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Original poster

To assume someone who has a gollywog from childhood is racist?

370 replies

InigoTaran · 19/08/2017 00:05

Me and my partner are currently having a discussion about this and he wants to know whether it's true that black people associate gollywogs with racism...?

OP posts:
quencher · 19/08/2017 17:29

I can see I wrote "grew up" instead "grow up".I shall I void pendants corner. As they will be off with my head next.

Timmytoo · 19/08/2017 17:39

Alright thanks Quencher no problem, I understand what you're saying ✌️

BertrandRussell · 19/08/2017 17:40

"I don't think an old stuffed toy in a black back in storage says anything about me now apart from indicating that I'm sentimental about childhood things and really bad at getting rid of stuff."

To be honest, I think most people would agree with you.

That's not what this thread is about.

IgnoreMeEveryOtherReindeerDoes · 19/08/2017 17:55

I don't have dolls just few pin badges they in my aladdins cave cupboard that scared to go in for fear of never escaping.

I am honestly asking here and be it through innocent way of looking or ignorance but which Disney films are racist as I have them all

gotspoiler · 19/08/2017 18:16

here

screenrant.com/worst-racial-stereotypes-offensive-disney-movies-animation/

By the logic of this thread simply owning official Disney merchandise makes you racist. Yep this includes Marvel figures and Star Wars figures

grannytomine · 19/08/2017 18:21

I had a much loved gollywog when I was a young child. I have a brown husband. I don't think I'm racist.

rhodanunn · 19/08/2017 18:22

There isn't any logic to this thread, Gotspoiler, you have ensured that there isn't any comprehension either.

gotspoiler · 19/08/2017 18:27

There isn't any logic to this thread, Gotspoiler, you have ensured that there isn't any comprehension either.

Only lack of comprehension I see is from the people calling us racists. AI wrote earlier about Harley Quinn and WW figures people who own them are equally as bad. It's only racist when it suits you

BertrandRussell · 19/08/2017 18:39

"I had a much loved gollywog when I was a young child. I have a brown husband. I don't think I'm racist."

The point is- do you, as an adult, have your gollywog on display?

rhodanunn · 19/08/2017 18:41

You brought Harley Quinn and WW into this regarding domestic violence and BDSM, respectively. Because I said this had nothing to do with caricatures of racist stereotypes and was a moral relativist attempt to belittle the points made about blackface and minstrelsy, how is it "only racist when it suits" me?

I've also said it's not racist to have a childhood heirloom in the back of your cupboard, but it is racial apologism to ignore the historical context of that object as an adult when you should know better. But again, that would require comprehension.

grannytomine · 19/08/2017 18:48

Sadly my golly didn't survive if he had I would have kept him but no I wouldn't put him on display. The title wasn't about having them on display, it was about having them and if mine hadn't fallen apart (I wasn't the most careful child and my dog did love chewing things up) I would still have him and it wouldn't mean I was racist.

Looneytune253 · 19/08/2017 18:59

Does not make a person racist to possess a toy they were given as a child. If they were waving it around and making racist comments, that would make them racist.

priscillap · 19/08/2017 21:02

As I understand it the actual toy is not necessarily racist and owning it is not necessarily racist. It is the three letters at the end of the name that is racist and was the reason why they are now named golly. This term was used by some people in the UK instead of saying they are from Jamaica or wherever.

deadringer · 19/08/2017 21:09

I had a golliwog when I was little, I loved it. I didn't connect them to black people at all, but then I had never seen a black person. We had no TV and if there any black people in Ireland in the 60s/70s I never saw them. I certainly wouldn't have one now though.

tanfield90 · 19/08/2017 21:16

I have a golliwog. His name is Vince and he sits atop my piano. But I bought him about twelve years ago when I wasn't a child. Whatever I may be as a result of that purchase is purely a matter of one's personal opinion.

TestTubeTeen · 19/08/2017 23:23

Actually, even when I was a child I knew that the golly my grandmother had was racist. We loved him anyway, in his knitted suit, but we knew they were racist.

We knew the ones on the jam were, too, but they were just so 'wantable' . You could pull out the golly cut out tucked behind the label, and send for a lovely little badge.

But we knew they were racist because my Mum had made her views known on Little Black Sambo books, the Black and White Minstrel Show and watching On The Buses.

So we loved the little characters, whilst knowing that they were racist.

These days if Robertson's still featured gollies my Mum wouldn't buy it, let alone plonk it down on tne breakfast table in front of 7 year olds.

goose1964 · 19/08/2017 23:26

Being born in the 60s I had a golly, and I loved it. It never even occurred to me that it was a caricature of a black person. I just thought it was a toy. I'm not at all racist either.

scottishdiem · 19/08/2017 23:42

Black zimbabwean DP thinks they are racist.

Children wont see them as racist dolls which is basically the point of adults needing to point it out. If someone has one now that they proudly display and state isnt racist is both wrong and racist. Someone could have one and know its racist but keep it in a box in the loft for sentimentality (say a present from a parent or grandparent) then its the sentimentality that keeps the doll, not the desire to be racist.

But they are racist things. How one treats them now and what one thinks of them now dictate if a person is racist or not.

gingerbeerd · 20/08/2017 02:38

ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/

scaryclown · 20/08/2017 03:16

Getting rid of someone you love because you have discovered they are a negro seems to me the very definition of racism. Having a black doll, characterisation or not, and not playing with it or throwing it away because you have been woken up to the fact it's black, and therefore shameful, doesn't sound like positively addressing racism to me.

1forAll74 · 20/08/2017 04:55

My golliwog was given to me by my grandmother in the 1940 era., I had never seen a black toy boy before ! she told me then,, that this is what little boys in Africa looked like, I perhaps didn't even know where Africa was in those days. But really loved little golly,, I called him Sooty, as always associated black with coal and soot in the fire grate, simple things, simple life, just a toy.

MrsOverTheRoad · 20/08/2017 07:03

1ForAll All the nostalgic harking back in the world won't change facts.

Speaking of your Grandmother and how innocent you were and then finishing up with "just a toy"

Is a lot of rubbish.

Those were different times. The 1940s were terrible for black people. No white British child could know that.

We know better now.

MrsOverTheRoad · 20/08/2017 07:05

To all those who think they're not offensive, read this

ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/

SamanthaBrique · 20/08/2017 07:19

I have a golliwog. His name is Vince and he sits atop my piano. But I bought him about twelve years ago when I wasn't a child. Whatever I may be as a result of that purchase is purely a matter of one's personal opinion.

Yep, just personal opinion Hmm

pullingmyhairout1 · 20/08/2017 07:25

I've got one. My Nan used to collect the stamps off of the label off the Robinsons jars. It was a doll.

I also read tar baby amongst other stuff. Am I racist, no!

I understand why people would feel that way about those dolls but people are far more sensitive about everything now.