...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?

The woman who got prosecuted had put it in her window as part of a sustained harassment of her black neighbour. Then did the whole "what me? Racist? Oh it's just a cute doll!" skit

I have a golliwog (yes, that's what I refer to them as). I bought it a few years ago at a local gift shop where the lady who sold me it called it a 'golly'. I found that quite amusing. Incidentally I christened him 'Vince' and he sits atop my piano.

I also have a bone china tankard with a charming picture of the Robertson's golliwog on it. Never fails to arouse comment.

Yanbu boycotting the wool shop.

I loved my golly when I was a little girl and thought they were cute on the marmalade jar. When I realised that these dolls were used to upset that was the end of that.

YANBU and continue your boycott. We had a shop in our town ( similar demographic to your area ) that sold lovely crafty bits and children's toys - we used regularly for gifts & treating the DC for years and then the G display turned up near the till. I hadn't noticed it until we went to pay but I asked the DC to put the things they had chosen back on the shelves (in front of the woman owner) and explained to them why we wouldn't be spending money there.
I was given the Pc gone mad line and felt very upset and belittled when I left the shop. The next day I drove past and the G display was moved to the window! Then a week or so later there was a bit of an article in local paper which I showed DC so they knew someone else also objected.
A few months after that I noticed lots of Sale/reduced stickers on items in the windows along with the Gs. In less than a year it was closed.
Seems lots of people just quietly boycotted - sure there were some people who were attracted to the shop by the Gs but not enough to make up for those who like me were repelled. Small businesses (no matter how many donkeys years they've been going) cannot afford to have even a silent minority boycotting them. They need every ocassional and impulse customer they can get.

So boycott on and watch for the everything must go stickers.

I will now forever drive past hobbycraft with the vision of Jim and Pam not head. Hilarious!!

Yanbu op. Boycott.

I still have the full set of original noddy books which feature gollys although I noted the other morning (after being forced to sit through it) that they are now naughty goblins.

Outdated now. Some things belong in the past. I watched a show earlier with music from the 70s and there was a song, which was meant to be about love and peace but referred to chinkys (cringing just typing that) and mixing up a pot to produce lots of "coffee coloured people" I wish I'd paid more attention to who sang it but it just would not be in any way appropriate if released now.

butterfly. The song is called Melting Pot by Blue Mink, 1969.
Incidentally, their female vocalist, Madeleine Bell, is black.

Thank you!! I saw the video so I did notice she was black. It just kind of floored me. I was born in that year so I'd never heard it before.

How about printing off the material in those links and sending them to the owner?

I must say, it seems to me an insane policy. In our area a couple of wool shops have closed because they couldn't get enough business. Actually driving potential customers away for something like this is just stupid.

Regina and Vienna your entrenched views do not help others.

Thanks for all comments on this!

barryscott- Love the image of Pam and Jim! That's a whole different level of rude knitting! Also love the term 'wool shop'!!!

mumbehaving- very interesting, and thank you for sharing your experience. I am inspired by you.

icimoi- That's a great idea, and I think I will do this. I agree with you that the policy (to me) seems insane. I really would like the shop to stay in business, a local wool shop feels so 'valuable'. But I just want them to stop the racist knitting!

vienna did you actually just come on this thread to announce yourself as a racist? Because that really is how it reads!

Youll have to ditch the Golly if you want a girlfriend, vienna. In fact wasn't there an episode of the IT crowd exactly like that?

I thought it was more Vic and Bob

Yanbu. The dolls are racist, stereotyping etc. however there are plenty of people who would not see it that way, which to me is a sign of ignorance. The dolls are apparently based on a 19th century character (according to wikipeadia) and reflect Colonial stereotypes of the exotic 'other' 'natives'. im sure they were a thrill during that time but are inappropriate now. Saying that, the shop owner can probably display whatever she likes, it's her shop after all. I would not shop there though until the dolls disappeared.

I loved my golly when I was a little girl and thought they were cute on the marmalade jar. When I realised that these dolls were used to upset that was the end of that.

Similar for me. A child will just accept that these are a type of doll. It's not until you start to understand the wider social context that you understand how unpleasant they are.

There was never a gentler, happier meaning for these dolls. They were always intended to "other" black people. It's just people may not always have understood this.

And YANBU, OP. (I do one woman boycotts of shops, too. )

YNBU. I thought a display like that would be illegal. If so, maybe worth a call to your local police station.

chopinbabe, I can imagine the DM story now, with the owners doing their best sadface

So can i uncle. And DF reader comments about how innocent the dolls how humourless people are who object to them.

alleypalley. No and no. Really, it's a cliche but life really is too short to be on guard for disproportionate reactions to a stuffed doll and a china mug. Here's another cliche for you. Get over yourselves. We shall be soon choosing a new government in the UK ( I hope). I would venture that is a more important issue than domestic knick-knacks. Good day all.

Yes, probably but worth it if they had to remove the display.

Since when did racism become acceptable again, and has anyone told vienna that UKIP aren't going to get in.

Dawn. I hope you aren't suggesting you know how I vote .

vienna, do you often experience 'disproportionate' reactions to your knick-knacks? (I'm curious! Details!) Or do you just mean this thread?

I understand that objects are just objects, but the meaning behind them is something real, I think anyway. Do you think that it's impossible for an ornament or a toy or whatever to have any impact on people?

sanity, in solidarity with you- multiple one woman shop boycotting together!

chopin, I shall investigate re legality.