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

[InigoTaran]

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...?

'Racist (northernist)' is not a thing.

I call goading little twat.

"'Racist (northernist)' is not a thing.

I call goading little twat."

Yep Bollocks.

Oh and I say that as a northerner with a northern dp and northern dds. It's not the same thing and I suspect you know that very well.

scaryclown

Hovis is just as racist (northernist) as poor Golly, as it suggests child labour, unsafe working conditions and bakers lung

I thought you had plumbed the depths with the "patronising black dolls" comment , but no, there was still some way to go.

I do think it's weird that we glamorise horrific grinding poverty as wholesome, but jolly gollies as shameful. I genuinely do feel bad for gollies who are being shamed and excluded from love because they remind us of a past we'd like to forget. It's like the USAs continuing aggression and uncomfortableness about that aggression to its own terrible unfairness. I really don't think whitewashing the toybox is going to help.

More bollocks.

I am tempted to apply the imaginary ignore poster button but I'm also oddly fascinated to see what fresh bollocks Scary will come up with.

I think the golliwog's popularity in UK especially amongst the middle classes, is a large contributer to our acceptance of minorities compared to some other places. Having an emotional connection, even with a symbolic 'other' breeds good emotional awareness and curiosity, rather than fear. I know for sure that the racist kids at my school never had a golliwog, or Enid Blyton stories read to them after supper, and were quite bereft, culturally.

I would go so far s to say that having a gollliwog is better correlated with higher intelligence and low levels of racism and aggression, than it is to 'prove' racism

For example, I had a doll called Rose who wore a scarf. She had a funny plastic face, but I still felt affection for her.

would go so far s to say that having a gollliwog is better correlated with higher intelligence and low levels of racism and aggression, than it is to 'prove' racism

God I'd love to see the study that proves that...

I m actually missing them now :(

Have you been drinking??

I would love to do the research..

I would have to exclude the statistical extremes.. The daily mail crazy who buys commemorative plates and old golden shred etc, and the neo nazi who uses leftie-discarded gollies for shooting practice would need to be excluded, but I suspect if we said 'families whose parents or grandparents had a golliwog as children, and/or an enid Blyton book featuring Golliwog, we would find interesting results.

I can miss my old dollies without being drunk! Emotions are OK at anytime!

I really don't think whitewashing the toybox is going to help. well! Literally. The irony.

@scaryclown what utter crap! Re- popularity of golliwogs in the uk.

I didn't mean Golly should do the painting.. Labour!!

Though 'golly whitewashed the toy box' would be great in Viz

To be fair to the 1940s grandmother mentioned upthread who said "this is what little boys in Africa look like" she may very likely have never met a black person or even seen a photo so if that's what she was told (along with probably many other untruths about black people and African culture) then it would probably never occur to her not to believe it. It's still not right that she or anyone thought that, but the fault really lies with the people who chose to spread lies and make horrible caricature dolls.

The fact that someone would actually think it was an accurate representation of a black person though just illustrates exactly why gollywogs are racist.

But teddy bears are nothing like bears and brat dolls are hardly accurate depictions of a human at all, so why is that relevant? I had a doll that was half elephant half kangaroo with no bottom and a skirt, it would hardly be sensible for me to stab the stuffing out of my beloved friend because it was humiliating to Africa that I hugged it..

OP re your follow up post I hope you have got something useful out of the replies.

You say He's a lovely guy and not racist at all, but then has never really had to think about it but maybe he should think about it? Particularly as it makes you feel uncomfortable and you have first hand experience of racism?

Perhaps you can see from some of posts on this thread the levels of disingenuous stupidity which results when people don't think about it.