Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 13 14

AIBU?

not to know if "brown sugar" is offensive.

342 replies

Charis1 · 20/08/2015 23:11

I am taking some gifts from work colleagues to a friend in hospital tomorrow. We had a collection, and one person bought the gifts from us all. We have some nice toiletries and things, but are in a toiletry bag with a picture of a teddy on it and the caption "brown sugar". I thought that term sometimes used in a racist context, so am reluctant to hand this over. but not sure if I am being paranoid and overly politically correct.

Please help!

OP posts:

Thanks

Share

Report

BertrandRussell · 21/08/2015 10:52

My children have special cross shaped sticks to toast marshmallows. If it's cold they wrap themselves in rugs- it so happens our rugs are all white. Can't see the problem, myself.

Thanks

abbieanders · 21/08/2015 10:52

The dress up box in our house is all white hooded robes. The kids love em. They have cute little nooses and little crucifixes that you can really set alight.

Such fun! Some po faced politically correct types don't like them, the fun vacuums.

Thanks

Fauchelevent · 21/08/2015 11:00

Eccle Oh chocolate definitely has connotations that are well-known. It's probably more commonly popular now than brown sugar. In fact, of all the sleazy gross racially-motivated come ons/flirtations I've experienced, chocolate is up there with comments about "the typical black woman body". And was also what I was taunted with as a child.

Bertrand Be as facetious as you like, but could it be that "you don't see the problem" because it's not you or your race that Golliwogs mock? Because you'll never experience being called a wog, which comes from guess where - the word golliwog?

Thanks

Itsmine · 21/08/2015 11:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Fauchelevent · 21/08/2015 11:09

Ahh, thanks. Sorry Bertrand.

Thanks

horseygeorgie · 21/08/2015 11:57

so openly calling someone you have never met a racist is ok is it?

btw, i am NOT saying the following is comparable at all.

I am ginger. I was bullied through school to the extent that I left aged 14 after serious abuse and attacks for being ginger. I don't take offence at anyone owning a troll with ginger hair. It isn't a personal attack on me and it doesn't mean that they are being gingerist!

Fauch calling any one a wog is unforgivable. I own a golly and would never dream of calling anyone a wog! Its a stuffed toy, the same as the model viking my DD has or the stuffed pilot bear.

Obviously I am being hugely racist and will get a barrage of abuse for this. I'm hiding this thread.

Thanks

horseygeorgie · 21/08/2015 11:57

so openly calling someone you have never met a racist is ok is it?

btw, i am NOT saying the following is comparable at all.

I am ginger. I was bullied through school to the extent that I left aged 14 after serious abuse and attacks for being ginger. I don't take offence at anyone owning a troll with ginger hair. It isn't a personal attack on me and it doesn't mean that they are being gingerist!

Fauch calling any one a wog is unforgivable. I own a golly and would never dream of calling anyone a wog! Its a stuffed toy, the same as the model viking my DD has or the stuffed pilot bear.

Obviously I am being hugely racist and will get a barrage of abuse for this. I'm hiding this thread.

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:11

Why are you hiding it horsey because you can't cope with the fact that it's a racist toy, the same as your dds viking model, or a swastika?
It's a racist toy, get your head round it. If you're offended by being called a racist don't purchase racist shit. Easy.
Oh, and read the sodding history.

Thanks

EcclefechanTart · 21/08/2015 12:12

What do you think a Gollywog is, then, if not a nasty racist stereotype of a black person?? How is it akin to a cuddly pilot bear?

Thanks

EcclefechanTart · 21/08/2015 12:15

Fauch thanks for the explanation re chocolate. I can't believe many people are seeing racist undertones in the vast array of random tat targeted at women with "I love chocolate", "chocoholic" etc type slogans on though, are they? I think it's a bit different from "brown sugar" in this context.

Thanks

EcclefechanTart · 21/08/2015 12:16

Sorry - forgot to say I'm sorry that you've been taunted with this. Horrible racist twats.

