...to be boycotting this wool shop?

[ilovemargaretatwood8931]

Good afternoon, this is the first thread I've ever started- please be as blunt and honest as you like!

OK, so there's a lovely yarn and needlecraft shop near my home. I used to visit it infrequently and spend too much on nice wools and needles (sometime knitter/ crocheter). A few months ago, some golliwogs appeared in the window display. I find these to be racist and a relic of the past that really isn't appropriate for a public shop display today.

I complained (very politely) about the dolls, and the staff member I spoke to was not keen to talk about it, as she was not the manager/ owner. So I wrote a note to the shop managers/ owners about the dolls, it was brief and respectful. I followed this up by going in there again a few weeks later, and of course the display was still in pride of place. It's still there, many months later.

I understand and appreciate that the shop (I imagine) has the right to have these toys in the window if they wish. But I just don't want to buy stuff from them anymore. I don't want my money to be supporting this unpleasant display of racist knitting goods.

Am I being unreasonable to not give this shop my custom any more?
WWYD?

'unpleasant display of racist knitting goods' made me laugh too. I agree with you though, I wouldn't spend my money in a shop that sold and displayed golliwogs.

Aagh, I'm sorry everyone. Clumsy, thank you for pointing out my inappropriate language. I wish I'd written Gollys instead of the word I used which was/ is much more horrible. I really apologise for using it. appreciates the irony, of moaning about perceived racism, while being racist Sorry.

YANBU I would do the same

I am currently boycotting a local shop that has been selling real, new fur items.
This is a pain for me as their clothes are just my style and reasonably priced.
But I can't do it,I wrote and complained and signed the online petition that explains people's reasons

No response so my money stays in my pocket

I would do exactly the same as you, in fact, I stopped using a tiny gift shop when they proudly displayed the "Gollies".

YANBU. So many patterns for dolls/toys out there, why insist on knitting Gollywogs up and giving them pride of place in the window.

I'd do a under-cover-of-night yarnbombing over the window with naice Jean Greehowe scarecrows.

For those who think they're not racist, please read

YANBU, OP. I wouldn't shop there either.

Jim Crow laws

Sorry I don't get the racist thing with these either. OP when you used your initial description (the full name of the now Gollies) did you intend to cause offence?

You now seem to have described yourself as racist, yet I'm guessing you're not as you were offended by the dolls initially.

Why were you offended? For me they were just a doll I played with as a child along with Pippa (I never got a Barbie) Tressie (pully out hair), trolls and gonks (anyone old enough to remember those).

I wouldn't put them in my window (if I had a wool shop) because I know people find them offensive, I just don't know why. I always thought they were cute.

It's really not that hard to do a little research and see why they are considered racist.

FFS. I've put up a link as to why they are racist.

I absolutely agree and you are quite right to tell them why you are boycotting them. They are being racist, whether they're willing to accept it or not. I do think that area is very old fashioned. I remember having a similar argument in a greengrocer in Hailsham about South African fruit, during the apartheid era, and the proprietor just couldn't see why it was an issue.

Excellent links Dawndonna : thanks.

Moma they are racist, there are people who refuse to understand that their cute little dollies are part of a dehumanizing, designed to make it easy to persecute and segregate, to create fear and to support legalised oppression. But hey ho, they were cute.

Itsallkicking- yarn bombing! Yay! I might do that...

mom2- No, didn't mean to cause offence with my initial description, but then realised that what I'd written could be very offensive triggering, it was thoughtless on my part.

momagain- I know what you mean by typing out the word. I felt weird typing the Golly word, though I don't think it has the same awful status as the N word, but you're quite right- a racist item by any other name is very apt. I remember as a child Golly was used as a regular insult to children who were black or mixed race. I don't hear it much now, though one of my old friends is still called it 'affectionately' by old school friends, as that was his nickname then...

Just to clarify, the character, the books, and the dolls are not directly related to Jim Crow laws, which were laws in the US South. The character is of British origin and was popular mainly in Britain and other parts of Europe. I grew up in the US South in the 1950s and 60s, and I had never heard of them or seen them until I went to university in the UK.

www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/

Thanks so much for the links Dawndonna.

I knitted a family of golliwogs.

I'm black. And not old enough for it to be an excuse.

Thanks Seneca too.

This interests me Keletubbie. A friend who is black collects the badges that came with Robinsons jam, and she definitely feels a sense of reclamation with owning them.

I'm conscious that I'm thinking these thoughts and posting as a mixed race person, though my ancestry is white British and Chinese. So I'm obviously not black. I feel (and often pass for) mostly white, and was brought up by a white mother, in a very white area. I've always found them offensive, as I guess my mother taught me that they were. But I totally understand that not everyone agrees.

Golliwogs remind me of my nanny, who was white and collected the badges for me off the marmalade. I have a few bits of memorabilia actually... including an Enid blyton book from the early 70s with three golliwogs called golly, wog and... yep, n*gger. Nobody has ever been as embarrassed as the lady in the antique shop who sold it to me.

I'm surprised and sad at many mumsnetters don't see these outdated toys as an issue. The full name of them is extremely offensive/inappropriate. Even if it doesn't offend some (white?) mumsnetters it will offend many black people. Isn't that enough reason these toys should be consigned to history.

...how did I know this was going to be about gollies? like someone said, what is it about knitting/crafting that gives people licence to offend?
You should deffo boycott the shop and tell them why
if they are stupid as well as racist they will carry right on
encourage any knitting friends to follow your lead
good luck

Nothing to do with gollys but there was a wool shop where I grew up owned by a woman - lets call her Pam. Pam was married to Brian and they lived next door to us. One day the wool shop was closed and my mum peered through the window and saw Brian's best friend Jim and Pam in a compromising situation. Mum came back home to announce that she'd just "seen Jim giving Pam one in the wool shop". Hence the words 'wool shop' have been a euphemism in our family for fanny for years.

I couldn't read this thread and not share that with you all. Boycot away!

I would love to see this! I'm in the East Midlands and have never seen a golliwog window display. I am sure it's actually illegal though? Someone actually got in trouble for having one in her home window.

I love golliwogs and actually collect the vintage ones my dad is black and they don't offend me one bit they are beautiful