How is this still allowed?!

[NotUmbongoUnchained]

My friends just sent me this! How are these still allowed to be sold?!

Listen lads, its not hard: black face morris dancers: not racist.
Gollywogs: really fucking racist. HTH.

Do you know I’ve never heard the phrase “I’m not racist but....” without some kind of horrible wicked comment directly after it.

It’s the same as “but I can’t be racist, I’ve got black friends!” bullshit. Not for long if they found out your real views!!!

but I can’t be racist, I’ve got black friends!

I love that one. I knew someone who married into a black family and still managed to be a racist.

My parents and my grandmother always taught me to let things go that you cannot change....
Well, that’s not necessarily helpful advice they gave you there. Most things can be changed if you can be arsed to engage or to flex your empathy muscle a bit. Some things should bloody change.

Queenofsass Please outline the issues up for debate. At the moment it sounds like you’re suggesting that an image can be stripped of its connotation. That there is no value to the weight of meaning behind it. The problem with the ‘mists of time’ theory is that that’s how crap things like this lie low and then crawl out of the woodwork again. It’s not precious to call out stuff like this and say it’s not ok simply because it doesn’t offend/impinge on you. It’s the old strategy of trying to make someone feel like they can’t take a joke when the truth is that the ‘joke’ is shite.

Hatelogging My OH’s Nan, when she was 99 years old, described her new hairdresser thus: ‘he’s dark, but he’s lovely’. 😳

There were still gollywogs in the window of the Enid Blyton ship in Corfu Castle when I was there in 2016. However, we were there again this last weekend, and the shop has now gone. Good riddance!

Corfe!

It’s really quite sickening to read posts from white people insisting gollywogs are not racist on the very same page as posts by black and mixed race people telling us in plain English that they are offended. How ignorant do you have to be to just ride roughshod over that?

How ignorant do you have to be to just ride roughshod over that?

Very ignorant indeed, apparently.

so much easier to hurl personal insults about than argue the issues
who is arguing the issues?
So far all I can see is a bunch of people telling me that black people like them, a brown doctor operated on their father, you can't say black bin bag and that thinking gollies are racist means you are a racist.

And you wonder why I think they are dim...

Have we had ‘baa baa green sheep’ yet?

Ugh no. But I’m calling fucking bingo when it comes! It’s like racist twatnip on this thread!

twatnip 😆

so much easier to hurl personal insults about than argue the issues
Why would you want to argue the issue? Are golliwogs racist? Yes.
That's all there is to it really.

What the hell has been posted on this thread. People are actually saying they are cute? Is this for real?

They should NOT be allowed for sale.
Racist. End of.

This should get deleted as it's appalling. But at the same time maybe it should stand to demonstrate the shocking racist ignorance that is clearly still alive in this country.

waterlego I wish I could take credit, I heard it from a brilliant poster on another thread, I can’t remember her name.

It was the haters that made them racist.
I suggest people look back on the "real" history of the golly They weren't racist.
And how many black people are actually offended, it seems to be "white" people getting offended on their behalf which is more racist imo.

Where to start with that little lot?

I mixed race so I'm offended and I'm not.

They should NOT be allowed for sale.
Racist. End of.

So Mein Kampf should not be allowed for sale?

You cannot ignore history. To pretend the more disgusting aspects of history don't exist enables ignorance and thus bigotry ("cute", "a fictional character ", "Really? How is it offensive?", etc).

Context is important, I think. It is acceptable to sell these sort of things as teaching tools to help people learn from history. It is unacceptable to sell them for 'cuteness'.

Surely racism is about thoughts, beliefs and judgments

No... racism is racism.

So Mein Kampf should not be allowed for sale?

The function of a book (which used to be on history reading lists, don’t know about currently) and the function of a cuddly toy are rather different, aren’t they?

Mein Kampf is a record of racism and should be observed as such, not used in fun or as a toy.

The golliwog is a record of racism and should be observed as such, not used in fun or as a toy..