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?

K) no one complained to the National Trust

God all this whimsical 'it's a sad world if ....' bollox.

It IS a sad bloody world. People are persecuted/starved/beaten/abused daily by other people.

If you feel the 'world is sad' simply because someone has explained that a toy you liked is in fact quite racist then you should be counting your blessings.

I haven’t read the whole thread but I had to say I think this is one of the best opening lines for a thread ever. Impossible not to click on it to find out what it’s about!!
Have no helpful advice about how to explain that gollywogs are racist, sorry. In your situation I’d just stubbornly refuse to find one for her And hope she couldn’t master the internet well enough herself!

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

The racism and ageism in these threads is always depressing. 70 really isn't that old. And age is no excuse for racist beliefs.

Now once more for the hard of thinking that flock to these threads; Golliwogs are a negative depiction of black people. Ergo, they are racist!

L) it's PC gone mad.
M) you can't say/do anything without people getting offended nowadays

Yanbu OP. Glad your mum has come around! Thank her for doing a bit of research and not going along with what her mates say. Some of the posters here could take a leaf out of her book.

She can knit it using coloured wool....it’s not racist then.
She can knit other things like a sock monkey. www.google.ca/search?q=knitted+sock+monkey&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-ca&client=safari

There was a bit of a fracas when my grandma, riddled with dementia, was using a golly as her 'baby' in her care home, one of the new carers wasn't too happy and asked us to remove it. No chance! It was the only thing that distracted her. I've now got it in a memory box, can't bring myself to throw it away. It still smells of her :(

Being generous, is there any chance any of the residents who have asked her to make it are starting with dementia? They do tend to go back in time and latch on to things that remind them of a certain time (by that I mean a time in their life, not a time when racism was shrugged off!)

A history
What people have to put up with

Clearing out DMIL's kitchen cupboard a couple of years ago, we were quite startled to find a jar of Robinson's mincemeat that had been there for so long it still had THAT label on it .....The kids were astounded, and it was a shocking reminder to us all that it really wasn't all that long ago that it was considered acceptable long enough though, as DH was worried that the contents might have fermented and could cause an explosion if moved suddenly

My Nan used to knit these scarecrows. I still have some of them that my kids now play with.

www.jeangreenhowe.com/Images/scarecrow2sm.jpg

The original Golliwogg in 'The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg' by Bertha Hudson Upton and illustrated by Florence Kate Upton was a positive character; the book told a story of children initially seeing different as scary but moving past it, the ups and downs of friendship and the way children move on together.

The perception of Golliwoggs undoubtedly changed as they were used negatively by other authors and the word (and it's derivatives) became insults - it's scary how easily things can be hijacked!

Yet mumsnetters seem to be forever embroiled in golliwog dilemmas. Friends and family making them, collecting them, etc

This

Why are people so keen to insist that something so patently racist isn't, in fact, racist?

And btw just because you know someone black who thinks they're great doesn't mean they're fine. You can be a woman who thinks there is now total gender equality but that doesn't make it true.

Jeez.

This trying to be so "oh right on" every day is exhausting, it really is.

Perhaps you should go for a lie down then, userxxxxxx?

Or, you could try and explain why you think racism is OK?

Unless that's too taxing for you?

Ah, I see I've AS you previously. Where you asserted that blacking up wasn't racist either.

What a lovely poster you are.

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

Absolute lie

This trying to be so "oh right on" every day is exhausting, it really is.

It's very difficult for you to not be racist is it?

I'm the buyer for a heritage-heavy museum shop. We do get asked for them occasionally ... Always by the it's-political- correctness-gorn-mad type of customer.

Won't stock them, though ... They make me cringe.

This trying to be so "oh right on" every day is exhausting, it really is.
Funny because I really don't find it particularly hard not to be racist.

@BIWI Thank God us black folk have people like you to point out racism! I mean, it's not like we've ever experienced it firsthand.

I did see my first ever (since childhood) golly at the village bank holiday fair

I did think i should have told the stall keeper to remove it

But i didnt because i am a gutless wonder

I will if its back this year

Or do you think i should buy it and bin it