To not be sure who is wrong in the Golly dispute?

[Mitmoo]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034203/Grandmother-faces-court-placing-Golliwog-window-dispute-neighbour-black-wife.html

OK it's a DM to flame me but never the less..........

A grandmother has a longrunning dispute over boundary issues, which I know from personal experience can be extremely distressing, even though in my case it was just a part of my small back garden not serious land as in this case.

The grandmother IMO was probably being racist in putting the golly in her window, but it is in her house and no one is being forced to look at it. She says it is a grandchild's toy and was put there only while tidying up. Other neighbour was so offended they photographed it!

But AIBU in thinking the other couple were being ridiculous to go to the police about it and now the original woman (probably in the wrong, don't buy the grandchilds toy story) could be facing two years in jail?

Perhaps there is an argument for granny being a nut in this day and age to buy a golly for a child, while admittedly loved the badges from the jamjars in the 70's.

Ultimately it is a doll, in her house, on her windowsill, she's wrong, she's probably racist but how can this be a good use of our courts, our legal system, this is a neighbour dispute.

How can they prove what was in her mind when she placed the golly in the window sill? AIBU in thinking these families are as bad as each other and are blowing this up out of all proportion, while accepting boundary disputes do get under your skin big time.

It seems to me involving the police was vindictive and a court case over this is unnecessary?

It's the sort of behaviour if I saw it I would say "silly cow" or similar and move on.

Two wrongs and all that. Not defending racist behaviour for a second just seems to me this has been blown out of proportion in making this a court case with possible jail time for having a golly on your windowsill.

Particularly as I am not sure they can prove her intent when putting it there.
We are supposed to be in dire financial straights as a country, how much is this case costing?

OR AIBU?

tether today I have read many threads on its origin, some have agendas to make it seem as if the golly started as racially offensive as have been linked here, others have taken a more balanced perspective showing the very first author to put it into fiction made the character a sympathetic figure. Blyton made it a sinister figure.

But then the same could be said of all races, colours, creeds, sexualities, fiction will have portrayed them as good bad evil indifferent and all the shades inbetween.

My overriding memory of the Golly as a child of the 60's/70's was of a much loved figure who was extremely fondly thought of when to be able to get a badge of a golly was a much loved treat.

It has been hijacked to the point Robertsons could no longer use it to market their jam. Surely if they used it for marketting that shows that most people found the golly to be a loveable character that most children wanted?

I hope no one actually believes that the children of the 60's 70's and beyond wanted their gollies to feel superior, to stick pins in etc. They were loved cherised and wanted.

I accept totally that times have changed, the racists have hijacked what used to be an innocent figure that kids loved to play with but because of them they now can't.

what kind of person says, in essence,

'i know you have patiently explained why this toy's origins are racist, and that many, many people find them offensive, hurtful, and their use even menacing, but tbh i feel that my love of them is worth more than that so nyahhhh'

To me, it seems graceless, selfish, self-absorbed, lacking in any social awareness and

of course

RACIST

Mitmoo, the gollywog was never an innocent figure. If you honestly believe that to be true, there is little hope.

Why on earth would I do it Jacqueline? It would be racist.

Let's sidestep the dressing up issue, as that also answers Mitmoo's odd Andy Pandy point and ask whether you or your DH would be happy to carry a large, prominent gollywog down Electric Avenue on a Saturday afternoon?

Oh and the link used on here only details one of the possible origins for gollie, Mitmoo is correct that one of the other possible origins does come from when servicemen were on a tour of Egypt.

Jacquiline Blacking up I remember seeing a version of Othello, my absolute favourite Shakespeare play with an actor I think it was Laurence Olivier blacked up, as the actor looked so ridiculous, much preferred versions without the blacking up. That play was banned from being taught in schools for a long time because it was considered racist. Then Midsummer Night's Dream could be considered sexist and anti transgender. Shakespeare could be considered sexist as he only had male actors perform his plays during his lifetime. It could go on forever.

We could take offence at fiction for ever.

tether the golliwog was an innocent figure for decades and loved by thousands. You need to take more than one unofficial site as your source.
Children would wear theirs with pride

Just asked DH and he said yes he definately would be fine walking down electric avenue with one, as would I.

Now would you like to name other areas in the country that contain black people and we shall play the yes no game. That is if you can think of anywhere else black people may live?!

Any takers on the Tom and Jerry question?

What about the use of the name Jemima? If we have another daughter we are going to use this name. I suspect you will all also find this horribly racist what with it's links to the slavery?

Or is it just the golly you have issues with and everything else is fine?

chibi you are missing the point of context of the time, in the 60's 70's they were much loved and cherished. I haven't seen one post from a white person who says they'd buy one now on this thread. Ironically I have read posts from coloured people who have them and don't see anything wrong with that.

