AIBU to tell my mum to find her own racist knitting patterns

[gamerwidow]

I am currently embroiled in a disagreement with my Mum because she wants me to find her a knitting pattern for a golliwog.
I have tried unsuccessfully to explain that this not the innocent toy she thinks it is and have told her that I am staggered that she thinks it is anything but racist. She is only 70, she should know better.
She is now in a massive sulk.
Am I right or should i just have let her have her knitting pattern?

The OP doesn't have to help and enable her mother to do something that she finds wrong though

has anyone said she should?

Aah sorry OP, didn't see your message above saying they had asked her to make it. They asked her to make it especially?! Woooow...

Knitted gollies were all the rage at raffles in the 70s. I'd rather hoped we'd moved on.

Just being clear about what I think @taskmaster, if that's ok with you?

Golliwogs are stuffed dolls - they're neither bad nor good. What they have represented in the past certainly is / was racist but for me, true equality will be when we can have dolls in all colours - including black.

Chocolatestrawberries enjoyed hers. I bought one from Tewbit at a school fair a few years ago.

Troels that is lovely!

OP could your DM’s sheltered housing be persuaded that this might be a more successful project, Royal Wedding year and all that?

My Mum is slightly older and wouldn't dream of knitting a golly. She knows its offensive.

Steer her in the direction of patterns by Alan Dart or Jane Greenhowe.

has anyone said she should?

Well, yes, ReanimatedSGB just did.

and did you look at the time stamps there?

No, sorry. Wow, that was close!

What they have represented in the past certainly is / was racist but for me, true equality will be when we can have dolls in all colours - including black.

But 'black dolls' - which exist, of course - look nothing like golliwogs. Because golliwogs don't look like black people, they look like racist caricatures of black people.

70 is really not old. My mum is 70 and knows this is racist.
why should someone get a pass because they're not 25?

I wouldn’t risk searching for one on the internet or you’ll end up on some government watch list lol!!!

Snowflake alert!

She’s done some research on the internet while I’ve been making tea and she will tell the other residents she can’t find a pattern. She has admitted she did think it might offend the black residents on the estate initially but the other residents told her she was being silly 🙄 Problem averted. Wish I’d waited before I posted instead of getting cross!

just being 70 is no excuse, and it's patronising and ageist to suggest it might be.

This. It really infuriates me when people assume that anyone over 70 must have the attitudes of middle aged people in the 1950s. People over 70 were teenagers or young adults in the 1960s when we were all tuning in and dropping out, and it was becoming increasingly clear that racism was simply not acceptable.

Reanimated, how does refusing to source something racist amount to policing someone's hobby? OP has no duty to facilitate it.

Coming from a mixed background, I really miss my golliwog. All my other yoys back then were pink. Maybe you disagree with her -and me- but I do think you maybe need to get over yourself.
Having been beaten up by the NF in the seventies I think you need to do some historical research.

I have a photo taken of me in 1960 with all my dolls lined up. There are a few pink dolls, a teddy, one black doll and a golly. At this point in time our school was 100% white. The only person I’d ever met who wasn’t English was an Italian girl.

Was I being raised to be racist?

Btw; in 1973 I married a black man.

Get over your giddy racist selves! I remember the other thread where you lot are claiming black/mixed children are monkeys and shouldn’t wear clothes with anything to do with monkeys on them. What the hell has gone wrong with the world?

Snowflake alert!
Are you? Why?

Oh, is it time for the usual MN golliwog appreciation society to gather? Comes around very often.

Charolais why not get over yourself, do some research and try to see other people's point of view.
As for what has gone wrong with the world, well for some of us, it's the point of view of people like you. Whether you like it or not, whether you are married to a black man or not, both golliwogs and the monkey top, in that context are racist. That's all there is to it, and you and others protesting and telling those of us who can see it that we need to get over ourselves are being unfair, wilfully blind and are supporting racism. Why would you do that? Why would you think that right, or fair?

Snowflake alert!

What does that even mean ??
Is 'not being a racist' now considered snowflake behaviour on MN ? This place gets more ludicrous by the day.

I find it hard to believe that a sheltered housing complex is fine about raffling a golliwog. I've worked in elderly care and racism isn't tolerated from anyone, regardless of age. Also as pp have said, 70 isn't that old these days.

Emmageddon I think you're right, I work for a supported housing provider and a it wouldn't be included in a fundraising raffle