Golliwogs

[Bazile]

Just saw on Amazon - Golliwog Mugs / condiment pots / books for sale .

I'm a bit suprised - should I be ?

[emmie]

no, i wouldn't be, i haven't had one for years, but then again i am not five years old

[Kiki-frog]

Why are you susprised? Is it because they're non-pc these days? If they're the old Robertsons (or was it Robinsons) gollies, they're quite collectable I believe. I've seen them on the Antiques Roadshow

[Ann]

Good - they are obviously not falling into the PC brigade trap. As a child, I loved my golliwog toy and collected the Robertsons golly badges and had an Enid Blyton book about them. Golliwogs are just cuddly and loveable in my mind - nothing else.

[Ann]

Then its so sad - we had a lovely old Bearded Collie dog when I was a child we called him Blackie - would that name be unacceptable these days? People read too much into things and I think its really sad .............

[emmie]

my mother gave many of my toys away, without asking me i might add, throw toys out the pram comes to mind, but i was quite upset for a while. one i believe was my beloved gollie, and my rather ugly looking monkey, but you know kids are like that aren't they? love something no matter what x

[Old_Geezer]

You're allowed to be if you like. I'd not be. Not sure "should" comes into it; you feel how you feel.

[boxtops]

I wouldn't - they are collectibles.

[ichkeria]

Neighbours of a friend of mine living in the US Deep South had a dog called Black Bastard. I'm not kidding. Nothing wrong with Blackie though. In cases like this though it's all down to intention to offend.
Golliwog collections? Why not?

[wildwood]

I agree completely with ichkeria... "it's all down to intention to offend".

DOWN with PC-correctness!!!!!

[FredPuli43]

Curious. When I was a child, *** dolls were quite popular. These were not golliwogs but black versions of conventional white dolls. Black people were unknown in Britain, save for a very few in big port cities, yet these dolls were universal. What message, since we now look for messages, was in that?

And the original golliwog story, The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls, could be read as a lesson in racial tolerance or acceptance. On his first appearance, he is described in terms intended to suggest revulsion in the other characters, but he proves to be a good character in the end.

But the term, reduced to 'wog' has become a racist insult and the image, notwithstanding that the garb was that of black performers in vaudeville,regarded as racially offensive. Patently, that a white Jew, Asa Yolson, should make a fortune by blacking up to sing sentimental songs, as Al Jolson, is as distasteful now as it is ironic; one oppressed minority imitating another; and it should have been so then, but the golliwog should have remained innocent.

[FredPuli43]

Goodness, a word used inoffensively by Martin Luther King in his most famous speech is now asterisked by the site censor. Well ,it rhymes with 'grow'.

[lady-janine]

i'm friends with someone from monserrat and she has golliwog toy from childhood. will not part with it. verry tatty and obviously much loved. said she never associated it with herself just a favourite cuddly toy. we also had nicknames for one another when we heard or sensed racist remarks.

[janbee]

I used to collect the Robertson's jams gollies and I still have a golly sewing kit,(unused). I think it was maybe a free gift if you sent off some labels from the jars. I never had a golly doll as I was never really a Doll loving child. I still hate dolls and find them rather creepy....the way their eyes snap open and shut and some cry and some pee. Yuck ! I find nothing offensive about golliwogs although I can understand why some people do.

[Iluvspikey]

I also had a beloved golli when i was a child, and I had a few four inch high figures from the Robertson's jams, one paying a guitar, one with a ball, i had a couple of metal 'charm's' too they were about an inch long, one was just a golli the other was golli playing guitar.

[EDDIE51]

Remember the case a year or so ago where a woman was taken to court for putting a golliwog toy in her window? The case was thrown out of court eventually but not until £1000s had been spent on it by the council. It was alleged that she did it to insult her neighbour who was of 'non-white' origin.

[chakka35]

I cannot think of a better way of sowing the seed of racism in a child than to tell it that golliwogs and black dolls are somehow nasty.

Last year a shop in our local town had golliwogs in the window and attracted a group of noisy banner-carrying protesters organised by a councillor and given a lot of local press coverage.

A week or so later I noticed that the window display had gone. I asked the proprietor whether he had been intimidated into giving way. His answer was: "Blimey, no. I sold out and I've got a lot more on order."

There is still some sense in the world.