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...?

I have one from my childhood.

I also have old Noddy books and whatnot with golliwogs in them.

Not getting rid of them, but also not racist.

Here's a novel concept: getting rid of things does not bleach history. You can simultaneously have a golliwog doll from decades ago and understand why they're no longer a thing.

I have one that my grandma knitted and I've kept hold of it because of that. It's currently in a box in the loft. I'm not in the slightest bit racist, nor did I ever associate them with racism.

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

Depends on whether the Gollywog is being treated equally to all the other toys surely.

I remember seeing a golliwog toy as a child, but it mysteriously disappeared. Presumably my parents got rid of it as they became viewed as a racist toy.

As a child, I saw the toy as a cartoon animal. It didn't look like a person to me, and as an adult, having been exposed to a lot more different races by now, it still doesn't look like a black person. I wouldn't buy a golliwog now because I am aware of other people's perceptions and feelings towards it, but I truly never saw those as a child.

Mind you, I also didn't understand that most pop songs were about sex, but the innuendo feels explicit to me as an adult and nothing has changed, apart from my awareness of myself and other people.

I had one treasured childhood toy which thankfully wasn't then and isn't now considered racist. If my treasured toy had been a golliwog, I don't know how I would feel/react. As has been said, you can't airbrush history.

I had a lovely golliwog when I was a youngie. and I had a Rupert Bear also, they both sat together on my bed at night.. It is only crappy modern day thinking, that golliwogs should be banned and never seen,, its total total rubbish and nonsense. I had a black cat when young and called him pussywog. and nobody was bothered at all.

They were removed from the jam jars when I was a kid, but I don't think the doll is seen as particularly offensive. The term "wog" is extremely racist though.

Quite honestly I don't have one, would not buy one now and I do think they are horrendously racist. However if I had owned one as a child (by the time I was a child in the 90s it wasn't something anyone would have bought me) I don't think I could throw it out. I have a hard enough time throwing away my little John air freshners in the car because they have a face!
I rescued my teddy from my ex becuase I couldn't stand he thought of him being abandoned - I know I'm really sad! Haha

The term "wog" is extremely racist though.

Not in Australia.

Is your RL name Maggie, OP?

pringlecat I got one for Christmas in about 1965 and it mysteriously disappeared the same day, never to be seen again. My mother disapproved of it.

YABU to assume that someone keeps something because they're racist. Perhaps it's the last toy they were given from a beloved family member for example. In his particular case, I would tell him that seeing it upsets you and you would prefer he at least put it away. Explain to him why. Is it because you're concerned others would see it and judge?

Personally I have a "Golly". It's relatively new. It sits in a cupboard. It's a memory thing for me so I won't be getting rid of it. I don't flaunt it and wouldn't as I know it may upset people. I don't have it because it's racist. I have it because it's a toy, that's all.

The term "wog" is not racist in Australia? Says who? Is it the preferred term of the country's indigenous population when referring to themselves or something.

I have one. I don't know where it came from but it's in a box, with other childhood toys, in my parents' garage.

My husband is black and my children are mixed race. So no, owning a golliwog toy does not mean you are racist.

It's used in 1950s/60s Australian literature to refer to Aboriginal people too - and not as a term of endearment.

Nobody but nobody keeps Hilter memorabilia "for sentimental reasons", thats bollox.

They were just jolly little men who advertised jam and happened to be black.

Knowing what I know now, I couldn't keep a golly even if I'd had it since childhood. But then I am not one for keeping hold of stuff "for sentimental reasons", just not that bothered.

It's used in 1950s/60s Australian literature to refer to Aboriginal people too - and not as a term of endearment.

I'll have to take your word for that, but I think the more generally perceived usage is as I've described.

I had a much loved golliwog as a child and I don't consider myself a racist. It never occurred to me as a child that they were supposed to look like a black person and I had never heard the word wog.

Having said that, I wouldn't buy one for my children today because I am aware that many people find them offensive.

I had one, it was lovely, and I used to play with my friend next door who had a white dolly, with blond hair. They were toys as simple as that.

I'm mixed race. & have to say I personally hate gollywogs there not even cute toys to give to a child. But I wouldn't say cause someone has one their racist.
Someone treating me differently or thinking they are better than me because of the colour of our skins makes a person racist not their toy collection.

YANBU. Ask him if he'd be happy iif you posted a pic of the gollywog in your bedroom on his Facebook. I suspect he won't be pleased.

Oh, all the wide eyed innocence!

The point is that, while it is vaguely credible that people in the past may not have realised that gollywogs were racist, they can have no doubts about it now. So yes, anyone who continues to display one must know that and not care. Which makes them a racist.

Mummmy2017

They were toys as simple as that

Maybe to a child, but as an adult you should know it was not as simple as that. Here's a post from a previous thread about the fact that dolls were based on black slaves:

Perhaps it would be useful to discuss the tradition of dehumanising racist caricature to which these dolls belong. The English-American author Florence Upton invented the golliwog in a series of picture books produced at the onset of the Jim Crow laws, which mandated racial segregation in the American South. She described the character as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome". He was clothed in the same apparel as the black-faced minstrels then prevalent in Europe and North America. He had thick lips, unruly black hair, and his hands and feet were paws.
Richard Seymour.

As kids we had hand knitted jumpers with the Robertsons Golly on them. There used to be a photo of us proudly posing in said jumpers.
That photo is gone now. My sister got a black girlfriend and did a Stalinist edit of history on my mums photo albums
She was terrified of this girlfriend seeing the picture. I remember saying at the time: "But she may never even look in the albums" but apparently all Dsis partners have been invited to look at old family photos and have been happy to do so.
I have never done this with a boyfriend and can only assume it's a lesbian thing.

Oh, and for the hard of thinking, nobody is suggesting that children playing with toys they have been given are being racist the adults who gave them the toys and the adults who continue to keep and collect the toys however.
And you would have to be incredibly naive not to have noticed the UKIP/BNP use of gollywogs as a symbol of something deeply unpleasant in their thinking. The aforementioned wide eyed innocence is prominent there too....