinian Polish-speaking Americans,or even lesbian, Malaysian-born Chinese Australians. But don't go overboard because it may seem a bit stereotypical in some cases, because the last thing you need. The world is a diverse place, and the story you create should represent that, no matter the size. Some worlds are a reflection of where they grew up. And  you write these characters, please research and don't just google something, actually ask around about traditions, family life, what it was like growing up, etc.  The Five Token Band ( as played out as it is) doesn't have to be so cut and paste as how you write your characters can reflect many people in the world.