To think this was inappropriate?

[DontTouchTheMoustache]

I was driving this morning and I ended up waiting behind a car that had a few teddies on the parcel shelf, facing outwards. At first thought that was quite cute but I noticed the one on the right was a golliwog doll. As from as I was aware these dolls were designed as a racist insult? I was a bit shocked but I don't know if I am behind the times on this?

I think some people look too much into things!

Funnily enough we were discussing this the other day. I painted an Enid Blyton scene on my daughters bedroom wall when she was young and she was scared of the golliwog so when she had a fitted bedroom, the wardrobe bit obscured the golliwog. We redecorated but not the bit behind the wardrobe due to access problems. Anyway, we moved house this year and noticed my daughters fitted bedroom furniture in the skip outside of our old house and realise the new owners (who were not Caucasian) would have been confronted with the golliwog, I do hope it didn't offend them as that wasn't the intention.

My mum played with them as a child and she says she never made a correlation with black people

I was the same. It was such a ridiculous, outrageous caricature that I never made the connection. I collected the badges that you got with the Robertsons jam as well.

Obviously, I understand now why they're so offensive, but I loved my golly.

I last got a golly badge in 1999....

pregnant that sounds like some kind of sketch you would see on Little Britain or something!

Also, apologies as I did not know they were now referred to as gollies

are now viewed as racially offensive due to their colour (and possibly confusion regarding their origins)

Are you serious?

dont - 'wog' is an offensive racial term.

I think some people look too much into things!

I think people don't look nearly enough. This isn't people working hard to find racism, this is something created to negatively portray a whole race of people who were already negatively portrayed. The racism was fully intended from the start. This was the start of the Jim Crow laws, of segregation.

The creator of the golliwog called him " a horrid sight, the blackest gnome" and drew his hands and feet as claws, to signify that he was animalistic, not fully human.

The fact that white english people don't experience golliwogs as racist doesn't mean much at all.

DontTouchTheMoustache I can see what you mean, reading it back its quite funny I guess

I was very proud of the wall murals I painted though and was really upset when my daughter said she didn't like the golly looking at her at night! I painted a scene from the Simpson on my eldest sons wall and an underwater scene complete with bubble lamps in my younger sons room.

'wog' is an offensive racial term. maybe they should be called Golly instead :)

The fact that white english people don't experience golliwogs as racist doesn't mean much at all.

I disagree with this quite strongly. Isn't a big part of the issue here that lots of people had these dolls as small children, and just saw them as a toy and therefore harmless? If you can convince people that something racist is just harmless, and/or part of good old-fashioned British culture, they're much less likely to see racism as something dangerous, or to see themselves as racist. Because they're invested in it by that emotional link, which was formed well before anyone suggested to them it had any connection with racism.

for goodness sake Pregnant, they have been called 'Gollies' for years. Nobody says 'wog' unless they are trying to be offensive...

My Golly(wog) was my Holly Hobbies' (sp?) boyfriend. I wish I'd kept both.

I meant "doesn't mean much at all" as in their experience doesn't make it not racist: it still is whether they think so or not.

I don't disagree with your point but I do wonder if its a little overstated.

Libby34 - Re. the Enid Blyton poem, are you sure it's Enid Blyton that you are thinking of? Only that sounds exactly like the poem from 'And Then There Were None' by Agatha Christie, which I believe originally had a different title of "Ten Little Indians" or something similar (where there is a grisly death per verse as you mentioned). Please do correct me if I'm wrong though.

Magic it was changed from the N word to Indians and then changed again.

I have one, my parents found it in a 'new' car in 1992 and gave it to me. Looks at least 40 years old, I keep it only because of its age/styling. It's well hidden though along with other childhood stuff. I never associated it with black people as a child - that said I grew up in very rural Scotland and just didn't really encounter anyone who wasn't the same as me, other than in books and films, if that makes sense. So I would never have made the connection, I would have just seen it as a funny doll/toy.

Being older though I wouldn't display it, like I said it just lies in a drawer alongside a brownie uniform, birthday cards and my Mog books!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None

Warning: offensive archaic language in the wiki article.

But surely it's more damaging for people to see something that is racist as a harmless toy? That just gives the impression that it's OK to be racist. It's not saying that everyone who used to have this toy as a child was a racist but it's important that people are educated and understand the history behind them and don't become complacent to such ingrained racism.
Where I live so many people refer to newsagents as the "p* shop" (I'm sure you can work out the word, I just don't even like typing it). When I tell them not to they say it's fine because everyone says it and it's just an abbreviation of Pakistani. It's not though, it's a horrible word with awful connotations but to these people it's just normal. Similar when they go for a Chinese they use a derogatory term for it and tell me it's a regional thing but as long as these things are seen as normal and acceptable there will always be an issue.

My black friend has one from her childhood. I had one as a child. Never associated them with anything more than a childs soft toy.Woolworths used to sell them in the 70s.

I believe WOG was an abbreviation for 'Western Oriental Gentleman' or something like that.

I have a Gollywog mug and the odd doll. I do love seeing 'defiance displays' (usually at a fete or village show) and never miss an opportunity to have my picture taken (with said display) with a look of faux-outrage on my face. I then send it to my sister- who does the same if she sees one.

It's a very disingenuous type of protestation. As are your Chinese takeaway and corner shop examples.

Once the nature of the problem has been explained, people who claim not to see it are being wilfully blind for their own racist reasons.

I was an adult when I learnt the history of the golliwog doll, I lived in a very white area so apart from the n word never really heard other racial insults. One of the negatives is the reluctance to buy dolls and action figures that are black or any colour that is not rosy beige for fear of being inappropriate and causing offence. I had homemade knitted set by my aunt with all different colours of face. Strangely she thought her actions as being inclusive and yet achieved the opposite.

Like many others I had no idea that golliwogs, toys or on jam, had anything to do with black people. I never heard the term wg used (or n*r, for that matter).

That doesn't alter the fact that I wouldn't buy one now, even from someone who was black.

(magic the ancient copy we had of that book was certainly titled 'Ten Little N**rs')