Golliwogs and morons

[sp1814]

Quick question based on a previous post.

I understand that there are MANY people who have childhood toys in the shape of golliwogs - and tees people don't have a racist bone in their body. They're simply a toy right?

Now some people have said that golliwogs have become the subject of a PC-ban.

But to those people, I would like to ask this - if you were invited to a child's birthday party, and the kid was black. Would you buy them a golliwog as a present, or would you think, "Hang on...this could be seriously misconstrued".

So - would you buy a golly for a black child?

[ummmm]

Nope. I would never buy for a black child something that used to named n1gger (one of them anyway)

[ummmm]

*be

[boxtops]

I have known black people who are fed up with the golly thing, they know the spirit in which they were intended, I had a black dolly when I was little.

I would need to know the child well, I think, before I would venture into that area. In principle though, I don't see why not.

[TWR]

It is not the black people that is causing problems in this country, it's the P.C. idiots that causing the trouble & some are jumping on the band wagon.

[emmie]

no, I don't know any shop that sells them now.

[EvianBaby]

I don't know any child that would want a golli for a present regardless of colour. The kids I know would rather just have the cash.

[sg]

I had a golliwog as a child and loved it as much as anyone else did in those days.
A few years ago I was mooching around a second hand bric-a-brac shop and when I said to the shopkeeper I was looking for a gift, she produced a golliwog. I quickly declined and she said "Why, are you racist?" I think she was inferring that if I was acknowledging that a simple cloth toy was in some way to be differentiated against because it represented a black person then it must be that I have some innate prejudice. Interesting, but pretty silly viewpoint.

[sp1814]

sg

Do you know what the origins of the toy was?

[maggiebee]

Was out for the day today and stopped in Arbroath for a coffee. Shop sells sweets, toys, souvenires etc. as well as having a lovely coffee shop. Out front was a whole basket of gollies in all sizes - soft toys as well as badges. Seems they sell really well.

[hc4361]

I love all the gollies in my house. The jam figurines, badges, felted toys and knitted toys.

[emmie]

obviously not just one version. I had one as a child, loved it, as i did the teddy bear, and all the other dolls.

http://blogs.telegrap..._have_a_godly_origin/

[modeller]

It's going back quite a bit I know, but the black and white minstrel shows were great. No one thought of them as being derogative in any way . They were just great entertainment but the PC brigade had them banned. As they did in the states when a re-run of the Jolson Story was proposed.

I probably wouldn't buy a Golli for any child now, purely because some people would take it the wrong way.
My grand daughters have dolls which are definately a shade of brown . I wonder if they have a certificate of PC.

[sp1814]

Just thinking aloud here...is there an equivalently contentious doll which is offensive to White people? You could argue that with it's depiction of an unattainable female form, Barbie is quite offensive, but surely that would only be to women?

And GI Joe would be offensive to pacifists I suppose - but what IS the White equivalent to the gollywog?

What would the Jamaican woman in the recent story have had to put in her living room window to 'even the score'?

[starone]

How about those awful cabbage dolls?

[sp1814]

Modeller

Great modern day myth that the PC brigade shut down the Black & White Minstrel Show,

It was taken off the air, because from the height of it's popularity, when it used to draw about 15 million viewers, by the time it ended, it was struggling to attain 5-6 million viewers. The show had run it's course. Saturday night is key to BBC and ITV, and they simply couldn't sustain a programme which wasn't pulling in viewers.

Imagine there was no such thing as 'PC' - do you really think that blacked up singers and dancers would have a hope in hell competing against Harry Hill, The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent?

This is why 'The Good Old Days' and the 'Wheeltappers and Shunters Club' are no longer on air.

[sara3]

I wouldn't buy one for myself or anyone else. like it or not, they've come to symbolise racism.

there's no way I would risk anyone feeling uncomfortable from my actions.

[sp1814]

Starbuckone


Nope - I don't think that would have the same cultural significant either - unless the children in the White family were particularly ugly.

[emmie]

modeller, when you watch old footage of the black and white minstrel show its so dull, middle of the road, i know we liked them then, well some did, but i mean you couldn't put it on now, we'd all be asleep.

[hc4361]

How anybody can think that a golly is a representative of a person I do not know.
No more than TellyTubbies, Moomins, Clangers, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Bill and Ben, Andy Pandy and Looby Lou, nor Ant and Dec.