I loved them in the 60's 70's collected them and had other dolls that were black that I loved just the same as my white dolls.

Freak all to do with being RACIST quite the opposite in fact.

Hahaha, yes, of course- I only just read one link and decided that the golliwog is racist. Brilliant

"I haven't seen one post from a white person who says they'd buy one now on this thread. Ironically I have read posts from coloured[sic] people who have them and don't see anything wrong with that."

Well, that's that settled

"Just asked DH and he said yes he definately[sic] would be fine walking down electric avenue with one, as would I."

Great! When? I need to be there.

I don't watch Tom and Jerry because it's a bit shit. Oh, and yes, that character is racist.

I think Jemima's name will pale into insignificance if she's carrying a golliwog TBH.

"I loved them in the 60's 70's collected them and had other dolls that were black that I loved just the same as my white dolls.

Freak all to do with being RACIST quite the opposite in fact."

In the 60s and 70s, the Black and White Minstrel show was on air. People laughed and enjoyed it. Because they loved seeing black people on the TV, right? Hey.... why is that show not on air any more, anyway?

I don't see that it's racist at all. How does a 'golly' relate to a black person? It's a toy, a doll, like a teddy bear... should hirsute men and women complain about those? What about Babapapa... blobs of all colours of the rainbow there... maybe we should all complain about those. I'm a mix of pink and white so that's two for me to whinge about.

I think we've lost the plot as a nation, we've forgotten what being racist actually is but we're going for it on the moronic, never missing a beat there.

I think I've slipped into a parallel universe

I would pay good money to see someone walk around here dressed as a Golli*

It would be just like watching the recent Athletic World Championship,as the person would have to set a running pace not dissimilar from Usain Bolt's

tether do you understand that seeing racism where there is none actually it a part of the problem, not a part of the solution?

Blinkered thinking helps no one.

Mitmoo...Just because you cant see it [or just dont get it] doesnt mean it's not there.

"tether do you understand that seeing racism where there is none actually it a part of the problem, not a part of the solution?

Blinkered thinking helps no one."

Oh Mitmoo. You can do better than meaningless rhetoric. Which problem exactly is it that you're referring to? And what is this mystery 'solution' which I am hindering?

Mitmoo, do you understand why the golliwog is offensive?

"Blinkered thinking"

Arf.

yes, preventing people from basking in gollywog love is deffo part of the problem oh yes

parp

I had a golly as a child, it was one of my dad's toys handed down to me, and i didn't think it was racist until the 90's when PC people started going crazy about them. I have black friends and am not racist and it never crossed my minds that a black doll would be "racist".

However, when i went to Australia a couple of years ago (where they don't buy into PC bollocks like we do) i found myself slightly shocked that there were shops selling golly toys.

I then reproached myself for having been brainwashed by ludicrous PC nutters.

Gollys are fine. People love taking offence at nothing, often on behalf of other people, and they need to get a life.

YY Australia. A fine example of racial harmony

Maybe the solution to racism is more racism, like when you multiply two negative numbers to get a positive one

Amber I understand fully that racists have hijacked it in the 70's to bastardise the term to make it a figure of hate "wogs* that doesn't mean that I fail to see the context throughout the period of the existence of gollies. The original author who didn't patent the word golly had them as sympathetic figures, later to be claimed by Blyton as unsympathetic characters. In later decades the term has been changed to "golly dollies" to remove the offensive term.

The term "wogs" did not originate as offensive, it started as meaning working for government services and nothing to do with how it was interpreted decades later.

That is to lose sight of the fact that before the terms was hijacked by racists the figures were highly collectable and so loved they were able to market jams and be sold for generous sums.

It is all about context.

Good point, chibi. Maybe that's the solution.

Perhaps the next solution.

Or the last solution.

Or the final.... Hang on.

hyde I also come from an ex colony, the first to gain independence as a matter of fact.

Frankly I think your husband would do well to not laugh at a symbol of a system that led to the horrifically carried out breakdown of the African person, his way of life and his existence.

Sorry but I think him very ignorant and I would never allow my child to carry a doll that represented the same system that has made his/ her countrymen victims for generations of some of the worst human atrocities.

Ahh the fantasy of the happy "slave".

I don't like Gollywogs, racist, horrible sinister things.

Who TF are they meant to represent?

I understand not everyone who has one may see Golliwogs as racist or be racist.

So Mitmoo, do you see the Black and White Minstrel show as a much-loved comedy show representing black people? Any idea why it's not shown any more? After all, it was very popular in the 60s and 70s...