To be shocked by this?

[malovitt]

I went to our local council offices today to have a look at a neighbour's planning application.

The planning officer I was dealing with made some small talk about this being her last month as she was coming up for retirement age.

She then took off her cardigan and was clearly wearing a largish (3 inches?) Robinson's Jam Gollywog pendant around her neck.

I couldn't believe my eyes - would this be not frowned upon in most normal working environments? I could hardly bear to speak to her after that and left the building as soon as I could.

[JaquelineHyde]

I have told DH that he is an ignorant racist for owning and displaying with pride on the top of the shelves in our bedroom his very own golly.

I have also told him to ring his mother and brothers and sister and make sure they are aware how ignorant and racist they are for not finding these dolls offensive.

I do this everytime this discussion comes up on MN and everytime he laughs a lot and then he laughs some more.

Just to explain DH is a black Zimbabwean imigrant who has been on the recieving end of plenty of racism in this country and in Zimbabwe.

[PessaryPam]

Obviously OP she should have been removed from post and stripped of her pension. How very dare her.

[cumfy]

[Writehand]

My parents gave my DSG a ragdoll from Martinique that resembles a Robinson's Golly, only in a dress. It's reversible - one way up she's going to market, the other she's in her best. It was created by black locals to sell to tourists of any old colour.

Sensitivities vary with geography -- Americans see things very differently because of slavery, the civil rights movement and their huge racial issues. Although we were involved with the slave trade there weren't any slaves in the UK, and our attitude to Robinson's Gollies was far more innocent.

I remember being read Little Black Sambo. He was an Indian boy. They don't have wild tigers or ghee (both of which feature heavily) in Africa. Or America. And of course he was the total hero of the book, which people seem to forget.

[RuleBritannia]

Can't reember exactly where I saw it on the internet but there's a group of knitters who have created 'knitted pageants' of dolls. Hand knitted for a charity or museum or exhibition of some sort can't remember what.. Some of them have brown or black faces. Surely they are golliwogs? No-one's making a fuss there.

For heaven's sake!

[Dawndonna]

The world is going pc mad if you ask me Nobody is, thank goodness.
The same old shite from people who are scared. PC mad is used to defend what is wrong, it's an excuse because those using it not allowed to say what they would like to.
A Golliwog is racist. Whether worn with racist intent or not, it should not be publicly displayed, it is rude and offensive.

[HoHoHoNoYouDont]

As usual with kind of threads there is half that find it offensive and half that don't. No one wins.

I find page 3 offensive and despite signing petitions etc it's still out there isn't it. You could say 'don't look then' but that could be said to the OP about the golly pendant. I think we all have to accept that we will have to live with offensive things/behaviour no matter how we try to challenge it. That's life.

[JaquelineHyde]

MrsDeVere you have helped demonstrate my exact point. Thank you.

My DH would never ever wave his gollie around in front of anyone who he knew was sensitive to its image or whom he thought might be sensitive to it, which is why it sits in our bedroom quite happily and is why the DC's gollies were never taken out in the pram etc as we would hate to offend anyone.

This is why I said in my very first post and several afterwards that the planning officer should have never worn her pendant to work.

However, I will not believe for one minute that anyone who owns or like gollies in any form is an ignorant racist who deserves to be wiped off the face of the earth. Which is unfortunately the opinion that is coming accross on this thread by several naive posters who like to think they know it all and over the years on these threads have constantly refused to see the other side of the argument, throwing insults around with ease.

For what it's worth there are many totally innocent words, phrases and items in use in the UK to day that you and I and your DH probably use/own without a second thought but that are highly offensive to my DH due to them being used in an utterly racist manner in Zimbabwe. Yet still my DH doesn't run around screaming ignorant racist in the face of anyone using such items/words because he understands that there are cultural (and passage of time) differences at play.

Why is this so difficult to understand and accept?

[Bobbybird40]

Mrsdevere they are a symbol of racism for some people but with the best will in the world, to compare them with swastikas is slightly ott - and I suspect you know that. I also strongly suspect that only those people with strong PC leanings would be offended by a doll - and even then I would question whether they genuinely were offended or were just trying to impose their liberal, sterile view of the world onto others.

[JaquelineHyde]

you are amazed I gave my beautiful mixed race childrern a golly doll that matched their black Zimbabwean fathers much loved golly?

Why would this shock you?

Did you read any of my last post about how we understand the connotations the dolls have in this country and how that is the reason why the planning official should not have been wearing her pendant.

Did you read how I explained that Gollys are not offensive to my DH or any of his family and in fact they are just normal, much loved dolls.

I also thought I made it quite clear that there are many things that are considered normal in this country that are horribly offensive to my DH due to the racism he has suffered. However, as a reasonable man he understands that these things are not offensive here and so he just accepts things for what they are, innocent and in no way racist.

I have said from the begining that I/we understand, accept, appreciate and sympathise with the feelings of some people towards these dolls, this is not in any way in question.

Is it so hard for you to see it from the other side as well or is it a case of you are right and anyone who doesn't agree with you is wrong?

[EldritchCleavage]

Everyone thinks Golliwoggs are a symbol of racism..they are not! They were created as as a term of endearment/childhood tradition hahahahaha, as if!

Although we were involved with the slave trade there weren't any slaves in the UK Of course there were. Not in great numbers like the Americas, but there certainly were. When Lord Mansfield declared in 1772 that slavery was not recognised by the English common law, Wikipedia says:

As a result of Mansfield's decision between 14,000 and 15,000 slaves were immediately freed, some of whom remained with their masters as paid employees.The decision was apparently not immediately followed; Africans were still hunted and kidnapped in London, Liverpool and Bristol to be sold elsewhere, and Mansfield was so uncertain about how it would be applied that he specified in his will that his "mulatto" great-niece Dido Elizabeth Belle was to be considered a free woman

There's no citation for the 14,000 to 15,000 figure though.

St. Giles in London (hard by Centrepoint) was the ghetto where escaped slaves used to hide out. They often sought sanctuary in St. Giles Churchyard.