Racist relative - I don't understand it

[Cattenberg]

A relative of mine is half Australian and has spent much of his life in NSW. He's nearly 60 now. He and his wife have always been kind, hospitable and generous towards me. My relative was a volunteer member of a lifeboat crew until recently and once earned a bravery award for carrying out a particularly difficult and dangerous rescue.

However, he is somewhat racist. He uses terms for other races which would be unacceptable in the UK. Usually, he uses these in a neutral way (if that's possible), but recently, he was the victim of theft while on holiday and commented, "bloody [ethnic slur in plural]". I was a bit shocked and very disappointed. It was the same slur that once caused controversy on an episode of Top Gear. I've never heard his wife say anything racist, but she recently posted a photo of her hobby room and there was a pair of gollywogs on a shelf😞

Having read The Slap, which contains various ethnic slurs and not just in the dialogue, I'm wondering if this is partly a cultural difference. Not that that would make it OK, but it might go some way to explaining it.

My comment was long, did you read it all? I said young people know gollywogs are racist.

I am noticing some older people become fixed in opinions they have held for 30+ years now matter what solid new evidence you present them to the contrary and being late 40s myself I am noticing it start to happen to my peers, many who I would have previously viewed as progressive. It may not be cognitive decline but it's definitely something.

I had a Holly in my house as a child and I thought nothing of it, it was just a toy, I know know and would not have one in my home. Some other older people that are now stuck with fixed opinions will not believe a golly is racist. Even through the early 2000s many people weren't aware of the history and golly, and golly print fabric was common at craft markets where people made kitch items.

The artwork you refer to of First Nations Australians is not related related to Gollywogs. First Nations Australians did not get to vote till 1967 and were very much treated as 'other' by British decendant white Australians and this is particularly evident in mid century artwork. You can unfortunately still find some of this stuff in vintage markets, like you can find out of date offensive stuff in vintage markets globally. I don't see anything produced like this new today.

Gollywogs come from minstrels and 'black face' entertainment era which has nothing to do with first nations Australians and No one in Australia thinks gollywogs are a representation of First Nations Australians. First Nations and most young Australians do find them offensive because they are racist.

Key events when many people learned the history of gollies in Australia was when Harry Connick Junior was a guest on an Australian TV show Hey Hey It's Saturday, there was a silly entertainment section called 'red faces'. Harry was a judge and one group of performers were in black face. Harry was extremely offended but no-one hosting the show could understand why. People did not understand black face and the history of it.

Then in 2018 a tourist complained about seeing gollies in a shop and it blew up in the media, and I think a lot of people learned then as it was still not common knowledge, and since then gollies have seen a much bigger decline.