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AIBU?

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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:
BertrandRussell · 20/08/2017 12:13

"He can be a bit UKIP, but he's not racist"

If he's "a bit UKIP" then he is racist. But not because he had a gollywog as a child.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 20/08/2017 12:16

I'm fucked if I'm going to be told I have an 'evil mind' because I despise gollywogs and one of the ways I've tried to make that clear is by satirizing and ridiculing those who would defend them Hmm

AccrualIntentions · 20/08/2017 12:16

BertrandRussell I may be being a bit flippant with my description. I'm confident he isn't racist. Perhaps that's a sign I'm a massive racist myself.

quencher · 20/08/2017 12:19

A bit UKIP? You mean a bit racist and that does not make him a racist? Well a bit racist does not exist. some is either racist or it isn't.

@BertrandRussell I could in the beginning but when parody crosses the line is when it gets muddled up among the fuckery on the thread and it hard to find it funny. I am not finding it funny at all. None of it.

rhodanunn · 20/08/2017 12:20

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

splatattack · 20/08/2017 12:21

I have a copy of Mein Kampf in my bookcase. I read it out of historical interest, and having it in my bookcase certainly does not make me an anti-Semite.

In the same way, having a Gollywog from childhood does not make someone a racist. It is an historical object that tells a story of a different time when such things were acceptable.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2017 12:47

The other thing that puzzles me (well, it doesn't, actually, but in the spirit of giving people the benefit of the doubt) is whybpeople are so incredibly wedded to the idea of gollywogs. If it's only a toy, wouldn't the suggestion that some people are upset by them be enough for any normally kind and sensitive person to get rid of them? Even if you do secretly think that person was being a bit ridiculous? Why would you carry on doing something that upset someone else if you could easily stop?

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 20/08/2017 12:55

Quencher- you do know that a lot of the posts are parody, don't you?

I don't think they are. SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace's 97 gollies clearly was. TestTube's wasn't as clever as that but also clearly was. I haven't spotted any other parodies.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2017 12:59

Sorry-should have said "some" not "a lot" are parodies.

A lot are definitely made up, though.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 20/08/2017 13:05

A lot are definitely made up, though

Yes- I'm slightly sceptical about the number of aged, deceased relatives who only managed to bequeath one tangible memento- a toy that wasn't , in my experience having been born in 1959, even that common in the 60s and 70s.

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2017 13:22

I am also scptical of all the black friends, partners and sisters lovers that everyone on threads like this seem to have.

And the faux naïveté is irritating too.

scottishdiem · 20/08/2017 13:26

BertrandRussell

Perhaps but if you search these threads as well as ones like Brexit my black partner from Zimbabwe has been a regular feature on posts to do with race, immigration, Brexit and the Home Office.

C8H10N4O2 · 20/08/2017 13:31

I'm slightly sceptical about the number of aged, deceased relatives who only managed to bequeath one tangible memento

its because they love to help the 'poor black people' so much I guess, caring about that one toy over all the white toys. Hmm

I'm a 60s baby, I definitely remember the jam jars and badges and those rag doll things from Woolworth but not in the numbers or value ascribed here.

I also remember the Little Black Sambo series of books as upsetting one of my school friends and a weird set of books about a golliwog catcher (rufty tufty, or was that the squirrel?). We would have been early infant age and it was already obvious that they were hideously like/unlike classmates.

How dense do you need to be to not get this?

pullingmyhairout1 · 20/08/2017 14:27

Bert my motorcycle upsets people. Should I get rid of that. My daughter's karaoke machine upsets my ears should I get rid of that. Yes Gollies are insensitive. Is the one I have from childhood on show? No it is not, it is in a memory box along with every letter my Nan wrote me when I lived overseas as a very young child and never gotten out. I resent the fact that I should get rid. My mother still has a thread worn near from her childhood. Should I get her to him that. I mean it's offensive to my nostrils now.

pullingmyhairout1 · 20/08/2017 14:27

*bear

BertrandRussell · 20/08/2017 14:32

"I resent the fact that I should get rid"

I don't think anyone has said you should, have they?

Your other examples are completely irrelevant, by the way.

If the bike or the karaoke machine are being used in ways that upset people then yes you should change the way you use them. And if your mother shoves her smelly bear in your face then she should stop doing it.

missmollyhadadolly · 20/08/2017 14:49

Bertrand well done for having the patience with this thread.

The ignorance and stupidity is astounding (motorcycles and karaoke for fuck's sake Grin )

quencher · 20/08/2017 15:03

Yes- I'm slightly sceptical about the number of aged, deceased relatives who only managed to bequeath one tangible memento- a toy that wasn't , in my experience having been born in 1959, even that common in the 60s and 70s. If they think that's ok, why would they think it's ok for a thread like this. Are some people just plain ignorant or what? Why make up bullshit on a sensitive subject, it's not like its making the matter better. Some people will just see it as reason why they should keep their ugly gollies that racist granny gave them.

It's like going to a thread about disable people and making a mockery of it because you want to prove a point. Well about what? if you haven't experienced it? Do you see how fucked up that is.

I was giving it the benefit of the doubt about some of them but after thinking about It now I don't. I can't see my self going to thread about the holocaust and coming up with different scenarios and ideas of what racist might say on how it was and being ok with supporting nazi Germany. It bonkers and unthinkable.

quencher · 20/08/2017 15:06

And anyone who wants to keep and continue keeping such an ugly thing is racist. You can donate to black people all you want, it does not remove your ugly quilt.

SamanthaBrique · 20/08/2017 15:48

Bert my motorcycle upsets people. Should I get rid of that

Well if it started hurling racial epithets then yes, you probably should...

Are people really this stupid??

quencher · 20/08/2017 15:50

And my comment isn't directed at @Timmytoo.

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 20/08/2017 16:26

Do people really not understand the difference between not liking a smell and not liking racist things?

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 20/08/2017 16:48

You can donate to black people all you want, it does not remove your ugly quilt

Or ugly guilt even (sorry Quencher I suppose they could donate an ugly quilt)

MrsDustyBusty · 20/08/2017 17:25

Do people really not understand the difference between not liking a smell and not liking racist things?

Of course they do. They're pretending to be stupid and obtuse because they know full well that gollywogs are racist but they don't want to face criticism for the fact that they simply don't care at all at best or agree with the representation of black people at worst.

scaryclown · 20/08/2017 17:42

Those patronising black dolls you get nowadays should be banned as well.