Thanks

ArendelleQueen · 21/08/2015 12:18

"Its a stuffed toy..."

Exactly, that's why I give my kids swastikas to play with. They're only toys, just like their lego.

Thanks

BertrandRussell · 21/08/2015 12:18

"so openly calling someone you have never met a racist is ok is it?"

It is if they're a racist.........

Thanks

Gruntfuttock · 21/08/2015 12:19

EcclefechanTart I feel the same as you regarding "I love chocolate" = racist, but I suppose this post will be followed by numerous sarcastic posts taking the piss, like there were above.

Thanks

horseygeorgie · 21/08/2015 12:23

Actually Dawn, I didn't purchase it. It was a present for my DD. I don't need to read the 'sodding' history. I know I am not racist. I have no problem with anyone, regardless of race, age, sex etc. I am too busy surviving my own life!
On a flip note, why can't we have toys that resemble black people!?!? There are dolls that are black, is that racist as well? Surely it would be racist to NOT produce toys in every colour?!? We are all different colours, it is not racist it is a fact of life! Treating people as different, substandard to everyone else and less than yourself because of their race or colour IS racist.
I don't actually give a flying fuck what a faceless, nameless person on the internet thinks of me. I know myself and at least I don't go around insulting people on the strength of 50 words on an internet forum.

Thanks

BertrandRussell · 21/08/2015 12:26

Of course we can have toys that resemble black people. The problem is, gollywogs only resemble black people in the eyes of racists. To everyone else they are a deeply unpleasant caricature.

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:27

From your post above horsey you really do need to read the sodding history. It is nothing akin to having black dolls.
If you're happy to have it in your house, you're a racist. Gift or not. Anyone gave me or a family member a Golliwog as a gift, they'd no longer be a friend. Be as insulted as you like. Or learn from history and other people's experience.

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:28

Why it's not okay

Thanks

horseygeorgie · 21/08/2015 12:29

the swastika is actually not just associated with the Nazis. It is an ancient symbol about 5,000 years old and is sacred in hinduism and buddhism. Yes it has incredibly heavy associations with the Nazi party but may I gently suggest you 'read the sodding history' before branding everyone who uses it a n evil Nazi?!

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:29

The golliwog," concludes Pilgrim, "was created during a racist era. He was drawn as a caricature of a minstrel, itself a demeaning image of blacks. There is racial stereotyping of black people in Upton's original books, and certainly later golliwogs often reflected negative beliefs about black people - thieves, miscreants, incompetents. Finally, there is little doubt that the words associated with golliwog - golli, wog, and golliwog itself - are often used as racial slurs."

That is certainly the experience of many black Britons. "For as long as I can remember and I'm in my mid-40s, it has always been something people have used to poke fun at people like me," said Michael Eboda, publisher of The Power List of Britain's 100 most powerful black men and women. "There are some white people who've been trying to say that when we were all young it wasn't offensive. I just feel like saying: Maybe not to you. To me, it always has been. To use that term of a black person is an unequivocal insult. There's no other way of interpreting it, and it really makes me wonder how many other people use those terms in their private worlds."

Thanks

horseygeorgie · 21/08/2015 12:31

betrand I didn't say gollys resembled black people, anymore than the stuffed pilot bear resembles an actual pilot. I asked why it is not ok to have toys that resemble black people ie, dolls and the such.

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:31

Haha! I'm a history lecturer. However, I do know that it's crass to use the swastika these days, whichever way it's turned. Equally crass to have Golliwogs about.

Thanks

Dawndonnaagain · 21/08/2015 12:33

It is perfectly fine to have dolls that resemble black people.

Thanks

BertrandRussell · 21/08/2015 12:42

So you're defending the use of swastikas now as well?

No- no racism here!

Thanks

BertrandRussell · 21/08/2015 12:44

"I asked why it is not ok to have toys that resemble black people ie, dolls and the such."

It is. Perfectly oK. Just not gollywogs.

Thanks

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 13 14

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.