To think this product at The Range/Wilko is just plain racist?

[GardenNope]

I've been complaining about this range of products since I saw them in my local store a few weeks ago.

I keep getting fobbed off with no response, or 'we aim to provide products for all tastes'.

This just seems to me like a blatant racist stereotype of Polynesian culture. But the company doesn't seem to agree at all. Am I losing my mind here because it seems very blatantly wrong to me?

https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/single-solar-tiki-water-sports-ornament-in-assorted-styles/p/8087004

Op wasn't complaining on behalf of Polynesians until people pointed out shere the masks and statues are from. She was complain on behalf of black people suggesting this is a caricature of them.
Because, you knkw. Totally normal brain process to look at this and think "oh black people". Not racist at all

Have a day off OP.

@GardenNope omg look at this!!!! People are now mocking meerkats..... Do you think it's meerkatist or is the word meerkatism?? 😱 I'm going to email Chris Packham and the newspapers

I think if you grew up in the 70s, with Little Black Sambo as your first books at school, then to think this is a crude representation of black people is not a huge leap.

Actually I still don't really understand WTAF it is supposed to be, but I am working out from this thread that it's a perfectly fine representation of a wooden tiki mask as an embodied drunk human type character in a rubber ring. Or something.

(I've no idea why everyone thinks I can only find this inappropriate if I am Polynesian. I'd expect a man to point out sexist shit, so why is this different?)

@GardenNope you're literally showing how uneducated you are. Likening a Polynesian culturally significant symbol to a caricature of a black person. Seems like you're the racist one...

Well said. The thread is utter nonsense.

Can’t you feel it? You used to be able to attract a lot of attention and status from invoking the big -isms. It didn’t matter whether the issue was real or not, it went on for years and years, apology after apology – some were for big things, some were for nothing at all. It worked because people were scared.

Now they’re not, they don’t care anymore. The spell has been broken. Offence was used as a weapon for too long and now people are immune, and soon everyone will be immune – hence my saying that soon saying you’re offended by this will sound as daft as worrying about your piano legs.

PS It’s a good thing, and it’s worth noting that Mumsnet did its bit just by keeping steady in the face of weaponised calls of transphobia.

Oh op. You need to stop, this is so unacceptable. Many many posters have explained this is a god. Please stop making the comparisons you are.

Yes I'm quite happy to concede that I was totally ignorant and did not make the association between the drunk-person-in-rubber-ring with a tiki mask - and am therefore a massive racist in thinking this was remotely objectionable.

I'm holding my hands up and saying that this was how I interpreted it. I still don't really get how this caricature of a drunk god is appropriate TBH, especially as I don't think it is particularly stylized to look wooden as others have said - but I appreciate the explanation.

This is a very good point! (And interesting.)

Ah okay, as a POC myself, yikes

If there's a hint of it being racist the majority of their readers will rush out and buy one!

Because it's NOT meant to be a depiction of a 'Polynesian Person, in a pollywog style'! I loathe it and think the whole Tiki kitsch thing is a bit naff, but these Tiki faces aren't meant to depict people, they're depicting - well, 'Tiki' masks and sculptures. (the word 'tiki' isn't, apparently, even known in Polynesian languages...) It's an entire cultural trend/movement/fashion from the 1940's onward. Now viewed as classic kitsch. So while you could justifiably say it's crass cultural appropriation (though I guarantee you can buy crappy figurines like this on holiday in tourist hotspots right across the region) it's not intended to represent a Polynesian person.

Have a little google. Here you are. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture

The blurb describes 'Solar Tiki Water Sports' figures - so, again, the idea that the figure is drunk is entirely your own slant! You're determined to establish offence here, instead of just accepting you got this entirely wrong 🤷‍♀️

It’s funny but I don’t notice the colour at all? Just see a quirky garden ornament ! It could be pink brown white yellow I am still not buying it🤣

@Wishfives I wish I could unsee those meerkats.

Who is buying this??

No more offensive than the fat Buddha's you get in garden centres etc. not my taste at all but calling it racist is a stretch too far.

Thead for the terminally offended. ODFOD.

Wondering how many people posting have a culturally appropriated Scandi beige house?

I'm a brown woman, OP, pretty sick of people like you virtue signaling about "racism" when all it does is expose your own prejudice and ignorance. Really, you have made a complete fool of yourself starting this thread.

@Shuntrhymeswith

Well put. I had a long conversation with our guide in India recently about how we get accused of cultural appropriation in the U.K. by overzealous liberals types, he found it hilarious, he said me buying a sari, ornaments etc was showing cultural appreciation for India. I didn't buy the sari because I knew it would not get worn here but it was really pretty on. I'm currently cooking curry, recipe from his mother, hope I'm not committing a faux pas with this as well.

Still not buying tat from Wilko though nor fat Buddhas (none of the Buddhas I saw in India were fat!)

@mitogoshigg

How do you tell it's 'drunk' from that?

The image isn’t “drunk” that’s you putting your judgy on it .

The Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford has many masks on display and there are some very similar face expressions on masks from Oceania.