Golli in the window

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....hbour-black-wife.html

Is it being racist to display a legal toy in one's window?

[pastafreak]

This may be of interest to anyone who think Golliwogs are not seen as racist-or that it is a modern, 'PC' thing-
Taken from the site http://www.golliwogg.co.uk/racism.htm

The claim that Golliwogs are racist is supported by literary depictions by writers such as Enid Blyton. Unlike Florence Upton's, Blyton's Golliwogs were often rude, mischievous, elfin villains. In Blyton's book, "Here Comes Noddy Again", a Golliwog asks the hero for help, then steals his car. Blyton, one of the most prolific European writers, included the Golliwogs in many stories, but she only wrote three books primarily about Golliwogs: The Three Golliwogs (1944), The Proud Golliwog (1951), and The Golliwog Grumbled (1953). Her depictions of Golliwogs are, by contemporary standards, racially insensitive. An excerpt from The Three Golliwogs is illustrative:

Once the three bold Golliwogs, Golly, Woggie, and ***, decided to go for a walk to Bumble-Bee Common. Golly wasn't quite ready so Woggie and *** said they would start off without him, and Golly would catch them up as soon as he could. So off went Woggie and ***, arm-in-arm, singing merrily their favourite song - which, as you may guess, was Ten Little *** Boys.

Ten Little *** is the name of a children's poem, sometimes set to music, which celebrates the deaths of ten Black children, one-by-one. The Three Golliwogs was reprinted as recently as 1968, and it still contained the above passage. Ten Little *** was also the name of a 1939 Agatha Christie novel, whose cover showed a Golliwog lynched, hanging from a noose.

[pastafreak]

The starred out word is ni**ers

[DaisyNonna]

What was I supposed to say? Black? Coloured? Non-white? Mixed race? Have no idea what the current politically correct term is.

[DaisyNonna]

Trim. Consider yourself squashed.

[DaisyNonna]

Have never understood why people are not categorised as non-black.

[DaisyNonna]

Yes

[Ann]

How sad that Gollies are now seen as a sign of racism. I had one and loved him to death - do the PC brigade not realised that they were actually LOVED? I was thrilled recently to see a whole display of them in an independent garden centre near where I live - I thought O Good for you - well done for sticking up for common sense!! I actually picked one up and cuddled him!! Ah memories ..

[Ann]

Meant to say though, this person has done it to provoke and for no other reason. Can't imagine why black people think they are racist though, we have white dolls don't we? Why do they take offence at them - Its not as if they are ugly........

[jno]

do you think this one's being loved? Or is it being used as a racist insult?

[ummmm]

Have you read pasta's link/post.

Golly, Woggie and N!gger.....long after these terms were considered racist.

[pastafreak]

if you read the link anne-you'd see that these dolls were used in a less than complimentary way 80-90 or more years ago. And it's not about how you-or I -as a white person sees it...it's about how blacks see it. It's not a neutral image of Blacks...and certainly not like a sweet white baby doll...they are not on the same level.

[DrFilth]

>> 'I picked him up from the table in my studio, and without intention of naming him, without the idea of a name passing through my mind, I called him 'Golliwogg'.'

It was a completely invented name and one that at the time had no negative connotations.

By 1894 the first story, The Adventures Of Two Dutch Dolls And A Golliwogg, was completed and was published the following year.

In this tale, the Golliwogg was initially described as 'a horrid sight, the blackest gnome', but turns out in fact to be good, loveable and brave, with a 'kind face'. <<


strange how some will not print this bit out

>> good, loveable and brave, with a 'kind face'. <<

[ludwig]

It's obviously a deliberate racist insult. That's where they went wrong, bringing race into it.

What they should have done is just put a big sign in the window saying 'My neigbours are ***', or hired a gang of yobs to stand outside the house all night every night shouting (non racist) insults and throwing stones at the house and generally harrassing them and making their life hell. Then there would have been no trouble. They didn't think it through.

[Answerprancer]

"Is it being racist to display a legal toy in one's window?"
If it's a gollywog and it has been strategically placed in a window by a racially intolerant person for the express purpose of taunting a regularly passing black neighbour, then yes it most certainly is and knowing the Daily Bogpaper's tendancy to conveniently leave certain parts out of the story, I bet this is the case here.

[Answerprancer]

Joeluke - that's a feeble comparison IMO: "So if the black woman wanted to insult her white neighbour and she put a white-faced childs soft toy in her window that would be a criminal offence too would it?"

Gollywogs are obviously charactures not just black dolls (which are available incidentally) they represent an era where terms like "n***er" were accepted and segregation was in force

"Exactly" - exactly not.