Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off that dp shared a golliwog picture.

128 replies

MySordidCakeSecret · 21/05/2016 21:07

because "he sees nothing wrong with it" Hmm

amongst other things that have pissed me off.. using the word retard, pushing our sons face into his ice cream for a laugh, and then calling me boring because i said any drifting in a car would have to be done on a race track and not the roads.

Feel like i'm living with a teenager.

OP posts:
tethersend · 22/05/2016 09:26

"I honestly fail to see how a golliwog can be deemed racist unless referred to/used in a deliberate and specifically racist way."

I'm going to regret asking this, but... Can you give an example?

Oysterbabe · 22/05/2016 09:27

I've never seen this picture but would delete a friend who shared it.

TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge · 22/05/2016 09:40

I had a golliwog when I was a kid. I absolutely loved him and had zero idea of any connection. To me he was just a little doll. So I still have affection for golliwogs and smile when I see one. Not because I'm racist, but because it reminds me of a childhood love!

There is nothing wrong with that. That's why people share these pics, because we're not 'allowed' fondness of something from our childhood anymore

The ice cream thing is clearly a shared sense of humour.

I hate the use of the R word though

hyperhypermum · 22/05/2016 09:40

A couple of people on my fb have shared the golliwog thing. They're the same 2 people who have form for sharing Britain First type stuff. Speaks volumes. Should delete them really but their ignorance amuses me......

AugustaFinkNottle · 22/05/2016 09:45

Oh, for goodness sake, how can people be so insensitive? Surely you realise that there is a whole, horrible history of black people being abused, taunted and othered by the use of the W word, and that it is still being used for that purpose? Where do you imagine it comes from? Can you not see that what you view (with rigid use of blinkers) as a cute toy is incredibly distressing for some people? Does your right to revive jolly childhood memories matter more than causing that sort of distress?

BertrandRussell · 22/05/2016 09:46

Isn't it wierd how "sensitive" and "PC" are used as insults. Like "liberal" and "do gooder". As if it's better to be an illiberal do-badder.

Alconleigh · 22/05/2016 09:48

He sounds....like a bit of a dullard. Those Facebook posts are always a flag. As are hilarious japes like shoving someone's face in their ice cream. And the driving stuff, and the tedious mates. Is he over invested in "footie" as well? Just all a bit lowest common denominator, not very bright territory. That's not a crime though, it's who he is.

Presumably he wasn't Paxman crossed with Will Self when you first got together with him though, so the question is have you out grown him? And if so what next?

tethersend · 22/05/2016 09:50

TripTrap, you (and many others) loving your golliwog as a child does not render it not racist.

I don't think anyone would argue that this photo means the book is not racist?

to be pissed off that dp shared a golliwog picture.
Alconleigh · 22/05/2016 09:50

And yes I am always amazed by PC described as a bad thing. I think it's rather a good thing that on the whole people now think it's not ok to insult my disabled father. Or my mixed race cousins. Or my friends children with autism. Why would the alternative be better?!

KoalaDownUnder · 22/05/2016 09:51

Wtf TripTrap?! You are 'allowed' fondness for your blood childhood golly. Sleep with the thing, for all we care. Nobody is going to storm your home and confiscate it.

But posting about it on Facebook, when you know it's insulting to an entire race? Grow up!

Alconleigh · 22/05/2016 09:51

Although I I realise mixed race as a term can be seen badly, so if it is I apologise for that.

DoreenLethal · 22/05/2016 09:53

I have no friends who would post a picture like that, and if I did they would not be on there any more.

They are just dolls. I have 16 on display. Anyone who gets offended is sensitive and pc

Anyone who displays such 'dolls' are racists. And you know what they say about racists.

iLikeBoringThings · 22/05/2016 09:55

scoobyloobyloo Why do you assume that nobody who owns a golliwog could be black or mixed race?

Actually, i am mixed race. My father is Congolese and my mother is Caucasian. My 3 golliwogs were given to me by my Congolese Grandparents. Not one member of my family, on either side or any of my black friends find golliwogs remotely offensive.

About 10 years ago, an ex colleague of mine left a small stuffed gorilla on my desk - he 'joked' that he had noticed that i didn't have a picture of my family on my desk and so had wanted me to feel 'more at home'.

That was racist. But did i immediately shout for a nationwide ban on monkey toys because the were offensive to 'my people'? Of course not!

Many things could be deemed racist if they are deliberately used as a means to offend. But sat on my shelf, with their big smiles, frizzy hair and colourful clothes, my golliwogs are not hurting anyone!

In my experience, the people most offended by golliwogs are middle class white people.

DoreenLethal · 22/05/2016 09:55

Isn't it wierd how "sensitive" and "PC" are used as insults. Like "liberal" and "do gooder". As if it's better to be an illiberal do-badder.

I was once called a 'save the planet type'. Like killing the planet is a good thing.

Original poster
MySordidCakeSecret · 22/05/2016 09:58

bit of a mixed bag Confused we got together when i was 16 and in a bad place.

OP posts:
gamerchick · 22/05/2016 10:15

scoobyloobyloo

Ours came when my SIL died, she loved those dolls and all of her siblings took a doll each. She was black. Was she being racist against herself?

scoobyloobyloo · 22/05/2016 10:26

The same still stands, whatever race you are, if you think Gollywogs are ok, you're ignorant and perhaps a bit stupid.

I'm not calling people who have them racist, I'm calling the Gollywogs racist and the people who have them ignorant and a bit stupid.

gamerchick · 22/05/2016 10:29

I'm sure my husband will give a load of fucks that some random on the Internet thinks that way. The doll is attached to his dead sister, it isn't going anywhere.

Ughnotagain · 22/05/2016 10:34

There is nothing wrong with that. That's why people share these pics, because we're not 'allowed' fondness of something from our childhood anymore

Wtf. Of all the things from your childhood to yearn to show fondness for, you go for the racist thing? Well done.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 22/05/2016 10:39

I was fond of the black and white minstrel show as a small kid. Doesn't mean I now don't find it cringe worthy and would never share any picture of it.

UmbongoUnchained · 22/05/2016 10:43

My dad used to push my nose in my dinner when I was little, it was hilarious to a bunch of kids so really don't see the problem there.
Also quite meh about the golliwog. That's a very personal thing to different people. My family, who are black, wouldn't be offended by it but there might be others who are.

BertrandRussell · 22/05/2016 10:51

I wonder what would happen if a child had pushed his face into his ice cream/ dinner?

AugustaFinkNottle · 22/05/2016 11:06

In my experience, the people most offended by golliwogs are middle class white people

Not in mine. I have a number of black friends and colleagues who find their use - particularly in FB posts like this one - extremely distressing.

teawamutu · 22/05/2016 11:13

For the Daily Mail bot posting up thread about Baa Baa Woolly Sheep: pcgonemadgonemad.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/hello-world/

Highsteaks · 22/05/2016 11:18

Pushing a child's face into an ice cream is not 'child abuse'.

For fuck's sake.