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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be shocked with what I found in mothercare

325 replies

Lehman · 28/04/2012 14:38

Im from the uk but have recently moved to Brisbane. I was pleased to find they have mothercare over here but shocked to find they are selling gollie dolls. I thought they stopped doing these years ago.

OP posts:
Beveridge · 28/04/2012 23:16

I teach the Free At Last topic from the Scottish exam syllabus. If anyone gave my DD or DS a golly, I absolutely could not keep it in the house. Once you know the background behind it, it is very difficult to view it as 'just' a toy.

tethersend · 28/04/2012 23:20

"If golliwogs are racist, does that mean that people who own them or sell them are racist?"

That would depend very much on whether they continue to own them or sell them once it was pointed out how racist and offensive they are. Some people might not care. They then could be perceived as racist.

FreudianSlipper · 28/04/2012 23:25

if we go down along the lines it is only racist if meant with intent should that mean people do not have the right to be upset, hurt, angry by what has been said to them

what about all those hilarious Hmm jokes

tamitots · 28/04/2012 23:25

I had a golly - but I was six yo. Now it offends people but 30 years ago I loved mine. It sat on my bed along with my baby doll and tiny tears and they all played together, because I was a child and because my parents aren't racist I never heard the word used in any offensive way at all.

Now - I doub't it they would now buy the jam let alone save the tokens and send for one but 30 years have changed at lot of things.

It make me sad to read all these posts that say that people are racist because they had one, wanted one. Mine was a very much loved part of my childhood and I refuse to allow anyone to make me feel bad about owning one 30 years ago.

JennyPiccolo · 28/04/2012 23:31

I think they are being sold because the kids who would receive one now wouldn't perceive it as racist, really. If you didn't know what a golly was originally, then you'd probably just think it was a funny looking doll. They look eff all like any sort of human being.

I don't like them myself though, don't really think mother care should be selling them.

tethersend · 28/04/2012 23:33

"all these posts that say that people are racist because they had one, wanted one"

I don't think anybody has said that, tamitots.

tamitots · 28/04/2012 23:39

"Golliwogs are racist. I remain baffled that anybody thinks that they're not"

"Well five, if they think that golliwogs aren't racist, they are wrong."

These would be your words tethersend copied from two of your posts on hear.

tamitots · 28/04/2012 23:39

here (sorry)

tethersend · 28/04/2012 23:42

Yes tamitots, they are.

Golliwogs are racist.

Show me where I said "people are racist because they had one, wanted one"

tamitots · 28/04/2012 23:46

"in reality anyone who thinks golliewogs are a good thing are lower than a dog turd"

Confused
tamitots · 28/04/2012 23:48

And I didn't say you I just pointed out some posts of yours that have your views of gollys on them.

EVERYONE is entitled to a point of view.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 28/04/2012 23:52

Golliwogs are racist and if you like them you are racist. Your nan might not have been racist when she liked them years ago, but that was the olden days. Only twats like golliwogs.

tethersend · 28/04/2012 23:53

Golliwogs are racist. Whilst I don't agree with the dog-turd reference, what you've quoted does not say "people are racist because they had one, wanted one". It says that anyone who thinks golliwogs are a good thing invites others to judge them as racist, which is true.

Do you think that they are a good thing and not racist? That is what matters, nobody is attacking a child from 30 years ago.

tamitots · 29/04/2012 00:24

I am not racist, but I am it would appear a Twat Smile

I do not understand anyone who is a racist and I would never be around anyone that is. I may have come across as a bit strong but it really does make me sad that a child's toy has been made into a symbol of such bad feeling.

I guess I would love to live in a world where everyone could just get along - I can dream.

tethersend · 29/04/2012 00:40

No, what's sad is that a symbol of such hatred has been made into a child's toy.

Read the history of the golliwog I linked to earlier.

If liking golliwogs is more important to you than potentially being seen as racist, then that's the choice you make. Don't be surprised when people judge you.

mirry2 · 29/04/2012 00:58

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

tethersend · 29/04/2012 01:06

Oh dear.

Noqontrol · 29/04/2012 01:08

No, tethersend doesn't need to get a life mirry, he / she has a bloody good point.

Coralanne · 29/04/2012 01:14

I have never owned or purchased a Golliwog but I don't understand the idea that you are racist because you own or owned one.

Yes the history behind them is horrific but so is the history behind well known companies who use slave labour to make their very expensive clothes and shoes. Very small children labouring away for hours and hours and getting paid some paltry amounts when they should be in school and living the life of a child.

This is in the here and now and these small children cannot defend themselves.

tethersend · 29/04/2012 01:19

"I don't understand the idea that you are racist because you own or owned one."

Nobody has said that. If you choose to own one and ignore what it signifies, then you must be prepared for people to judge you for that.

Not one person has accused any small child either now or at any point in history of being racist; it's the golliwog which is racist.

It has nothing to do with child labour. I'm not really sure why you mention it.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Or perhaps to get a life, I can't decide Wink

Krumbum · 29/04/2012 01:19

I'm so shocked that so many of you think this ok! It is not ok to make caricatures of black stereotypes and give them to children to play with. These hark back to slavery and minstrels, you have to look at the context of this. Golly wog dolls are part of the oppression of black people and not something a people from a modern, forward thinking county should find ok. It is not just a doll as some ppl are saying! That is like saying a swatiska is just a pretty pattern! it's about history, symbolism and context.

crazynanna · 29/04/2012 01:21

Tethers is right.

Coralanne · 29/04/2012 01:29

I'm just saying that you have to pick your fights.

Seeing a piece of black fabric in Mothercare, made into a doll isn't one of them.

I have just finished a Phd on "The History of the Highland Clearances" and it has certainly slanted my viewpoint of Scottish History.

The bottom line is to make your own small protest and not buy the damn things. That's the best thing you can do as an individual. If they are not selling, then they will be taken off the shelves.

Original poster
Lehman · 29/04/2012 01:46

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have complained directly to mothercare I'll let you know how I get on. A couple of people wanted a photo of the dolls which I will pm back next time I go to that store.

OP posts:
quoteunquote · 29/04/2012 03:57

for those of you that stand by claim that golliwogs are not racist, I suggest a couple of little experiments,

take your golliwog and stand on the corner of Tapp street and Brady street London and shout golliwog for an hour, and report back,

and phone up these people and ask if you can enter a golliwog float in this years carnival

www.thenottinghillcarnival.com/

please let us know how you get on.