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?

My mum is 72 - if anyone knitted her a golly she's tear a strip off them for being a racist idiot

my Grandfather would have done the same and he would be over 100 if still alive

stop lumping older people together with some notion of them all being outdated and backward thinking

I KNEW this would be about gollywogs as soon as I saw the title of the thread!

Interestingly we were visiting a National Trust house last year and one of the bedrooms had a very old dolls pram containing a gollywog.

Out of interest I asked the volunteer in the room if they had had any black visitors since the toy was there and if so did they complain or did they seem horrified and upset.

She said that yes there had been several black visitors and NOT ONE had been remotely bothered about the doll.

Pease stop giving your poor mother a hard time op. For heaven's sake she is NOT a racist because she wants to knit a gollywog!

I sometimes despair of the younger generation who see potential insults in everything.

I brought my daughter a golly and my mum God rest her soul got my dd a massive one. I don't relate them to negative things just the past and my childhood. Reminds me of my dear mum

I don't think deciding whether golliwogs are racist based on the number of complaints made to a National Trust member of staff is right way to approach it tbh. Maybe it's a slightly more logical approach to look at the origins of the doll, which is in a negative racist stereotype about black people. It's not just a black doll.

I laughed and laughed at this. In fact I got to the snorting point. Not because I disagree with you! I’m with you, why would she want to knit a golliwog!? But it was the combination of words, racist knitting patterns 😂😂😂 That’s a sentence I never thought I’d hear 😂

whatever the views are years ago these were common place if you did a poll amongst over 50 years old most would say they had one and a lot were knitted by mums or grans as mine was no i dont have it now i guess she is just thinking what she gave once before perhaps different generations

*She said that yes there had been several black visitors and NOT ONE had been remotely bothered about the doll.^

Oh that's okay then, if a National Trust volunteer says it's not racist...

My mum is 70, and when I was little I had dolls of various different ethnicities. Not golliwogs, dolls- people who were young in the 70s knew the difference and the significance. They haven't lost that knowledge just because they get cheap bus fares.

I don't want to pish all over her chips but if she makes a toy for a charity donation, it has to be certified CE safe. It's illegal for the charity to raffle one without it. Black or otherwise.

I just asked my nearly 70 year old knitting obsessed DM would she knit a golliwog and she said "oh no, they're a bit racist these days"

We always put not a toy but decoration

I know that gollys are considered offensive and pander to racial stereotypes but I had still have somewhere both knitted and sewn ones as a child and never once associated them with black people. In fact, it was only when they were banned that I made the link. As far as we kids were concerned, they were very much loved toys.
probably have he knitting pattern in the loft too

But why negative, Assassinated? It isn't as though they were dolls of black slaves, just knitted dolls which happened to be black.

When I was a child Robertson's jam gave away golly badges if people sent away enough jam labels.

I had one and it absolutely did not make me view black peoplein any negative way at all.

Golliwogs were popular when I was growing up in the 70s but then so were a lot of things that we know are racist now. So no golliwogs are definitely beyond the pale and your mum should be aware of that, 70 isn't old.

@SusannahL I suggest you research the reasons for the particular styling of golliwogs, and the origins of them. They are not just dolls that happen to be black. It has origins in the blackface minstrel caricature.

But why negative, Assassinated? It isn't as though they were dolls of black slaves, just knitted dolls which happened to be black.

I find all the assertions on these threads that golliwogs are 'just dolls of black people' pretty disturbing. They don't look anything like black people, they look like racist caricatures of black people, because that's what they are. If you can't tell the difference then you might want to do some self-examination.

@SusannahL

I sometimes despair of the younger generation who see potential insults in everything

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm almost 60 and I know, quite clearly, that golliwogs are racist. Not looking to be insulted. It's just a fact.

And you're ignorant(and possibly stupid) if you don't know that golliwogs are racist.

Can never get over how many golliwog threads on mumsnet. It's a very weird thing, never heard anything or anyone mention it in real life. Yet mumsnetters seem to be forever embroiled in golliwog dilemmas. Friends and family making them, collecting them, etc

People saying they don’t associate gollywogs with black people racism is all well and good, but the fact is they are a caricature and their origins are rooted in racism. You could go out in the street wearing a big old swastika tshirt and say you don’t associate it with nazis, but you’d still probably get a kicking,,

We always put not a toy but decoration

If it looks like a toy and is capable of being played with, then it does need to be CE safe, as pp pointed out. Calling it a decoration only works as long as no one is harmed, and as long as no one who has the power to take action against you spots it.

I'm mixed race and have been on MN for a long time. Threads like these often make me think that actually we as a society haven't actually moved that far along despite being part of a discussion on many wider progressive issues.

In that case it's a sad world we live in. I shall continue to support my child's school with there fund raising through people done to g something they have given up there time to do. I shall also continue to accept them for my charity events. I'm 31 and don't see a problem with gollies even got a tea set with them on

Happy to be a snowflake here.

I hate gollies.

I won't even say 'golliwog' because 'wg' is such an offensive word, like 'nr'.
My sister got called a 'wg' at school.

Gollies are a nasty caricature doll & belong in the bad old days.

I'm a 35 year old black woman and my golliwog is my most treasured possession.

It was given to me by my African grandparents on the day I was born.

In my experience, the people most ofended by golliwogs are white people.

Her friends at sheltered housing may well have asked her to make it because she's probably friends with people who think like her.

It doesn't mean all the residents at sheltered housing approve. Some would probably be horrified.

And when staff saw the golliwog pattern out then there hopefully would be some words had about that the sheltered housing organisation couldn't have a racist raffle.

Or you could just point out it's impossible to find a pattern - Ravelry has near 500,000 knitting patterns and not one for a golliwog. Because they are racist.